parents were severely disabled emotionally, and her sister, Athole, spent more than forty years in an asylum until her death in 1985. Despite her achievements and favorable public image, Norma lived in dread of inheriting the familial tendency toward mental illness. Her brother, Douglas, however, was not only psychologically healthy, he was also a brillianttechnician, and from the beginning of the talkies, he supervised Metro’s sound department for decades. Following her affairs with directors Victor Fleming and
