Mabel normand

Mabel Normand delights in playing jokes on those who under­stand her. Her mother, who lives on Staten Island, was the victim of the frolicsome Goldwyn star’s latest prank. Miss Normand’s limousine drove up not far from the Normand home the other day and out stepped a little old woman. In an unsteady voice she asked to see the lady of the house, and on being received by Mabel Normand’s mother, quavered a request for old pies “for the war sufferers, madam.” A moment of embarrassed silence followed, whereupon Mabel dashed off her wig and goggles and leaped into her mother’s arms. Now she wants to play a character role in her next Goldwyn picture.

* from New York Morning Telegraph, November 10, 1918

When Mabel Made Her Speech

Louis Sherwin has a new grey hair or two added since last Saturday, when Mabel Normand made her speech at the Manhattan Opera House. In the first place, Mr. Sherwin had to use every power of persuasion to coax our little Mabel to make the speech. She insisted she was no speech maker, and couldn’t face that crowd of people without suffering nervous indigestion, chills, fever and a few other ailments. Finally, with Miss Normand protesting every step of the way, Mr. Sherwin reached the opera house -- “They insisted we sit on the stage,” said Mr. Sherwin. “I sat back of Mabel to block her getaway. Every time she moved I thought she was going to rush off the stage. I was so worn out by the time they called her back to speak I could hardly sit up.

“And would you believe it,” said Louis Sherwin, “she made a good speech and won the hearts of all the people.”

Mabel’s version of the afternoon is rather different. She says Mr. Sherwin dragged her to the stage, and she wouldn’t have been a bit afraid if he had let her wait quietly until her turn came from a back seat in the theatre.

“Why,” said Mabel, “even John D. Rockefeller looked pityingly at me.”
* from New York Morning Telegraph, November 13, 1918

Mabel Normand Goes West

Mabel Normand said au revoir to New York Monday night while the peace celebration was at its height. Even all this cheer in sending her westward didn’t compensate for the fact she had to leave New York.

Up to the very last minute Miss Normand hoped she might be able to make pictures here, but with new studios just put in readiness by Goldwyn and plans all made for her next picture to be filmed here she had to join the Goldwyn throng and go to California.¹⁴⁹
* from New York Morning Telegraph, November 17, 1918

 Louella Parsons

Mabel Normand, her indispensable Mary and all her new clothes have moved to the Coast, as we stated last week. Our telephone has been kept busy asking for Miss Normand’s address. She went without a word or a ring on the telephone to any of her friends and there is much desolation over her sudden departure. Her address, so far as we know, is Goldwyn Studios, Culver City, Cal.
* from Motion Picture Magazine, December 1918

“The Motion Picture Hall of Fame”

The Whirlwind Finish of the Greatest Motion Picture Contest Ever Conducted

Marguerite Clark..........138,852

Douglas Fairbanks........132,228

Harold Lockwood.........129,990

William S. Hart............129,565

Wallace Reid................119,466

Pearl White..................114,206

Anita Stewart...............102,876

Theda Bara.....................93,684

Francis X. Bushman.......93,608

Earle Williams...............93,426

William Farnum.............93,318

Mary Miles Minter..........93,090

Clara Kimball Young......88,576

Norma Talmadge............88,040

Pauline Frederick............87,231

Charlie Chaplin..............86,192

Vivian Martin.................85,648

Billie Burke....................79,908

Ethel Clayton.................78,919

(others listed)

Jack Pickford.................72,665

Mae Marsh...................63,290

Bessie Love..................62,601

Mae Murray..................62,244

Sessue Hayakawa..........48,201

Owen Moore.................48,054

Blanche Sweet..............37,864

Ruth Roland................37,393

Lillian Gish.................37,340

Helen Holmes..............37,111

Constance Talmadge....19,634

.....
(listed 109th out of list of 422)
Mabel Normand..........19,605
(others listed)

Roscoe Arbuckle.........19,107

Alla Nazimova...........16,668

Lionel Barrymore.......16,562

Richard Barthelmess...16,533

Edna Purviance...........16,440

John Barrymore..........16,212

Marion Davies............16,194

Florence Lawrence......16,177

Lon Chaney................16,154

Tom Mix....................16,113

Chester Conklin..........16,024

David W. Griffith........16,021

Max Linder.................16,020

Ambrose Mack Swain...16,012

Lila Lee..........................5,010

-Lalia Mithell.

