On This Day in Jewish History: August 10th, 1930

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#onthisday, August 10th, 1930 – Norma Shearer became the first Jewish woman to win an Oscar Academy Award for acting.

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She received the award for her role in “The Divorcee”, a movie about a love triangle between rich New Yorkers. Throughout her career, Shearer was nominated five times for an Academy Award for acting, only winning this one time.

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Shearer rose to fame after catching the attention of Irving Thalberg, a producer at MGM, who she later married – converting to Judaism in the process.

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Although many critics could not understand how she rose to fame, she was a hit among audiences and continued to star in movies until Thalberg’s death in 1937.

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Shearer’s characters were considered unique in their outgoing sexuality during a time when these “liberal” portrayals of women were considered taboo. For this, she is considered a pioneer of the feminist movement for becoming the first American actress to make it “acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen”

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After her husband’s death, she wanted to retire but she was still under contract with MGM. She was in a couple more films before retiring in 1942 and leaving the limelight.

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Shearer passed away in 1983 and would, by then, be best known for her work in her more “noble” roles of “Marie Antoinette” and “The Women”

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Text Source: https://www.altfg.com/film/norma-shearer/

Image Source: https://www.screenchic.com/post/the-gowns-by-effect-15-escapist-films-of-the-1930s

✍: @rebeccaroth01

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