When the Pictures Began to Speak By Sylvia’s Secretary An excerpt from part four of the series, “of intimate articles on the Hollywood experiences of Sylvia, the masseuse who made a specialty of beautifying the picture people.” Hedda Hopper steered Norma Shearer into Sylvia’s hands. At that, the boss nearly lost the MGM, star after the first treatment, which was given in Shearer’s home. Norma had been playing a lot of tennis and had got stringy and muscular and jumpy, the way women always do when they go crazy about any sport. The first thing to do was to calm her down and get her to sleeping regularly as a preliminary to softening her. So the boss rubbed her for nearly two hours and left her sleeping like a child. The next morning we got a phone call from Hedda Hopper, who said: “I don’t know what you did to Norma Shearer, Sylvia, but my name is mud in the movies if you’ve ruined her.” “Why, what’s the matter?” asked Sylvia. “She’s half crazy,” wept Hedda, “I’m with her now. Sh