Mabel normand

7 Bunny was one of the first to explicitly expound on this topic; as attested in Frances Agnew’s 1913 book Motion Picture Acting.

8 Mabel later spoke of first playing a bit part in a Kalem film, the same company where her model friend Alice Joyce worked. See Los Angeles Examiner, February 24, 1924.

9 Griffith himself had also made comedies but until Sennett started directing humorous films were the odd exception at Biograph.

10 While with the company in California, Mabel was formally chaperoned by Mrs. Charlotte Pickford.

11 See Mary Pickford reminiscences of the Griffith company at that time (including some remarks on Mabel) found in “New Year’s Eve on a Train,” The Times-Democrat, Lima, Ohio, Jan. 2, 1916 (evening edition.)

12 July Fourth was later given as the official date

13 Bison was another of the New York Motion Picture company‘s film making outfits. As Bison specialized in Westerns, so Keystone was to specialize in comedies. Fred Mace, another founding Keystone member, was already in Los Angeles awaiting the arrival of the rest.

14 Gloria Swanson, who at one time had been a bathing beauty herself, states: “We were the movies’ answer to the Ziegfeld girls.” The Keystone Krowd by Stuart Oderman, p. 41.

15 Of course, Sennett did have a good sense of humor, and was not without his own distinctive ideas of what made for good comedy. For one exposition of these see “Mack Sennett-Laugh Tester,” by Harry Carr, Photoplay May 1915.

16 The Moving Picture News, Aug. 8, 1912.

17 See Classic Images magazine, No. 70, co-written with Stuart Oderman

18 In an interview with Stuart Oderman, Dorothy Davenport asserts that Mack hired Chaplin on Mabel’s so-say, even though Sennett was none too sure of and also afraid to direct him, and Chester Conklin told Oderman: “Charlie was Mabel’s prize.” Keystone Krowd pp. 53, 82.

19 [Note written in July 2012] Rewatching the Chaplin/Mabel films one becomes more convinced that there was some romantic rivalry -- real or imagined -- between Sennett and Chaplin over Mabel, and I do think Sennett may have grown sour with Chaplin because he sensed that Mabel was perchance too fond of him; with Chaplin himself, to some unstated extent, infatuated with her. This would possibly explain why Chaplin was pointedly and repeatedly cast as a foolish or inept lover (e.g., “Mabel at the Wheel” and “Mabel’s Married Life” -- either to dispel Sennett’s misgivings or else to ridicule Chaplin himself in that light. “The Fatal Mallet” seems a blunt statement by Sennett that Mabel was, after all, his; and yet why make it in the first place? Perhaps Mabel then, and in turn Sennett, was why Chaplin ultimately had no choice but to leave Keystone -- Broncho Billy Anderson or no.

20 Keystone Krowd, p. 181.

21 There is some question whether Mae was actually an old acquaintance of Mabel’s from Vitagraph as Adela claimed. Recent research carried out by Mabel Normand archivist Marilyn Slater suggest that this was not in fact the case. For her exploration of Mae’s career, see: http://looking-for-mabel.webs.com/maebusch.htm

22 “Fatty’s First,” by Minta Durfee and Stuart Oderman, Classic Images magazine, No. 70, and Keystone Krowd pp. 185-190.

23 Constance Talmadge: “[Sennett was a] vulgar man who never offered Mabel any future or any indication of security. She just lived for today, and she never though there would be a tomorrow.” Keystone Krowd p. 151.

24 Arbuckle‘s own dog in real life and whom he had named after former Biograph and later Keystone director, Wilfred Lucas.

25 Fifty Great American Silent Films, Anthony Slide and Edward Wagenknecht, p. 99.

26 Although the Triangle Corporation itself proved a business failure, while it lasted it served as a prototype for the studio system that of course later became a standard part of movie making in Hollywood.

27 Don Schneider interview with Minta Durfee transcript, Reel 3A, July 21, 1974.

28 At the time of preparing the second revised edition of this Source Book, Head Over Heels (1922) had been found. Later, as well, in early 2007 we learned the Film Museum in Amsterdam, Holland announced The Floor Below (1918) was being screened at their film festival. Regrettably, I have as yet the opportunity to see either.

29 Gene Fowler, Father Goose, p. 313.

30 However, see Appendix D.

31 For example, in 1930, Henry Peavey, Taylor’s valet, by implication, accused Mabel of crime.

32 The New York Times, Jan. 5, 1924.

33 Samuel Goldwyn, Behind the Screen (1923.)

34 See Betty Fussell’s Mabel: Hollywood’s First I-Don’t-Care Girl.

35 As the “Introductory Biography” and essays were each originally written for separate occasions, the historical information they contain sometimes overlaps.

