It will be Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks for the crown of Favorite Silent Actress

In the semi-final matches, it was Louise Brooks crushing Clara Bow 30-18 and Greta Garbo doubling up over Norma Shearer 16-8. Setting up a championship match between Louise and Greta to decide the favorite silent actress. Catherine will host that epic match beginning on Sunday. Here's the link to her page to go vote when the time comes: http://obscurecinemamagic.wordpress.com/

THE FINAL FOUR for the Favorite Silent Actress Tourney begins now

Four legendary silent actresses have made it to the final four of the Favorite Silent Actress Tourney. Clara Bow. Louise Brooks. Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Two matches over two blogs. The match between Clara and Louise will take place here while my friend Catherine hosts the match between Greta and Norma. The poll is on the right hand side bar. Matches will run through Thursday to decide who will compete in the final match to decide the favorite silent actress. Here's the link to Catherine's blog to go vote on that match which will be up later on: http://obscurecinemamagic.wordpress.com/
Good luck to these four wonderful women!

A dream Final Four to take place this weekend in The Favorite Silent Actress Tourney

We started with 32 top actresses of the silent era and have made our way to the final four. And it's a dream final four. Greta Garbo. Norma Shearer. Clara Bow. Louise Brooks. You couldn't ask for a better finale. Greta outlasted Janet Gaynor 11-6. Norma Shearer edged out Gloria Swanson 10-7. Louise Brooks defeated Bebe Daniels 21-7. And Clara Bow handled top seed and perennial favorite Mary Pickford 21-8. So now as we head into this weekend the two semi-final matches set up like this. Clara Bow will take on Louise Brooks here on All Good Things while Greta and Norma will duke it out on Catherine's blog, Plucked From Obscurity. Matches begin Saturday nights and run through Thursday evening. Here's the link to Catherine's blog: http://obscurecinemamagic.wordpress.com/

Round 3 of the Favorite Silent Actress Tourney begins now...

Here we go with round 3 of the favorite silent actress tourney. 4 matches with 8 remaining women. And it looks to be some top tier matches for sure. I'll start my two matches here on All Good Things now and Catherine will start her two matches tomorrow morning. Here's the link to her blog:http://obscurecinemamagic.wordpress.com/

THE DESIREE BRACKET

MARY PICKFORD

VS

CLARA BOW

THE STEPHEN BRACKET

LOUISE BROOKS

VS

BEBE DANIELS

And then over at Catherine's blog, these two matches

THE JOSIE BRACKET

GRETA GARBO

VS

JANET GAYNOR

THE MARIA BRACKET

NORMA SHEARER

VS

GLORIA SWANSON

Matches will run through Thursday evening. Good luck to all the women who

have made it this far!

Round 2 of the Favorite Silent Actress Tourney is in the books

8 matches wrapped up the 2nd round of the Favorite Silent Actress Tourney and half of them were blow-outs. Here are the results from all 8 matches.

DESIREE BRACKET
Clara Bow defeated Alla Nazimova 15-5
Mary Pickford defeated Dolores Costello 12-10

STEPHEN BRACKET
Louise Brooks defeated Lillian Gish 14-8
Bebe Daniels defeated Edna Purviance 12-9

JOSIE BRACKET
Greta Garbo defeated Colleen Moore 12-2
Janet Gaynor defeated Pola Negri 9-5

MARIA BRACKET
Norma Shearer defeated Olive Borden 13-2
Gloria Swanson defeated Marion Davies 8-6

Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks and Clara Bow all flexed their muscles and won quite easily.
Three of the matches were double digits wins for the respective ladies. Meanwhile the other four matches were quite close, with two of them being decided by only 2 votes. Mary Pickford, the tourney's top seed squeaked by for the second week in a row by edging out Dolores Costello 12-10. It won't get any easier for Mary as she faces the It Girl, Clara Bow in round 3. I will have the complete match-ups posted by tomorrow.

3rd Round Matches

3rd round action begins today and here are the four category final matches of the 30's era. Good luck to all the women who have made it this far.

