Editing Irving Thalberg (section)

== Early years ==
Thalberg was born in [[Brooklyn]], to [[German Jewish]] immigrant parents, William and Henrietta (Haymann). Shortly after birth, he was diagnosed with "[[blue baby syndrome]]", caused by a congenital disease that limited the oxygen supply to his heart. The prognosis from the family's doctor and specialists was that he might live to the age of twenty, or at most, to thirty.<ref name=Vieira-1>Vieira, Mark A. ''Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince'', Univ. of California Press (2010)</ref>{{rp|3}}

During his high school years in Brooklyn, he began having attacks of chest pains, dizziness and fatigue. This affected his ability to study, though until that time he was a good student. When he was 17 he contracted [[rheumatic fever]], and was confined to bed for a year. His mother, in order to prevent him falling too far behind other students, brought him homework from school, books, and tutors to teach him at home. She also hoped that the schoolwork and reading would distract him from the "tantalizing sounds" of children playing outside his window.<ref name=Vieira-1 />{{rp|4}}

With little to entertain him, he read books as a main activity.<ref>Feeley, Kathleen A.. [http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=58 "Irving Thalberg."] In ''Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present'', vol. 4, edited by Jeffrey Fear. German Historical Institute. Last modified August 28, 2014.</ref> He devoured popular novels, classics, plays, and biographies. His books, of necessity, replaced the streets of New York, and led to his interest in classical philosophy and philosophers, such as [[William James]].<ref name=Vieira-1 />{{rp|4}}

When Thalberg returned to school, he finished high school but lacked the stamina for college, which he felt would have required constant late-night studying and cramming for exams. Instead, he took part-time jobs as a store clerk, and in the evenings, to gain some job skills, taught himself typing, shorthand and Spanish at a night [[vocational school]].<ref name=Vieira-1 />{{rp|5}} When he turned 18, he placed an advertisement in the local newspaper hoping to find better work:

{{blockquote|Situation Wanted: Secretary, stenographer, Spanish, English, high school education, no experience; $15.<ref name=obit />}}