Irving Thalberg - Death

Death

Thalberg and Shearer were on a much needed Labor Day weekend vacation in Monterey, California, in 1936, staying at the same beachfront hotel where they spent their honeymoon. A few weeks earlier, his leading screenwriter, Al Lewin, proposed doing a film based on a soon-to-be published book, Gone With the Wind. Although Thalberg said it would be a "sensational" role for Gable, and a "terrific picture," he decided not to do it:

Look, I have just made Mutiny on the Bounty and The Good Earth. And now you're asking me to burn Atlanta? No! Absolutely not! No more epics for me now. Just give me a little drawing-room drama. I'm tired. I'm just too tired.

Besides, Thalberg told Mayer, "o Civil War picture ever made a nickel". Shortly after returning from a trip to Monterey, Thalberg was diagnosed with pneumonia. His condition worsened steadily and he eventually required an oxygen tent at home. He died the following morning at the age of 37.

Sam Wood, while directing A Day at the Races, was given the news by phone. He returned to the set with tears in his eyes and told the others. As the news spread "the studio was paralyzed with shock," notes Thomas. "Work stopped and hundreds of people wept," writes Flamini. Stars, writers, directors, and studio employees, "all sharing a sense of loss at the death of a man who had been a part of their working lives."

His funeral took place two days later, and when the services began the other studios throughout Hollywood observed five minutes of silence. Producer Sam Goldwyn "wept uncontrollably for two days" and was unable to regain his composure enough to attend. The MGM studio closed for that day.

Services were held at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple that Thalberg had occasionally attended. The funeral attracted thousands of spectators who came to view the arrival of countless stars from MGM and other studios, including Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Howard Hughes, Al Jolson, Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, among the stars. The ushers who led them to their seats included Clark Gable, Fredric March, and playwright Moss Hart. Erich von Stroheim, an adversary who had been fired by Thalberg, likewise came to pay his respect. Producers Louis B. Mayer, the Warner Brothers, Adolph Zukor and Nicholas Schenck, sat together solemnly as Rabbi Magnin gave the eulogy.

Thalberg is buried in a private marble tomb in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, lying at rest beside his wife Norma Shearer Arrouge (Thalberg's crypt was engraved, "My Sweetheart Forever" by Shearer).

Over the following days, tributes were published by the national press. Louis B. Mayer, his co-founding partner at Metro Goldwyn Mayer, said he had lost "the finest friend a man could ever have," while MGM president Nicholas Schenck stated that "Thalberg was the most important man in the production end of the motion-picture industry. Leading producers from the other studios also expressed their feelings in published tributes to Thalberg:

David O. Selznick described him as "beyond any question the greatest individual force for fine pictures." Samuel Goldwyn called him "the foremost figure in the motion-picture industry . . . and an inspiration . . . ." M. H. Aylesworth, Chairman of RKO, wrote that "his integrity, vision and ability made him the spearhead of all motion-picture production throughout the world." Harry Warner, president of Warner Brothers, described him as "gifted with one of the finest minds ever placed at the service of motion-picture production." Sidney R. Kent, president of Twentieth Century Fox, said that "he made the whole world richer by giving it the highest type of entertainment. He was a true genius." Columbia president Harry Cohn said the "motion picture industry has suffered a loss from which it will not soon recover. . .". Darryl F. Zanuck noted, "More than any other man he raised the industry to its present world prestige." Adolph Zukor, chairman of Paramount, stated, "Irving Thalberg was the most brilliant young man in the motion picture business."Jesse Lasky said "It will be utterly impossible to replace him."

Among the condolences that came from world political leaders, President Roosevelt wrote, "The world of art is poorer with the passing of Irving Thalberg. His high ideals, insight and imagination went into the production of his masterpieces."

Among the pictures that were unfinished or not yet released at the time of his death were A Day at the Races, The Good Earth, Camille, Maytime and Romeo and Juliet. Groucho Marx, star of A Day at the Races, said, "after Thalberg's death, my interest in the movies waned. I appeared in them, but my heart was in the Highlands. The fun had gone out of filmmaking." Thalberg's widow, Norma Shearer, recalled, "Grief does very strange things to you. I didn't seem to feel the shock for two weeks afterwards. . . . then, at the end of those two weeks, I collapsed."