THEY HAD FACES FINAL MATCH
1 GRETA GARBO
Tourney record (6-2)
2nd round victory over Kay Francis 44-18




VS


7 LILLIAN GISH
Tourney record (2-1)
2nd round victory over Gloria Swanson 38-33


**********************************
PRE-CODE WOMEN FINAL MATCH

1 BARBARA STANWYCK
Tourney Record (5-2)
2nd round victory over Claudette Colbert 47-25



VS


2 NORMA SHEARER
Tourney Record (3-3)
2nd round victory over Marlene Dietrich 39-32


*********************************

SINGERS/DANCERS FINAL MATCH

4 ELEANOR POWELL
Tourney Record (2-0)
2nd round victory over Bebe Daniels 



VS


7 JOAN BLONDELL
Tourney Record (2-1)
2nd round victory over Ruby Keeler


*******************************

FUNNY LADIES FINAL MATCH

1 CAROLE LOMBARD
Tourney Record (10-3)
2nd round victory over Jean Harlow



VS


2 MYRNA LOY 
Tourney Record (6-2)
2nd round victory over Jean Arthur



Matches will run through Wednesday evening. Should be another exciting round.

Second round matches begin now...

Here are the scheduled second round matches that begin now. Once again the first three days will be represented by two categories (They Had Faces and Pre-Code Babes). The matches will run through Wednesday evening. The second set of matches (Funny Ladies and Singers/Dancers) will begin immediately after that. There are some spectacular matches too. Including Claudette Colbert vs Barbara Stanwyck, Norma Shearer vs Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo vs Kay Francis. March Madness is now in full swing!

THEY HAD FACES

1 GRETA GARBO
Tourney record (5-2)
first round victory over Dolores Del Rio 60-32



VS



5 KAY FRANCIS
Tourney record (1-0)
first round victory over Louise Brooks 54-32


******************************


3 GLORIA SWANSON
Tourney record (2-1)
first round victory over Clara Bow 46-45



VS


7 LILLIAN GISH 
Tourney record (1-1)
first round victory over Mary Pickford 56-37


***********************************

PRE-CODE BABES

1 BARBARA STANWYCK 
Tourney record 4-2
first round victory over Miriam Hopkins 43-7



VS



4 CLAUDETTE COLBERT
Tourney record (5-2)
first round victory over Joan Crawford 61-42



*******************************

2 NORMA SHEARER
Tourney Record  (2-3)
first round victory over Glenda Farrell 51-48




VS




3 MARLENE DIETRICH
Tourney Record (3-2)
first round victory over Ann Dvorak 54-51

Joan Crawford gets some satisfaction on Norma Shearer with a thorough victory in match play

The ladies had a face off with Joan easily winning the match...

Remember when Crystal Allen (Crawford) stole Mary Haines (Shearer) husband in the 1939 film The Women, only to eventually lose him back to Mary. Well Joanie gets a little measure of satisfaction as she dominates Shearer 14-3 in match play. It marks Joan's first match play win and gives her a 1-2 record while Shearer drops to 1-2. Thanks to all those who voted and a new match will be up soon.

Classic Stars Match Play #12 - Norma Shearer vs Joan Crawford (a rematch of The Women...oh, boy!)

Uh-oh, here comes a match that screams catfight! Norma Shearer vs Joan Crawford. Remember they shared the screen for the 1939 classic film, The Women, as Shearer played Mary Haines who lost her husband to Crystal Allen (played by Crawford). Mary would eventually win her husband back from Crystal but it made for a fabulous movie. Well, here's the unofficial rematch. Only this time, no man is at stake. Just a match play. Joan has yet to win a match in 2 tries while Norma is 1-1. So this should be a very interesting match. The match begins immediately and runs through Sunday 3 pm EST. Good luck to both women!

NORMA SHEARER

Name: Edith Norma Shearer
Birth Date: August 10, 1902 (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
Height: 5 '1"
Academy Awards: 5 nominations, 1 win - The Divorcee (1930)
Monties: 1 nomination, 0 win (The Divorcee)
My favorite Norma film: The Women, of course
Match play record: 1-1 (beat Marion Davies but then lost to Claudette Colbert in the
30's era of favorite actress tournament)

CLASSIC STARS MATCH PLAY 

                                                                        JOAN CRAWFORD

Name: Lucille Fay LeSueur
Birth Date: March 23, 1905 (San Antonio, Texas)
Height: 5' 5"
Academy Awards: 3 nominations, 1 win: Best Actress - Mildred Pierce  (1945)
Monties: 2 nominations, 2 wins: Best Supporting Actress - Grand Hotel (1932)
and The Women (1939)
My favorite Joan film: The Women
Match Play record: 0-2 (come on Joan, time for a win)



HOLIDAY CHEER - NORMA SHEARER

Norma Shearer

THE FALL SERIES: Norma Shearer and Ramon Navarro

The two stars share a romantic setting

At The Beach: Norma Shearer

The lovely Norma Shearer

Happy Birthday Norma Shearer

Happy Birthday to Norma Shearer (1902-1983)