Mickey and Mabel Normand are one and the same. It would have been hard to find a more appropriate name for her, or to be correct, she could not have appeared in a title role in which she was better suited. If there ever was a hoyden in pictures, it is this young star. And yet, with all her tomboy pranks and cutting up, she is a wonderful little actress.

While it was not announced on the screen at the New York Theater, Mickey is a Max [sic] Sennett picture. This was as plain as day after the first reel, when the Sennett English bulldog made his appearance and later when half a dozen educated cats at various intervals made things lively for the characters.

One is slightly disappointed at first because the opening scenes are those of the usual cut and dry “western.” But this illusion is dispelled as soon as Mabel Normand makes her appear­ance. Mickey‘s garments consist of an old pair of trousers, patched, heavy flannel undershirt and a discarded waistcoat, many sizes too large for her. She lives with her uncle and his squaw housekeeper. He is working a mine at the opening of the picture, getting very little pay dirt, and they are not over prosperous, but they are a happy trio.

Mickey‘s chief occupation is getting into trouble. She starts off by persuading the family mule to eat her uncle’s razor strap. Throughout the picture she has many opportunities of displaying her wonderful horsemanship and most of it is bareback riding.

But Mickey‘s life in the “Wild and Woolly” west comes to an end when her uncle receives an invitation to send her east to some relations, who have a country home on Long Island. She goes there, but when these folks learn Mickey has no money they put her to work. As a domestic she is a rank failure and disrupts the whole household.

Throughout the picture she does a number of daring and intrepid “stunts.” How it is that Miss Normand has escaped with­out any broken bones is a marvel.

There is a thrilling racetrack scene which was probably taken at the Empire City course and will be familiar to many New Yorkers. The other “locations” have been selected with care and the interior settings are up-to-date. Fine photography adds special interest to the picture. The cast supporting Miss Normand is splendid and the whole production breezes along, with action every minute.

“Mickey” is one of the best program features of its kind released in many months. It is one big laugh from start to finish.
* from New York Morning Telegraph, December 27, 1918

Miss Normand Ill¹⁵⁰

Mabel Normand sends a Christmas wire from Los Angeles, saying she has had a battle with pneumonia. Work on “Sis Hopkins“ has been stopped pending the young woman’s return to health. She is at the Alexandria, and we sort of thought we read between the lines of the telegram just a little note of homesickness.

They were working in the Hopkins kitchen, and Miss Normand was in one of her best “Sis” make-ups. I wished that Rose Melville could have seen her. I won’t say that Mabel Normand is going to be a better Sis Hopkins than Rose Melville, but she is going to give a fine interpretation of the part; she is going to make Sis more human and less of a caricature than she was on the regular stage. Mabel understands Sis to be what she was -- not a caricature, but a real lovable being under grotesque make-up.

 Grace Kingsley

Just as Mabel Normand, Goldwyn star, was happily settled in her Hollywood home, and was planning a nice house-warming party, along came the flu and not only threw cold water on all her nice little social plans, but stopped work on “Sis Hopkins.” Miss Normand is reported to be seriously ill.
* from Moving Picture World, December 28, 1918

[advertisement]

‘A Perfect 36‘

by Tex Charwaite

“They went miles to see her ride the waves.”

One prank a minute is Mabel Normand’s record in her latest Goldwyn Picture, “A Perfect 36.” The screen’s most delightful comedienne as a boarding house slavey, a traveling saleswoman, a diving girl and an alleged jewel robber. Gives more of her joyous self than in any of her recent comedy successes. And her pranks never permit of a dull moment throughout its entire production.

