Norma out and about - candid photographs of Norma Shearer, post-Irving.

With Gracie Allen and producer David Lewis, 1941.

With Darryl Zanuck at the 1941 Oscars ceremony, 1942.

With Gary Cooper.

With Sophie Tucker, Conrad Nagel, and Louis B. Mayer. Photograph by "Hymie" Fink.

With her mother, Edith.

With Charlie Chaplin.

With Randolph Scott, Betsey Cushing Whitney, Mrs. Henry Fonda (née Frances Ford Seymour), and Henry Fonda.

With Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond after the premier of "Marie Antoinette", 1938. 

 With Vice Admiral Jose Guisasola of Argentina and Eddie Mannix, vice president of MGM, 1941.

With Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Norma Shearer was social animal. She loved to go out, loved parties and dancing. She loved pretty clothes and all the trappings of being a movie star, of being the "queen of the lot" at MGM. And she craved physical activity. But during her first marriage, her concern for her husband's precarious health meant that she catered to his need for a quiet lifestyle. They would attend premieres and film business functions, but she tried to create a home and lifestyle that was otherwise a respite from his very stressful career. But then Irving Thalberg died in the fall of 1936. After mourning his loss, and after resuming her career, her life began to take on a tempo that was more natural to her character. In the next few years she was seen out and about much more frequently, and she had several high-profile romances, with James Stewart and George Raft most notably.

With James Stewart, circa 1938.

With David O. Selznick, Mickey Rooney, Kay Francis, and someone I almost recognize. Norma reportedly had an affair with the nineteen year old Rooney in 1939.

With George Raft, circa 1940.

Dancing the Virginia Reel with millionaire Ronald Balcom in Sun Valley, Idaho; Norma dated Balcom for much of 1941.

One of Norma's best friends was fellow actress Merle Oberon.

And in 1942 she remarried. Martin "Marti" Arrougé was eleven years her junior. They'd met a few years before when he'd been her skiing instructor. He would be a Navy aviator during World War II and later became a real estate developer and entrepreneur. They appear to have been very well suited to each other, enjoying an active social life, dancing, skiing, and traveling. He was devoted to her, caring for her in her later years when she suffered from dementia, and they were happily married until her death in 1983.

 1938.

With her second husband Martin Arrougé.

1942.

Marti in uniform. With Mary Pickford, December 1944.

At the 1944 Academy Awards ceremony held at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, 1945. 

With Ida Lupino, Mary Pickford, Loretta Young, Rita Hayworth, and Barbara Stanwyck (?) at the Hollywood Bowl, April 1943.

With Marti and someone I almost recognize.

With Marti and Lana Turner.

With Bob Hope and Darryl Zanuck at the 1944 Academy Awards, where Zanuck was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, 1945.

With Moss Hart, Lana Turner, and Turner's husband, Steve Crane, 1944. 

With Lady Sylvia Ashley, the widow of Douglas Fairbanks.

With Marti and Virginia Fox, wife of producer Darryl Zanuck at the premier of "Going My Way", 1944.

With Marti at LaGuardia airport en-route to Montreal, February 1946.

With Van Johnson and Janet Leigh, circa 1946-47. Norma discovered Leigh and helped her get a contract with MGM.

"Norma models a Paris gown named Christmas Night", December 1949.

1951.

With June Allyson and Dick Powell.

With Marti at Sun Valley, Idaho.

With Ben Lyon, Marti, Bebe Daniels, Bob Hope, Lorena Mayer, Irene Dunne, and Louis B. Mayer.

With Marti and Irene Dunne.

With Irene Dunne.

With Deborah Kerr at the premier of "Young Bess", 1953.

With Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger, and Deborah Kerr at the same event.

With Helen Hayes. Marti and Vincent Price in the background.

With Van Johnson.

With old beau, James Stewart.

With old studio rival, Joan Crawford, and producer Jerry Wald. Photograph by Eve Arnold, 1959.

Circa 1960s.

1974.