Tuesday, September 14, 2010  Whatever Happened To Norma
Talmadge?  Can you imagine what a distorted picture of film
history we'd have if the only Bette Davis movies that survived
were Satan Met A Lady and Wicked Stepmother—if, say, Jezebel and
The Letter had disintegrated in the can and Now, Voyager and All
About Eve existed as only a damaged print in an archive vault
somewhere?  That's about where we stand with regard to Norma
Talmadge and our understanding of the silent film era.  I was up
at 3 o'clock this morning with what Winnie the Pooh would call a
rumbly in my tumbly (well, more like mild nausea—I've been
eating my own cooking again) and wound up chasing Norma Talmadge
through the misty maze of time. I'm working on a side project I
haven't quite decided whether to call the Silent Oscars, the
Mythical Monkeys or the Alternate Katies which would go back and
hand out awards to movies from 1915-1927, and anybody who's ever
attempted to study silent movies eventually runs up against the
woeful state of fil