Mabel Normand: The Queen of Silent Slapstick
We ought to have a documentary highlighting Miss Mabel's career. She was truly ahead of her time, yet, gone too soon. It's a real shame that drugs ruined her career--if only we could've heard her voice in sound. I just know she would have been great.
Mabel was born Amabel Ethelreid Normand, in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York (before it was incorporated into New York City) on November 9, 1893. She apparently adopted the name "Mabel" from her father's only sibling, who died before she was born.
When Mabel was fourteen, she became an artist's model, posing for various painters including Charles Dana Gibson and James Montgomery Flagg. Her image appeared on several postcards and magazines during that time.
Mabel decided to become an actress after some of her friends suggested that she could earn good money. In 1909, she started working as an extra at the Biograph Studios, where she met director Mack Sennett, with whom she would have an enduring romance. Mack was so smitten with her that he cast her as one of his bathing beauties (before she was a renowned comedienne).
When the Biograph Company headed for California to shoot movies, they left her behind. But the determined Mabel would not let that destroy her ambition so she moved to the Vitagraph Company, where she got the chance to work alongside a famous comedian at the time, John Bunny. Her time at Vitagraph was mildly successful. Unfortunately, only a few of the shorts she made there are still available.
Then the Biograph Company and Mack Sennett returned in the summer of 1910. Mack was able to convince Mabel to start making films with them again and so for a period of two years, she worked for D.W. Griffith as a dramatic actress and occasional Indian.
In 1912, Mack left Biograph to start his own company called Keystone Studios. This time, he took Mabel with him and she participated in helping him from the studio. Under Mack, Mabel had her own production company called the Mabel Normand Film Company. By this time, Mabel was quickly becoming a movie star. She worked with big celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle, with whom she was good friends and co-wrote films. She was also friends with Buster Keaton and Mary Pickford, but never worked with them in any of her pictures. Although Mabel called Mary a "prissy bitch" once, the two were actually good friends. Mabel was a jokester so I don't believe she meant it as an insult. Mary even listed her as one of her favorite stars in a 1910s magazine once. I don't know what magazine it was, but I know I have it saved in my Pinterest somewhere, I'm just too lazy to search for it.
Good pals Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, and Roscoe Arbuckle.
And to address the rumors, no, she and Chaplin did not have an affair or date. Chaplin wrote in his autobiography that they shared a kiss once in her dressing room, but they did not go further because people were waiting. I just know that Mabel turned him down, but whether they pursued each other for a time being is beyond my knowledge, although God knows he tried. I'll leave the Chaplin historians to answer that one.
Mabel and Mack did not have a very healthy relationship. In 1917 she was so fed up with him after he cheated on her and left Keystone Studios for Goldwyn, where she profited better financially. Mabel made more successful films during her time at Goldwyn, such as "The Floor Below" (1918), "Sis Hopkins" (1919), "What Happened to Rosa?" (1920), and "Head Over Heels" (1922). All of which were feature-length films.
Mabel was quite a daredevil too, performing many of her own stunts. In 1914, she started writing and directing her own films, which was rare then. Through her own film company, she released her first independent feature film "Mickey" in 1918--which was a big success and is considered one of her best films by critics.
In 1921, Mabel returned to Mack and together they worked on "Molly O" (1921), with the hopes of it being another success as "Mickey." The reviews of "Molly O" were positive and it was a box-office draw. The same following year, Mabel's good friend Fatty Arbuckle was involved in a scandal that forever damaged his career. Fortunately, this did not damage Mabel's. The following year, when Mabel began to work on "Suzanna" with Mack Sennett, another one of her friends was involved in a scandal that this time, she could not withdraw from. Director William Desmond Taylor was murdered and Mabel was rumored to be the last person to see him alive. Due to her name being heavily associated with the murder, Production had to stop and Mabel, whose mental health was already deteriorating, worsened causing havoc.
Mabel's last film for Sennett before splitting up for good was "The Extra Girl" in 1923. After Production finished, Mabel left the screen for a few years and then returned. In 1926, she signed with Hal Roach to do a series of shorts. The short films were successful, but Mabel's star status was fading. In 1927, Mabel was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Her health worsened and in 1929, she entered a sanitarium, where she died hardly a year later on February 23, 1930.
When her friend Roscoe Arbuckle heard the news, he responded, “My Buddy has died.”
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Mabel Normand was crowned the Queen of Comedy back in her day because she had a gift for making people laugh. She was not only an early comedienne, but a film pioneer for all of the hard work she was doing in the film industry when it was, predominately male at the time. Her work, as well as the actress herself, deserves to be celebrated continuously. Some of Mabel's most successful films include: "Tillie's Punctured Romance" (1914), "Mabel at the Wheel" (1914), "Mabel's Strange Predicament" (1914), "Fatty and Mabel Adrift" (1916), "Molly O" (1921), and of course, "Mickey" (1918).