36 In this essay, Mabel Normand is ordinarily referred to simply as Mabel. Yet since the charac­ter she plays in many of her films goes by the name of “Mabel,” the name Mabel will refer to Mabel Normand the person, while “Mabel” (in quotation marks) denotes the film character.

37 Penrhyn Stanlaws: “…[M]any girls who have studied posing in artist’s studios and whose faces have become familiar to you on the magazine covers are now well known n screen. Marion Davies, Mabel Normand, Anna Q. Nilsson, Helene Chadwick, Mae Murray, Alice Joyce and Florence La Badie are just a few who have passed through my own studio on the road to fame and fortune. Most of them were at the high school age when they started working for me. Often when I seen them on the screen, I notice some trick that they picked up while acting as my models. Now the trick is done with ease and grace, but, if the truth be known, they spent many tedious hours learning it…” Movie Weekly, April 16, 1921.

38 The Betty of Mabel’s Vitagraph films would seem to have been something of a take-off on the “Betty” of a Pathé series of comedies under that name. In the Nickelodeon of July 1, 1910, the following Pathé advertisement appeared:

“Introducing Our New Comedienne!”

“‘Rebellious Betty’ is the first of a series of Pathé comedies’

“ We have already advertised the fact that Betty was coming, an now she is here an appears before you in the first of a series of comic films which should be a big feature in any house. Betty antics and pranks are distantly fresh and laughable, she is a mischievous an willful tomboy, who shrinks at nothing so long as she can get her own way. In this first film she succeeds in upsetting half a dozen people, destroys an artist’s masterpiece, jumps upon and rides away with somebody else’s bicycle, which she afterwards abandons for a horse, and finally knocks off the head of the butler. All these things she does simply because she has been refused the privilege of accepting an invitation to go for a motor ride. (897 feet).” (See also The Nickelodeon, later changed to Motography, August 1, 1910)

“Pathé Betty” then was very likely a significant inspiration for “Keystone Mabel.” Also it should be noted, that while Mabel’s Betty was the most famous, she was not the only Vitagraph Betty. After she left the company, Vitagraph retained Betty as a stock character as late as 1917, different actresses at different times having taken on the comedic role in it various forms.

Although the Vitagraph film Indiscretions of Betty (which has been attributed---probably wrongly ---to being one of Mabel’s films) predates the Pathé announcement given above, contemporary descriptions of the plot to Indiscretions show it to have been a drama rather than comedy. So the name “Betty” in its title is probably a coincidence.

39 “Madcap Mabel Normand - The True Story of a Great Comedienne,” Part II, Liberty Magazine, Sept. 13, 1930. The majority of these comedies Mabel appeared in from 1911 to 1916, incidentally, were half (i.e., “split”) or else one reel films, lasting from about five to ten minutes respectively; though in the latter part of this same period she expanded to two and an occasional three reel film.

40 As related to me by Don Schneider concerning Minta Durfee‘s story of Chaplin‘s brief visit; reported to Don by her.

41 “Mabel Normand had no illusions about her talent as a director. As she told Robert Florey in 1922: ‘It would be pretense to say that the comedy chases in which I appeared with Charlie and Roscoe were directed by a director truly exercising his métier. The director, as we know him today, was then virtually non-existent. The films which I directed or appeared in were made without any directorial technique or photographic artistry. No one thought it necessary to explain to the cameraman what was wanted, and nearly all the scenes were taken in long shots. Our pictures were a group effort, and our comedy evolved out of suggestions made by everyone in the cast and crew….’

“On directing Chaplin, Miss Normand said: ‘We reciprocated. I would direct Charlie in his scenes, and he would direct me in mine. We worked together in developing the comedy action, taking a basic idea and constantly adding new gags. Each day Charlie would come to the set brimming with new ideas, which he would act out for me. I would add my suggestions, and soon we were ready for a take. Some of our films took only a few hours to make, others occupied us for as much as several days.’” From Hollywood: The Golden Era, by Jack Spears.

42 W. C. Fields fans will perhaps recollect Henderson as the flask-toting mayor in You’re Telling Me (1934). He also appeared in the Fields’ films The Old-Fashioned Way (1934), It’s a Gift (1934), and Poppy (1936), as well as the Little Rascals shorts Helping Grandma (1931), Free Eats (1932) and Choo-Choo (1932), and Laurel and Hardy’s The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case (1930), and the Three Stooges’ Men in Black (1934).

43 Don Schneider interview with Minta Durfee transcript, Reel 3A, July 21, 1974. Mabel is also reported as having swum together with a tame seal, or perhaps more plausibly a trained one since such, named “Big Ben,” appeared in a Keystone film with her (see Motography, October 24, 1914 and Photo-Play Review, August 21, 1915.)