At the STRAND

Wednesday & Thursday, Matinee & Night

Prices: 11-22c. Shows 2.30-7.30

 Robert C. McElravy

Mabel Normand is one of the younger screen artists who have succeeded in developing a following among picturegoers, and whose future work should be worth watching. She has come up splendidly since her early days in the one and two-reel comics, and in addition to her manifest physical charms and general daring she has many of the attributes of a first class comedienne. Her humor springs from a vivid and buoyant personality, and she never forces it to the point of exasperating her audiences, as female humorists are so often tempted to do. But we do not feel that she has yet brought her humor to its fullest development, unless it was in her highly successful offering “Mickey,” which the writer has not seen, but which the public at large has taken to very kindly.

This current release, “A Perfect 36,” is a very enjoyable subject and has some fine humorous moments. But for all that, and regardless of the fact that it is well above the average offering of its kind, it could undoubtedly have been stronger. The humor is effective and delicately handled, and the sub-titles are bright and laughable. The thing that is missing, it seems to the reviewer, is the touch of sympathy or pathos that is an almost inevitable concomitant of the best humor. Chaplin has this at times, almost to the point of tears, and we mention this because we think Mabel Normand could develop it if given a chance. There were opportunities for sympathetic touches in her friendship for Bessie, who was falsely suspected of stealing the jewels, but they were not utilized. We think that just as serious dramas demand occasional comedy relief to keep it human and appealing, so humor in more lengthy offerings demands, occasional moments of sincerity and pathos to get a balanced effort. We would like to see Mabel’s director, Charles Giblyn, give her a try-out in something of a more mixed emotional appeal, but always of course with particular stress upon the humor.

An excellent example of the full use of co-operative publicity between the motion picture industry and kindred business enterprises is the campaign worked out by H. J. Shepard, of the W. H. Productions Company, and employed in the exploitation of “Mickey“ starring Mabel Normand. And added point of particular interest to exhibitors is the fact that notwithstanding the completeness of the plan devise, it is claimed by the producers that it can be carried out at practically no expense to theatre managers although securing for them window displays and other valuable advertising privileges.

The extent to which music is employed in the exploitation is the feature of this campaign, which includes a “Mickey“ song with words by Harry Williams and music by Neil Moret, published by Daniels and Wilson; three different gramophone records prepared by the Columbia Gramophone Company, one of the song, one a fox-trot arrangement by the Earle Fuller Jazz Band, and the other side is a medley taken from the orchestration prepared for this picture. In addition, the Okeh Record Company and the Vocalion Company both have prepared records of the song, and the Aeolian Company and Universal Music Roll Company have piano rolls of the song.

The method employed successfully by a number of prominent exhibitors to create advance interest in the production consists in working in conjunction with the Woolworth or Krege five and ten cent store and Columbia gramophone dealers. A week or two before “Mickey“ is to be shown, window displays of the song or records are prepared with announcement that the picture will be shown in a certain theatre. In addition, copies of the song are sold in the theatre lobby, or in some instances given away during matinees o attract patronage; and during this time as well as during the showing of the picture, phonographs obtained from the dealers play “Mickey” records in the lobbies. As an advance business-getter, the song is also sung by a soloist, while a slide with the chorus is thrown in, and some houses with drop curtains use them for displaying a 24-sheet, as shown in the accompanying illustration. Announcements are also thrown on the screen to the effect that the records and piano rolls can be secured from certain dealers.

At a recent meeting of representatives of the phonograph company held in Boston, which was also attended by officials of the five and ten cents stores, they expressed their enthusiasm over the campaign as outlined and promised their hearty co-operation.

The W. H. Productions Company announce that “Mickey“ is meeting with great success all over the country, and in many instances is breaking box-office records as well as shattering precedents by the length of the run. Proctor’s Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, a vaudeville house, is running this picture this week as an experiment, as they are said to have never used a feature picture before, and report big business, notwithstanding this is usually a bad week, the one before the holidays.

Among the theatres which have booked “Mickey“ for seven days or longer, and are thereby said to have broken their precedents of not playing a feature over three days, are The Trent, in Trenton; Empire in New Brunswick; Lyceum and Plaza, in Bayonne; Montauk, in Passaic, N.J.; Mishlet Theatre, in Altoona.

