WHO WAS MABEL NORMAND?

Mabel Normand was known as the “female Chaplin” and the undisputed “queen of comedy.” It was Mabel who is credited with throwing the first custard pie as a gag on screen. She helped get Charlie Chaplin his start in movies, even directing him in his first films. She ranked with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. It might be said that Charlie was a male Mabel.

Mabel told people that she was born on November 10, 1893, in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York. Mabel was a natural athlete and a breathtaking beauty. She started her career as an illustrator’s model, and was one of Charles Dana Gibson’s “Gibson Girls.”

In 1911 with the encouragement of Mack Sennett, she found her true talent. She became an exceptionally skilled actress, capable of portraying a wide range of emotions, but she is most remembered for her comic genius. Her best-loved film was the 1918 Mickey, which was made at Mabel’s own studio, a gift from Mack Sennett.

Mack and Mabel were engaged off and on for years, but finally grew apart as Mabel drifted to the Samuel Goldwyn Studios where she became one of Goldwyn’s top moneymakers. Known, as a sweet, vivacious prankster she soon became the object both of his affection and his vexation.

Her career ended much too early because of the pressures of illness, and association with early Hollywood scandals including the William Desmond Taylor case.

In 1926 she married Lew Cody. At the time of her death in February 1930 she left behind a world full of broken hearts that mourned her carefree innocence and brilliant comic style. Sadly, the screen has never again seen the likes of “darling, dainty, dashing Mabel with the curly locks. Always happy and gay; that’s her way!”

In 2009 her film Mabel’s Blunder (Keystone 1914) was added to the National Registry

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