44 Dramatic Mirror, June 19, 1920.

45 “Madcap Mabel Normand,” Part I, Liberty, Sept. 6, 1930.

46 New York Telegraph, Feb. 13, 1916.

47 For more about Mabel and music see pieces in Motion Picture Magazine, Oct. 1915, Los Angeles, Sept. 12, 1919, Dramatic Mirror, June 19, 1920, Gary Post Tribune, Feb. 3, 1922 contained in this volume.

48 Chester Conklin: “Mr. Sennett learned how to pace his time, by humming music as the action was filmed. D.W. Griffith, who was Mr. Sennett‘s teacher, hummed and filmed at the same time. Indoor shots always were done with music -- a piano player, who had to be aware when the sequence began and ended. It saved film, which Mr. Sennett liked because film stock wasn’t cheap, and he was very thrifty.” Keystone Krowd by Stuart Oderman p. 47.

49 Los Angeles Times, Oct. 1, 1916.

50 Recounted in Gene Fowler’s Father Goose.

51 Keystone Krowd p. 48.

52 “Madcap Mabel Normand,” Part II, Liberty, Sept. 13, 1930.

53 Though in the Biograph drama “The Telephone Girl and the Lady” (1913), Mae Marsh is seen using the same canine tactic to help fight off a burglar; as well, Max Linder was, of course, known for similar antics.

54 For a long overdue appreciation and more thoughtful assessment of Sterling, see Wendy Warwick White’s Ford Sterling: The Life and Films.

55 Father Goose, p. 311.

56 In the Biograph comedy The Tragedy of A Dress Suit (1912), which stars Ford Sterling and Mabel, there are some aspects of Sterling’s character, both in appearance and gesture, which bear an uncanny resemblance to Chaplin‘s early tramp.

57 In Keystone they would think up gags and situations and then compile them together as repertoire with which to build up or over a basic story framework; later occasionally improvising on and embellishing what they had thought of in advance. The difference with Chaplin was that he improvised a lot more, and had an increased awareness of all that was going around him. And aided and bolstered as he was by a non-stop energy to create while filming, he expanded on the original material and framework more than had been done previously. So that between Keystone and Chaplin, it wasn’t so much a difference in kind as much as a dramatic difference in degree. Like Keystone, Chaplin resorts to certain stock formulas and mechanical devices -- in his case, and for instance, mimicking maudlin sentiment; satirizing his own tramp’s pathos; exhibiting belligerent feistiness; smiling at the audience (i.e., the camera); acting with vehemence, sheer lunacy and kooky playfulness; while mistaking the meaning or significance of an event(s) taking place within the film’s story; all of which were ingredients both carefully and intuitively mixed and separated for purposes of coming up with numerously diverse and varied, as well as sometimes repeated and similar, performance results. In addition, Chaplin made for a wonderful, indeed perfect, clown -- in the circus sense of that title -- and as such was a master at directly appealing to audience sympathy; something rarely seen in Keystone films (though not entirely unknown, e.g., the affectionate petting of the calf in The Bangville Police.) And yet as the years, then decades, went by, Chaplin lost much of this energy, and though advancing as a craftsman, became less naturally funny as a comedian.

58 My Autobiography, Charles Chaplin.

59 The George Eastman House, in Rochester, New York possesses a nitrate print of My Valet.

60 Perhaps, it was precisely because their professional marriage in comedy was such a glorious success that actual marriage between them was impossible.

61 It was Arbuckle who brought him into pictures, as Buster himself proudly avowed.

62 Dramatic Mirror, February 7, 1920.

63 There is an unmistakable likeness in the gestures, styles and brand of comedy of post-Keystone Mabel Normand and Mary Pickford. And while Mary ostensibly, if only out of respect and affection, took from some of Mabel’s gags and comic methods, Mabel, by comparison and in her post 1916 feature films, drew much more from Mary – indeed, so much so that it appears Mabel at times is outright mimicking her. Why this artistic subservience on Mabel’s part may simply have arose out of deference to Mary’s own genius (and with imitation being the best form of flattery), and or else Mabel and or her producers adopted this approach with the idea of it being a winning, and exhibitor pleasing, formula. In retrospect, of course, this seems a mistake and now we wish Mabel could or would have been able to strike it out more on her own artistically. Yet such overt emulation by film stars of their more well known peers, in any case, was not uncommon at the time, and even Douglas Fairbanks in his films, for instance, not infrequently imitated Charlie Chaplin (as say when Fairbanks thumps his chest or comedically bounces about against screen villains or adversaries.)