The following recent sales of territory have been made on this production: To Sol. L. Lesser, for California and Ariona; M. Rosenberg, for Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana; Supreme Photoplay Productions, for Pennsylvania and Boston Photoplay Company, for New England.

In connection with the showing at Proctor’s Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, the Columbia company carried a “Mickey“ window display in their Fifth avenue store, which is said to be the first time, a photoplay has been so advertised on Fifth avenue.
* from Los Angeles Times, December 29, 1918

 Grace Kingsley

From Mabel Normand comes the glad news that so far as she is concerned the flu has flown, and that she expects to sit up today and take nourishment. Moreover, she thinks she’ll be able again to don her Sis Hopkins makeup next week.
* from Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1918

 Grace Kingsley

The health of two of Goldwyn‘s most famous stars is improving. Mae Marsh, who has been ill for some time, has so far recovered that she is to commence work on a Goldwyn production on January 13. Her director will be Roy Trimble, and the story is not yet ready for announcement. Mabel Normand, likewise expects to be able to don her “Sis Hopkins“ make-up within a few days. She took a nice long motor trip yesterday.
* from the Tatler, (no month or date given) 1919

A New National Character

For a Sweeping Country-wide Popularity Among Old and Young, Rich and Poor, in City and Country, Nothing in Years has Equaled “Mickey”

Here is Mickey! Mickey, the human, lovable, droll sometimes pathetic sometimes ludicrous but always wholesome figure who has become so famous. No creation in drama, fiction, screen or song has caught the public fancy and been taken to the public heart as Mickey has, and she will go down in popular history with “The Yellow Kid,” Palmer Cox’s “Brownies,” “Peter Pan,” “Little Nemo” and other striking and distinctive characters.

The first heard of Mickey was in the Mickey was in the moving pictures and by this time ten million people have seen this wonderful photoplay. The records of box office receipts at Washington prove this. Whatever you have seen, Mickey Being Shown Here To-day - in front of a theatre, you have seen lines of people, blocks long, waiting to get in. And why? Because no photoplay yet produced is so filled with adventure, thrills and human emotions as Mickey. One minute you feel a tear coming, but before it reaches your check you are holding your sides with laughter at some funny incident, or holding your breath with excitement at some hair-raising episode.

Five hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money, but that is just what was spent on this picture -- $500,000 -- before it was even shown to the exhibitor. But there was never the slightest doubt of its supreme success. From the time Mabel Normand read the scenario and started her triumphant creation of the role of Mickey until the W. H. Productions Company sent the films broadcast, it was a bull’s-eye. It has rightly been called “a picture you will never forget.”

Then, all unexpectedly, Mickey appeared in song-one of the prettiest, daintiest, hauntingest melodies in years. The picture inspired the song. One day Neil Moret, a composer, happened into the studio where the picture was being shown. He became fascinated by the charming personality of Mickey, and as the picture went on the music began working, and when it was over, Moret hurried to his rooms and wrote the theme that had already shaped itself in his mind. In two hours he was back at the studio and played the song for the members of the company. The author had no idea of what a hit it was to be. In fact, he had not written it with any idea of publishing it, but just to get it off his chest. Nevertheless, within a month a millions copies were sold in the West alone, and no end in sight to the demand. Waterson, Berlin & Snyder heard of the song and immediately bought it. The price they paid was well up in the five figures, but when the first order receiver from the dealers were totaled up they showed over 500,000 copies sold in the first four days.

To show how the song gets you Eddie Cantor, who is playing in the Follies in Chicago and who is the best judge of songs ever, heard it and put it on at the next show. It was a knockout. Ray Samuels, the clever vaudeville girl, and a great friend of Cantor’s was appearing in Seattle. Eddie called her up and told her about the great song.

“How does it go?” asked Ray.

“Oh, Lord,” said Eddie, thinking of the telephone toll, “get a copy of it.”

“I can’t wait,” answered Ray, “you’ve got me so excited I must hear it now.”

Eddie was game. He sang it through a couple of times and Ray said: “Great. I’ll put it on to-night,” and she did. She took the melody in her head to the orchestra, rehearsed it before the show, and was the hit that evening. Eddie was so excited about it all that be forgot to have the telephone charge reversed.

