Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1926)

25 A Case of Real Friendship From the time that their acquaintance began, when they were both struggling to ,get into pictures, John Roche and Norma Shearer have enjoyed an unbroken and unmarred comradeship. By Myrtle Gebhart SUCCESS hasn't changed Norma Shearer one particle. She is identically the same girl I met when we were both struggling for a start in pictures." John Roche's remark interested me. Success, I have always contended, is bound to effect some changes in a person's character. Even an' ordinary, monotonous year, without high lights, leaves its traces. So, mulling curiously over this thought, I pinned John down. "It's true," he insisted. "Though she appreciates success and money and fame as definite objects that she wanted and the attainment of which has made life more pleasant for her, they have not enslaved her, nor even made any perceptible change in her. More poise? She always had selfassurance. "I know Norma as a close friend. Our two families are very intimate. "There's nothing finer, when it is possible, than friendship between a girl and a man. There isn't, never has been, the least hint of love between Norma and myself. She has her beaux, and I have found other girls attractive; a NormaJohn romance we would consider a huge joke. Our pal companionship has proven so much more worth while. "Though differing often in our views, we have mutual interests — discussing and analyzing plays, acting, music, books — all the arts allied to the theater. Norma would make a splendid critic. Our conversations very frequently turn into good-natured but heated arguments. "Then, we play and sing together. She still likes the old ballads, those 'Songs My Mother Taught Me.' We use the same book from which we first learned them three years ago, with its ragged edges and many notations— my notations usually scratched over by Norma's. 'All for You' is one of her favorites. She plays and sings well, and I used to sing on the stage, so we have great fun harmonizing arias and transposing from one key to another, working out variations of songs we love. "We first met in an agent's office in New York." In the cozy living room of John's new home, he traced for me the beginnings of this friendship which has so enriched his life. "Her voice attracted me — it had a melodious rhythm and good diction. Perhaps because I myself sing, I always notice voices. John and Norma are like any boy and girl who live next door to each other in your home town. "'An English girl,' I thought, and turned to look at her. I doubt" — John smiled — "if any man would find her unattractive, so I stared. An English face— breeding, refinement, distinction. Canadian, I subsequently learned. "We were introduced, and after that, often met at the agent's office. We gradually drifted into the habit of lunching together and attending the theater, when work had been plentiful for me. "The outlook for both of us was bleak at that time, however, and we used to have to encourage each other. Norma was, and is, very ambitious — not in a hard, selfish way for material things alone, but with the intention of doing something worth while in her chosen line, and with the determination not to let any obstacle take her from her course. "A Louis B. Mayer contract brought me West. Shortly after that, though I did not know it, Norma was signed by the same concern. I was very blue for six months, dissatisfied with the roles assigned me, and I didn't know a soul. You know that old Selig studio ? Rather picturesque, but situated at the other side of Los Angeles, far from Hollywood. I lived in a dump over there, over a garage, to be near my work. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's true: Norma and I worked for the same company for months without