Can't Boot from Snow Leopard Partition

I have a Macbook Pro from 2008. It previously just had one partition, with Lion on it.
I created a new partition for Snow Leopard
I installed Snow leopard from a retail disk on the second partition. The installation went fine, and I got the message at the end that the installation was successful, and to restart the computer.
When I restart it, it just goes to the gray Apple screen, with the spinning gear, and never gets farther than that. The gear is spinning.
I can still boot successfully into Lion. Once I booted into Lion, I chose the Snow Leopard partition as the Startup Disk, but the same thing happens - just the gray Apple screen and spinning gear. I've let the machine sit for half an hour in that state, but it still does nothing but the spinning gear.
Any ideas on why I can't boot successfully into Snow Leopard and how I can fix it?
Thanks.

I already knew that I'm free to follow my own course, but thanks for giving me your permission (???)
And would knowing the original OS of the machine make any difference in your "advice"? If it was originally Leopard, would that make it any different than if it was Tiger? Answer: No, because you don't understand the problem, and you don't know how to fix it.
Thanks.
If anyone ACTUALLY KNOWS anything about this problem, please post, as many others will benefit.
If you DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW anything about the problem, either DON'T POST HERE, or else qualify your information to indicate that you are guessing. I'm open to suggestions and speculation, but could you please CHECK YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR, and tell people that you are GUESSING what the problem might be. You don't need to act like you are some great authority and try to make your random guesswork look like an established fact.
If you were walking in New York City, and you ask someone how to get to Carnegie Hall, but the person doesn't even know where Carnegie Hall is, would you rather:
1) Have the person tell you a bunch of random wrong information that could cause you wander aimlessly for hours?
OR
2) Have the person politely tell you they don't know where Carnegie Hall is, and that you should ask someone else?
IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER, THEN DON'T ANSWER.
OR IF YOU ARE GUESSING OR MAKING A SUGGESTION, THEN QUALIFY YOUR STATEMENTS SO PEOPLE KNOW YOUR LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING.
YOU DON'T HELP BY GIVING WRONG INFORMATION. YOU DON'T HELP BY STATING YOUR GUESSWORK AS A FACT.
Why do people not have the slightest amount of common sense here? Are you getting paid to just post random wrong info here or something?

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