Mabel Normand

Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893

Normand's name was repeatedly linked with gun violence, including the 1922 murder of her friend, director William Desmond Taylor, and the non-fatal^[8] 1924 shooting of Courtland S. Dines by Normand's chauffeur, Joe Kelly. After police interrogation, she was ruled out as a suspect in Taylor's murder. Normand suffered a recurrence of tuberculosis in 1923, which led to a decline in her health, an early retirement from films in 1926 and her death in 1930 at age 36.^[9][10]

Early life and career

Amabel Ethelreid Normand was born in

For a short time at the start of her career, Normand worked for Vitagraph Studios in New York City for $25 per week, but Vitagraph founder Albert E. Smith admitted she was one of several actresses about whom he made a mistake in estimating their "potential for future stardom."^[13] Normand's intensely beguiling lead performance in the 1911 dramatic short film Her Awakening, directed by D. W. Griffith, drew her attention and led to her meeting director Mack Sennett while at Griffith's Biograph Company. The two subsequently embarked on a chaotic relationship. Sennett later brought Normand to California when he founded Keystone Studios in 1912.^[14]

Normand appeared with Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in many short films. She played a key role in starting Chaplin's film career and acted as his leading lady and mentor in a string of films in 1914, collaborating with him as a director, co-director or co-writer.^[14] Chaplin had considerable initial difficulty adjusting to the demands of film acting, and his performance suffered for it. After his first film appearance in Making a Living, Sennett felt he had made a costly mistake.^[15] However, Normand persuaded Sennett to give Chaplin another chance,^[16] and she and Chaplin appeared together in a dozen subsequent films, almost always as a couple in the lead roles. At the start of 1914, Chaplin first played his Tramp character in Mabel's Strange Predicament,^[14] although it wound up being the second Tramp film released; Normand directed Chaplin and herself in the film.^[17] Later that year, Normand starred with Chaplin and Marie Dressler in Tillie's Punctured Romance, the first feature-length comedy.

Normand is credited as being the first film star to receive a pie thrown in the face.^[18]

Normand opened her own film company in partnership with Sennett in 1916,^[14] based in Culver City, California. She lost the company in 1918 when its parent company, Triangle Film Corporation, experienced a massive shakeup which also had Sennett lose Keystone Studios and establish his own independent company. In 1918, as her relationship with Sennett came to an end, Normand signed a $3,500-per-week contract with Samuel Goldwyn. Around that same time, Normand allegedly had a miscarriage (or stillbirth) with Goldwyn's child.^[19][20]

Scandals

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle trials

Arbuckle, Normand's co-star in many films, was the defendant in three widely publicized trials for manslaughter in the 1921 death of actress Virginia Rappe. Although Arbuckle was acquitted, the scandal damaged his career and his films were banned from exhibition for a short time. Since she had made some of her best works with him, much of Normand's output was withheld from the public as a result.^[14] Arbuckle later returned to the screen as a director and actor, but didn't attain his previous popularity despite being exonerated in court.

William Desmond Taylor murder

Director

In 1924, Normand's chauffeur Joe Kelly shot and wounded millionaire oil broker and amateur golfer Courtland S. Dines with her pistol.^[14][25][26] In response, several theaters pulled Normand's films, which were also banned in Ohio by the state film censorship board.^[27] However, Dines was not fatally injured; he died of a heart attack in 1945, over two decades after the shooting.^[28]

Later career and death

Normand continued making films and was signed by

In 1926, she married actor

Normand has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard.

Her film Mabel's Blunder (1914) was added to the National Film Registry in December 2009.^[31]

In June 2010, the New Zealand Film Archive reported the discovery of a print of Normand's film Won in a Closet (exhibited in New Zealand under its alternate title Won in a Cupboard), a short comedy previously believed lost. This film is a significant discovery, as Normand directed the film and starred in the lead role, displaying her talents on both sides of the camera.^[32]

Cultural references

• A nod to Normand's celebrity in early Hollywood came through the name of a leading character in the 1950 film
  Sunset Boulevard, "Norma Desmond", which has been cited as a combination of the names Norma Talmadge and William Desmond Taylor. The film also frequently mentions Normand by name.^[33][34]
• "Hello Mabel" is a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band released in England on their second album The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (released as Urban Spaceman in the US.) in November 1968.
• Normand is mentioned during series 2 episode 1 of
  better source needed
  ]
• Singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks wrote a song about the actress titled "Mabel Normand", which appears on her 2014 album 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault.

Fictional portrayals

The 1974

In 2014, Normand was played on television by Andrea Deck in series 2, episode 8 of Mr Selfridge and by Kristina Thompson in the short film Mabel's Dressing Room.^[36][37]

The character played by Alice Faye in Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) was reputed to have been based partly on Normand.^[38]

Filmography

Some of her early roles are credited as "Mabel Fortesque".^[39]

Vitagraph

Biograph

Keystone

Goldwyn Feature films

Hal Roach Studios

References

Notes

Further reading

• ISBN 978-0-8195-6451-1
  . Retrieved July 29, 2010.
• ISBN 978-0-87910-158-9
  . Retrieved July 29, 2010.
• Sherman, William Thomas (2006). Mabel Normand: A Source Book to Her Life and Films
• Normand, Stephen (1974). Films in Review September Issue: Mabel Normand – A Grand Nephew's Memoir
• Lefler, Timothy Dean (2016). Mabel Normand: The Life and Career of a Hollywood Madcap.
  ISBN 978-0-7864-7867-5

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mabel Normand.

• Mabel Normand at
  IMDb
• Mabel Normand at the TCM Movie Database
• Mabel Normand at the Women Film Pioneers Project
• Madcap Mabel: Mabel Normand Website
• Mabel Normand Source Book (pdf file)
• Stephen Normand's website
• Bibliography
• Looking for Mabel Normand Archived February 7, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
• Mabel Normand Home Page
• Films of Mabel Normand on YouTube (playlist)