The Columbia Phonograph Company was quick to see the value of Mickey and immediately secured the rights of the song for their records.

Next to our President there is no better known character in the country today than Mickey.

What the Picture Theater Managers Say of the Plays and Players

Goldwyn

...Peck’s Bad Girl, with Mabel Normand -- Poorest business in months. Had picture booked for three days. Ran it only two. Personal opinion, Mabel’s best. Poor paper. -- Isis Theater, Cedar Rapids, Ia.

Dodging a Million with Mabel Normand -- Our idea of a clever comedy drama for these strenuous days and Mabel can certainly put it over. -- Olympic and Majestic Theaters, Bellaire, O.

Mabel Normand brings with her a note of wistfulness to the Goldwyn Studio these days. She has not heard from her brother Claude, who went overseas in June. “Perhaps he has gone to Siberia. Perhaps he’ll come back a Cossack and be cruel to me,” mourns Mabel.

Once again the sun shines on Culver City, and all’s well with the world or at least that part of it covered by the Goldwyn studio. For Mabel, the inimitable Normand, is back on the job, or, as we say in Robertchambers [sic], has resumed her invaluable artistic endeavors. In other words, she has recovered from the flu and is quite well and active once more, completing the screen version of “Sis Hopkins,” which will be her next release.

For more than two weeks there was no balm in Gilead, and large sacks of gloom were in evidence around the Goldwyn plant. As everybody knows, it is a serious matter for a star to be taken ill when a picture is only half-made. Furthermore it is an anxious time for a producer, with some $40,000 tied up in an uncompleted film.

Also, you can readily imagine that a studio in which Mabel Normand works becomes comparatively an excessively quiet, not to say dull place when she is about a couple of weeks. But now that she is again contributing to the celebrated gaiety of nations, the glooms have vanished. Incidentally, all her friends will be exceedingly glad to know that she has got over her illness, which for a whole while was very serious.

 Grace Kingsley

When we told Mabel Normand that she looked as lovely as ever, even in the Sis Hopkins make-up, she responded, “Never mind the tip! The fact which principally matters is that I’m happy to be back here in California.”

“Aren’t you lonely for New York, then?”

“Lonesome!” exclaimed Mabel. “Yes, lonesome as a traffic cop at Seventh and Broadway on Saturday afternoon! Why, all my friends are out here, and they’ve been just too lovely to me for anything. Even when I had the ‘flu’ they kept me jolly with letters and telegrams and flowers and candy I couldn’t eat. But I’ll tell you a secret. I got a chance to read a lot of books I’ve been wanting to read for a long time. Just as Carlyle used to read yellow-back novels as a rest from serious labors, so the joyous comedienne as tragedy relief, so to speak, turns to highbrow literature. So I’ve been reading history and all kinds of stiff things, with H. G. Wells as the very lightest one of all!”

Of course it wouldn’t be Mabel’s picture, “Sis Hopkins,” unless some funny little human thing happened during the making of it. This time it was a dog, which relieved the sad monotony of comedy making. A scene on which depended an important development of the story was one in which a dog sniffs at “Sis’s” market basket and in doing so overturns the oil-can, which rolls into the spring, and--but there, I mustn’t tell any more of the story. The point is, the dog must do all those things. But none of the dogs brought to the studio could be brought to enact the combination of incidents. Then Mabel made a suggestion.

“Why don’t you go to the pound and get a poor, starved cur,” was Miss Normand’s happy suggestion. “It will eat anything.” Sure enough, a poor, neglected, dirty fox terrier was chosen and brought from the pound.

“And it was right then,” said Miss Normand, “he became a ham actor. He showed a ravenous appetite for ham. In his hunt for ham, the oil can was overturned, tumbled beautifully, and rolled right into the spring. And the play was saved.”

Of course, Miss Normand insisted the forlorn canine be kept at the studios, and she calls him “Ham,” and says hunger will make a good actor of anyone.
* from Los Angeles Herald, January 21, 1919