64 Later Hollywood actress Natalie Wood has been often quoted as saying how much she sought to be a finer actress rather than a mere screen personality. And yet it is possible for a performer, such as Ms. Wood proved herself, to use their personality in a way that can enhance and make more lively the proceedings on screen – not least of which when that personality is (in a given instance) noticeably more interesting than the material they are performing.

65 By contrast, in most of the later films we tend more to see Mabel Normand rather than the character she is playing.

66 The present version of Mickey that is available was reportedly given its final editing by a states rights film distributor in New York.

67 Whose origin in turn can be traced to Yan Yost Vanderscamp in Washington Irving’s “Guests from Gibbet Island.”

68 The title of the film, incidentally, is “What Happened to Rosa,” not “What Happened to Rosa,?” as is sometimes given.

69 Clarence Badger would later direct Clara Bow in three of her most popular films: It, Red Hair, and Three Weekends. After first working for Lubin and Universal, Badger became director for Keystone in October, 1915, later going to Sennett-Paramount, then Goldwyn.

70 The script-synopses for most of Mabel’s Goldwyn films still exist, and can be found in the MGM Archives of the University of Southern California’s Film Library, Special Collections.

71 And, since writing this, The Floor Below (1918) and Head Over Heels (1922) have resurfaced; neither of which I myself have yet had the opportunity to see.

72 Mabel was initially making 6 reels films for Goldwyn. However, after making 2 this was reduced to a standard 5 reels, with the exception of The Pest and The Slim Princess which were 6 reels. The later Sennett pictures by contrast always ran from 6-7 + reels, though of course in terms of overall quantity of feature film footage, Mabel put out considerably more under her years working for Goldwyn, than afterward with Sennett.

73 Schertzinger had started out as a concert violinist, and originally came to films to write music scores for Thomas Ince. As a director, he incorporated his feel for music in his work, and it is this, no doubt, as much as anything else, that prompted Mabel to choose him as overseer of her films.

74 Dramatic Mirror, June 19, 1920.

75 Movie Weekly, March 18, 1922.

76 This plot device is repeated in the later Roach film Raggedy Rose with no better success.

77 Mack Sennett in King of Comedy, pp. 221-222.

78 In one Goldwyn film, The Venus Model (1918), she sports a bathing suit.

79 “Molly O” at the time was a familiar a nickname for a common Irish (or Irish born) working girl. The popular World War 1 song, “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary,” for example, has these lines:

“Paddy wrote a letter to his Irish Molly O,

Saying, if you should not receive it,

Write and let me know.

If I make mistakes in spelling,

Molly dear, said he,

Remember it’s the pen that’s bad,

Don’t blame the blame on me.”

80 Sherman as well had played the seducing villain in D.W. Griffith’s huge box -office success Way Down East earlier that same year.

81 A title card in the film actually has Molly making a joking reference to this: “I feel like Cinderella only my fairy-godmother is a man.”

82 This maybe too hasty a generalization as 1 reel of the extent film is missing, and it comes from this earlier part of the film.

83 This scene and O’Dair’s stealthy entrance, incidentally, bear an eerie resemblance to what occurred in the Taylor murder only a few months anterior to the film’s release.

84 Also, among some of the footage missing from Suzanna is Mabel playing with a bear cub; which gag/plot device harks back to Mabel and Sennett‘s Biograph shorts Oh Those Eyes and The Brave Hunter.

85 Similarly, he seemed to lose his director’s sense during the making of the final scenes of Raggedy Rose -- another time when Mabel was not at all well It is then conceivable that these lapses stemmed to some extent from Jones’ himself being too distraught at Mabel’s condition and circumstances, to do his job properly.

86 In the finale of Molly O, the villain tries to take Molly “aloft” (in a hot air balloon), while the hero brings her back “down to earth” (i.e., they parachute into the sea.)

87 Suzanna had been a bit mischievous and a source of mayhem on the rancho.

88 In a much later scene Sue surreptitiously climbs through villain Hackett’s window with a gun in her hand This concievablty was included to show how silly and ridiculous it would be to think of Mabel as a gun-woman. Ironically -- and no doubt bitterly so -- this effect was largely ruined by the Dines’ incident, which gave the sequence a confused (if not opposite) meaning.

89 New York Times, Jan. 21, 1924

90 “‘I’ve got a dandy picture, Mabel. Nobody but you can play it.’

‘Cinderella once again, eh? What would happen, Mike, if you made Cinderella tough girl?’

‘There’s nothing wrong with Cinderella,’ said Sennett.

‘She and Camille are the best plots there are.’

‘You’re telling me!’ said Mabel. ‘The best plots? They’re the only plots Hollywood ever had. In fact, Cinderella and the Camille kid crossed the plains in Forty-nine. They’re pioneers. How’s your health, Mike?’