MABEL NORMAND

'Mabel Normand' (November 10, 1895? - February 23, 1930)[1] was a US film actress and the most popular screen comedienne of the silent film era. Her later career was marked by several successive scandals.

Contents

Early life and career

Scandals

Later career and death

Partial Filmography

Humorous quote

Cultural references

Further reading

References

External links

Early life and career

Born 'Mabel Ethelreid Normand' in Staten Island, New York, she grew up in extreme poverty. Her father was sporadically employed as a carpenter at Sailors' Snug Harbor home for elderly seamen. Before she entered films in 1909, Normand worked as an artist's model, which included posing for postcards illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the Gibson Girl image. She met director Mack Sennett and embarked on a tumultuous affair with him. Her first films portrayed her as a bathing beauty, but Normand quickly demonstrated a flair for comedy and became a star of Sennett's short films. She appeared regularly with Charles Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and wrote, directed, and starred in some of Chaplin's early films. She has been credited with being the first person to throw a cream pie on film and is often cited as silent cinema's most prominent comedienne. She directed films and made full-length features before either Arbuckle or Chaplin.
In 1914 she starred with Chaplin and Marie Dressler in ''Tillie's Punctured Romance''. Normand developed into a major film star. As her relationship with Sennett came to an end, she signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn in 1918 and opened her own film studio in Culver City. During this time she reportedly became addicted to both alcohol and narcotics, which damaged her health and career. Nonetheless, her breakup with Sennett seems to have caused Normand to re-evaluate her life and she embarked on a program of self-education, developing keen and lasting interests in reading and books.

Scandals

Director William Desmond Taylor shared her interest in books and the two formed a close friendship. He was murdered in 1922 only minutes after Normand had left his home. She was closely scrutinized by police but never considered a serious suspect.^[1] Newspapers speculated wildly about Normand given reports of her drug use along with her many past appearances in films with Roscoe Arbuckle, who had also recently become enmeshed in scandal. In 1924 she was involved in yet another scandal when her chauffeur Joe Kelly (an ex-convict whose real name was Horace Greer) shot and wounded Normand's lover Courtland Dines with her pistol.

Later career and death

She continued making films and was signed by Hal Roach Studios in 1926 after discussions with director/producer F. Richard Jones, who had directed her at Keystone. At Roach she made the film ''Raggedy Rose'' plus four others which were released with publicity support from the Hollywood community (including her friend Mary Pickford).
She married actor Lew Cody in 1926 (they lived separately in nearby houses in Beverly Hills before Cody moved in with her) but her health was in decline. After an extended stay in a sanitarium she died from tuberculosis in Monrovia, California. She was interred at Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles.
Mabel Normand has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard.

Partial Filmography

★ ''Indiscretions of Betty'' (1910)

★ ''Her Awakening'' (1911; directed by D. W. Griffith)

★ ''Why He Gave Up'' (1911)

★ ''The Water Nymph'' (1912) with Mack Sennett

★ ''Mabel's Lovers'' (1912) with Fred Mace and Ford Sterling

★ ''At Coney Island'' (1912) with Mack Sennett, Fred Mace, and Ford Sterling

★ ''The Flirting Husband'' (1912) with Ford Sterling

★ ''Mabel's Adventures'' (1912)

★ ''The Bangville Police'' (1913) with the Keystone Cops

★ ''A Noise from the Deep'' (1913; Normand throws the first pie thrown on film) with Roscoe Arbuckle

★ ''A Little Hero'' (1913) with Harold Lloyd

★ ''Mabel's Awful Mistakes'' (1913) with Mack Sennett, Ford Sterling, and Edgar Kennedy

★ ''Passions, He Had Three'' (1913) with Roscoe Arbuckle

★ ''For the Love of Mabel'' (1913) with Roscoe Arbuckle and Ford Sterling

★ ''Mabel's New Hero'' (1913) with Roscoe Arbuckle

★ ''Mabel's Dramatic Career'' (1913) with Mack Sennett and Ford Sterling

★ ''In the Clutches of the Gang'' (1914) with Roscoe Arbuckle and the Keystone Cops

★ ''Mack at It Again'' (1914) with Mack Sennett

★ ''Mabel's Stormy Love Affair'' (1914)

★ ''Mabel's Strange Predicament'' (1914) with Charles Chaplin (first film shot with Chaplin as the Tramp, although the second released)

★ ''A Film Johnnie'' (1914) with Charles Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle

★ ''Mabel at the Wheel'' (1914; co-directed by Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett) with Charles Chaplin

★ ''Caught in a Cabaret'' (1914; written and directed by Mabel Normand) with Charles Chaplin

★ ''Mabel's Nerve'' (1914) with Mack Swain

★ ''The Fatal Mallet'' (1914) with Charles Chaplin

★ ''Her Friend the Bandit'' (1914; co-directed by Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin) with Charles Chaplin

★ ''Mabel's Busy Day'' (1914; written and directed by Mabel Normand) with Charles Chaplin

★ ''Mabel's Married Life'' (1914; co-written by Charles Chaplin and Mabel Normand) with Charles Chaplin

★ ''Mabel's New Job'' (1914) with Chester Conklin, Charley Chase, and Al St. John

★ ''The Sky Pirate'' (1914) with Roscoe Arbuckle and Al St. John

★ ''The Masquerader'' (1914) with Charles Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle (Normand was uncredited)

★ ''Mabel's Latest Prank'' (1914) with Mack Sennett

★ ''Hello, Mabel'' (1914) with Charley Chase, Chester Conklin, Billy Gilbert, and Al St. John

★ ''Gentlemen of Nerve'' (1914) with Charles Chaplin

★ ''His Trysting Place'' (1914) with Charles Chaplin

★ ''Tillie's Punctured Romance'' (1914) with Marie Dressler and Charles Chaplin

★ ''Shotguns That Kick'' (1914) with Roscoe Arbuckle and Al St. John

★ ''Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day'' (1915) with Roscoe Arbuckle

★ ''Mabel and Fatty's Simple Life'' (1915; AKA "Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life") with Roscoe Arbuckle

★ ''Mabel and Fatty's Married Life'' (1915) with Roscoe Arbuckle

★ ''Getting Acquainted'' (1914) with Charles Chaplin

★ ''That Little Band of Gold'' (1915) with Roscoe Arbuckle and Ford Sterling

★ ''Wished on Mabel'' (1915) with Roscoe Arbuckle

★ ''Mabel's Wilful Way'' (1915) with Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, and Edgar Kennedy

★ ''Mabel Lost and Won'' (1915) with Owen Moore

★ ''The Little Teacher'' (1915) with Roscoe Arbuckle, Mack Sennett, and Owen Moore

★ ''He Did and He Didn't'' (1916) with Roscoe Arbuckle and Al St. John

★ ''Fatty and Mabel Adrift'' (1916) with Roscoe Arbuckle and Al St. John

★ ''The Venus Model'' (1918)

★ ''Mickey'' (1918)

★ ''A Perfect 36'' (1918)

★ ''Jinx'' (1919)

★ ''Molly O'' (1921)

★ ''Head Over Heels'' (1922)

★ ''Oh, Mabel Behave'' (1922)

★ ''Suzanna'' (1923)

★ ''Raggedy Rose'' (1926)

★ ''The Nickel-Hopper'' (1926)

★ ''Should Men Walk Home?'' (1927)

★ ''One Hour Married'' (1927)

Humorous quote

''Say anything you like, but don't say I love to work. That sounds like Mary Pickford, the prissy bitch.''[2]

Cultural references

★ The name of a leading character in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond, has been cited as a combination of the names Mabel Normand and William Desmond Taylor."Taylorology" (about William D. Taylor & era), (literateweb.com), September 2003, webpage: LitWeb-WDTaylor.

★ The 1974 Broadway musical ''Mack & Mabel'' (Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman) depicted the romance between Normand and Mack Sennett. Normand was played by Bernadette Peters and Robert Preston played Mack Sennett.

Further reading

★ Jeanine Basinger (1999), chapter on Normand in ''Silent Stars'', (ISBN 0-8195-6451-6).

★ Betty Harper Fussell (1982), ''Mabel: Hollywood's First I-Don't-Care Girl'', (ISBN 0-87910-158-X).

★ William Thomas Sherman (2006), "Mabel Normand: A Source Book to Her Life and Films," (see http://www.angelfire.com/mn/hp/index.html )

References

1. Press Film Star For Taylor Clew; Police Conduct 'Long And Grueling' Examination, Working On Jealousy Motive. Mabel Normand Speaks Tells Reporters Affection For Slain Director Was Based On Comradeship, Not 'Love.'

External links

★

★ Madcap Mabel: Mabel Normand Website

★ Normand and the William Desmond Taylor murder

★ Looking-for-Mabel

★ Mabel Normand Home Page