Editing Irving Thalberg (section)

== Personal life ==
During his few years with Universal while living in New York, Thalberg had become romantically involved with [[Carl Laemmle]]'s daughter, Rosabelle. Still in his early twenties and later spending most of his time in Los Angeles, his feelings toward her were no longer as strong. Flamini suspects that this may have affected his position at Universal and partly caused his decision to leave the company. "The Laemmles prayed that Irving would marry Rosabelle", notes Flamini. "They wanted their sons to be educated and their daughters to marry nice Jewish boys."<ref name=Flamini />{{rp|45}}

[[File:Thalberg-Shearer.jpg|left|thumb|With his wife, actress Norma Shearer, July 1936]]
Less than a year after he and Mayer took charge of the newly created MGM studios, and still only twenty-five years old, Thalberg suffered a serious heart attack due to overwork. Mayer also became aware of Thalberg's congenital heart problems and now worried about the prospect of running MGM without him. Mayer also became concerned that one of his daughters might become romantically involved, and told them so:

{{blockquote|He's attractive. I don't want you girls getting any ideas in your heads, ever. ... I don't want to have a young widow on my hands.<ref name=Flamini />{{rp|49}}}}

Thalberg, aware of Mayer's feelings, made it a point of never giving too much attention to his daughters at social events.

One of Thalberg's traits was his ability to work long hours into the night with little sign of fatigue. According to Vieira, Thalberg believed that as long as his mind was active in his work and he was not bored, he would not feel tired. Thalberg, who often got by with only five hours of sleep, felt that most people could get by with less than they realized.<ref name=Vieira-1 />{{rp|74}} To keep his mental faculties at peak, he would read philosophical books by [[Francis Bacon|Bacon]], [[Epictetus]], or [[Imanuel Kant|Kant]]. "They stimulate me. I'd drop out of sight in no time if I didn't read and keep up with current thought—and the philosophers are brain sharpeners."

During the early 1930s, Thalberg was ambivalent about political events in Europe. While he feared Nazism and the rise of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]], he also feared Communism. At the time, notes Vieira, "given a choice between communism and fascism, many Americans—including Thalberg—would prefer the latter."<ref name=Vieira-1 />{{rp|309}} Thalberg stated his opinion:

{{blockquote|When a dictator dies, his system dies, too. But if communism is allowed to spread, it will be harder to root out. What is at stake is our whole way of life, our freedom. They will have vanished forever.<ref name=Vieira-1 />{{rp|309}}}}

When others suggested that many Jews could die in Germany as a result of Nazi anti-Semitism, he replied that in his opinion "Hitler and Hitlerism will pass." On one occasion, Catholic [[Hubertus, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg|Prince Löwenstein]] of Germany, who himself had almost been captured before fleeing Germany, told him: "Mr. Thalberg, your own people are being systematically hunted down and rooted out of Germany." Thalberg suggested that world Jewry should nevertheless not interfere, that the Jewish race would survive Hitler.<ref name=Flamini />{{rp|181}}<ref name=Vieira-1 />{{rp|310}} Within a few years, American film distribution was "choked off" in Germany. Led by Warner Brothers, all American studios eventually closed their German offices.<ref name=Flamini />{{rp|259}}

[[File:Thalberg wedding.jpg|thumb|Thalberg's wedding in 1927 to Norma Shearer, with his parents and her mother shown]]
Thalberg began dating actress Norma Shearer a few years after he joined MGM. Following her [[Converted to Judaism|conversion]] to Judaism, they married on Thursday, September 29, 1927, in a private ceremony in the garden of his rented house in Beverly Hills.<ref name=Lambert>Lambert, Gavin (1990). ''Norma Shearer: A Biography''. New York: Knopf, 1990; pp. 321–325. {{ISBN|978-0-394-55158-6}}.</ref><ref name=FilmD>[https://archive.org/stream/filmdaily4142newy#page/772/mode/1up “Thalberg-Shearer Nuptials”], ''[[The Film Daily]]'' (New York, N.Y.), September 30, 1927, p. 2, col. 4. [[Internet Archive]], San Francisco, California. Retrieved August 21, 2018.</ref> Rabbi [[Edgar F. Magnin]] officiated at the event, with Shearer's brother [[Douglas Shearer]] giving the bride away, and Louis B. Mayer serving as [[best man]]. The couple drove to [[Monterey, California|Monterey]] for their honeymoon and then moved into their newly constructed home in Beverly Hills.<ref name=Lambert /><ref name=FilmD />

After their second child was born, Shearer considered retiring from films, but Thalberg convinced her to continue acting, saying he could find her good roles. She went on to be one of MGM's biggest stars of the 1930s. Their two children were [[Irving Thalberg, Jr.|Irving Jr.]] (1930–1987) and Katharine (1935–2006).<ref>Schatz, Thomas (1988). ''The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era.'' Pantheon Books, New York, 1988.</ref>