kPARA cPAR@ ` +TEXT ` Normand, Mabel Ethelreid1893?╨1930actorBorn probably in either Rhode Island or Massachusetts, probably on November 10, 1893, Mabel Normand grew up after 1900 on Staten Island, New York. Much of her early life is obscure, including whatever scant schooling she may have received. About the age of fifteen she became an artist╒s model for, among others, James Montgomery Flagg. In 1909, despite her entire lack of dramatic experience, she succeeded in getting a job at the fledgling Biograph motion picture studio in New York City. There she formed a liaison with director Mack Sennett that lasted several years. In 1912 she left Biograph with Sennett and joined his new Keystone Film Company in California. While working on a Sennett film about 1913 she is said to have succumbed to impulse and thrown a custard pie at Ben Turpin, thus creating what soon became a classic film comedy bit. Petite, impish, and gifted, Normand was the female star of the Keystone company, and when Charlie Chaplin joined it late in 1913 he learned much basic filmcraft from her. She was his leading lady in 11 films, mostly one- and two-reelers, and it was in Mabel╒s Strange Predicament, 1914, that Chaplin first appeared in his ╥little tramp╙ persona. There followed Mabel╒s Busy Day, Mabel╒s Married Life, and the great Tillie╒s Punctured Romance, 1914, in which they were joined by Marie Dressler. After Chaplin left Keystone for Essanay, Roscoe ╥Fatty╙ Arbuckle became her partner in a successful series of comedies. In 1916 Sennett organized the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company for her. The firm produced Mickey, which after long delays, was released in 1918 and was enormously successful. In 1917 Mabel Normand left Keystone to join the new Goldwyn Film Company, where she made such movies as The Venus Model, 1918, Back to the Woods, 1918, Sis Hopkins, 1919, and Upstairs, 1919. In 1920 Goldwyn released her from her contract╤she had become increasingly difficult to work with as she explored the prerogatives of stardom╤and she rejoined Sennett to make Molly O╒, 1921. The murder in February 1922 of William Desmond Taylor, a Hollywood director and a friend of Normand╒s, was the beginning of the end of her career. She was admittedly the last to see him alive, only moments before the murder, and while the case remained unsolved, the publicity, together with rumors of drug addiction and blackmail, roused a public outcry for censorship of her films. She made Head Over Heels, 1922, Oh, Mabel Behave, 1922, Suzanne, 1922, and The Extra Girl, 1923, for Sennett, but a second scandal ended her career. Her chauffeur shot a wealthy young suitor in her apartment in January 1924, reportedly in a jealous argument over her. She made one unsuccessful attempt at legitimate theater in 1925, and in 1926 she appeared in a few Hal Roach comedy shorts, but the public would no longer accept her. She died of tuberculosis on February 23, 1930, in Monrovia, California.Movie: Normand with Fatty Arbuckle in the 1915 silent movie ╥Fatty and Mabel at San Diego,╙ directed by Mack Sennett. styl ` & ! ¬ 5¬ $ 5¬ + !I ä 5¬ à !I é !I ¥ !I ≡ !I !I !I !I & !I @ !I e !I ▐ s !I
!I !I ! !I 2 !I : !I E !I Q !I Y !I !I !I # 5¬ $ !I » !I ╛ !I ╞ !I ╓ !I ▌ !I σ !I ± !I !I ñ 5¬ ª !I link ` HYPR e s
