Mabel Normand

Born: 09 November 1892, Staten Island, New York, USA
Died: 23 February 1930, Monrovia, Calafornia, USA

Mabel Normand is a name not known by the general public at large today but in her heyday she was one of the most recognisable people in America. She was the Queen of Silent comedy - there were none bigger. Normand was a major star, writer, director and business woman who left her an indelible mark throughout her all too brief lifetime.
Born in New York to a mother of Irish descent, Normand was a primarily a model who began working in the new medium of film as an extra in Biograph Film shorts. Directors soon discovered that she could light up the screen anytime she appeared and her onscreen sense of fun was hugely infectious. Her overall look was perfect for the "girl next door" but she was equally at home playing a tomboy and often did her own quite dangerous stunts. It was during this period that she met Mack Sennett and began a relationship with him that would last several years.
When Sennett set up Keystone Studios she became one of his biggest stars. Her box office appeal was enormous (her 1918 feature "Mickey" took in a staggering $8 million). It was Normand who convinced Sennett to give a young talent - Charlie Chaplin, a second chance when his first short for Sennett did badly. She made a short with him called "Mabel's Strange Predicament" which featured Chaplin's Tramp character for the first time and the rest is history. She would go on to make a total of 12 shorts with Chaplin before he left Keystone and world dominance. She also made 17 films with Roscoe Arbuckle, many of which were part of the popular "Mabel and Fatty" series.
She opened up her own film company and subsequently signed a lucrative deal with Samuel Goldwyn. In a country which had yet to allow women to vote, Normand was a shining example on how to succeed in a man's world. In addition to Arbuckle and Chaplin, Normand also starred with Harold Llyod, Charley Chase, Mary Pickford and Oliver Hardy. However, like Arbuckle, Normand's career was blighted by scandals that she never fully recovered from. In February 1922 Normand visited a close friend, film director William Desmond Taylor, to borrow some books. Shortly after she left his house Taylor was shot dead. Normand was quickly ruled out as a suspect by police but her name was intricately associated with the murder, which was never solved. Two years later her chauffer shot and wounded millionaire Courtland S. Dines with Normand's pistol and again, while innocent, she was mired in scandal. Her career was also badly affected due to the fact that some of her best and most famous work was with Roscoe Arbuckle, and these films were banned due to the Arbuckle scandal.
Normand continued to make films but the bad press had a detrimental effect on her career. She signed for Hal Roach Studios and made several of shorts, some of which were directed by Stan Laurel, but her early success could not be replicated. Normand suffered health problems, mainly due to ongoing issues with tuberculosis that she had contracted years earlier and she died in 1930, aged just 37. Sadly Normand's films don't hold the mass appeal today that some of her contemporaries still have but over a hundred years later she still has the ability to make audiences laugh - her contribution to silent film comedy shouldn't be understated.