Mabel Normand Mysteries & Scandals
Mabel Normand Mysteries & Scandals
Transcript
00:00Mabel Normand.
00:13As one of film's first leading ladies, Mabel charmed audiences alongside silent screen
00:18legends Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle.
00:21Normand had a knack for slapstick comedy, but bedrooms and bullet holes turned her life
00:25into a tragedy.
00:28In 1922, the sparkling career of 29-year-old Mabel Normand was destroyed because of shocking
00:33rumors.
00:34For the remainder of her short life, Mabel Normand was cast as the poster child for sex,
00:38drugs, and murder.
00:40What ultimately destroyed Mabel Normand was her own flamboyance, sometimes boarding on
00:45recklessness.
00:47On this episode of Mysteries and Scandals, we'll reveal Mabel's ill-fated role in
00:51the death of silent film director William Desmond Taylor.
00:54The way she was implicated in the Taylor murder was almost nefarious.
00:58You had people leaking stories to the press that she was a big drug user, that William
01:04Desmond Taylor might have been her supplier.
01:06We'll also take a look at Mabel's controversial involvement in a second scandalous shooting.
01:12Her chauffeur is caught holding a gun, standing over a Hollywood millionaire that he had shot.
01:18Most people were fed up with her private life, her parties, and all of these scandals.
01:23We'll expose how Mabel's entanglement with a married man landed the notorious actress
01:27back in court and back on the front page.
01:30Mabel felt that she had been kicked around by the media, as we would say today.
01:34And she said, well, this time I'm going to kick back.
01:37I'm A.J.
01:38Benza.
01:39Join me as we remember the infamous film star with a talent for being in the wrong place
01:42at the wrong time, Mabel Normand.
01:53Silent Screen star Mabel Normand was all alone when she died of tuberculosis at Pottinger's
02:09Sanitarium in Los Angeles.
02:12Betty Fussell wrote the biography, Mabel.
02:14She died on February 23rd in 1930.
02:19Her real age then was 38, which sounds, from my perspective, she was very young, 38.
02:27But in terms of Hollywood, when she was forever to be 13, she was an old woman in terms of
02:33that image.
02:35Funeral services for Mabel were held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills.
02:39Honorary pallbearers included Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Max Sennett, and Sam Goldwyn.
02:46Author Sidney Kirkpatrick.
02:48Hollywood's funniest was literally in tears.
02:50And what they were crying about was the tragedy that was Mabel Normand, a brilliant, a wonderful
02:59pioneer film actress, a woman who literally lit up the screen, was torn up by a series
03:07of tragedies, one after the other, and it literally destroyed her.
03:12Mabel's story begins on November 9th, 1892.
03:15Not 1895, as her gravestone suggested.
03:19Mabel Ethel Reed Normand was born on Staten Island in New York.
03:22The youngest of Claude and Mary Normand's kids, Mabel was a wild child with an adventurous
03:27spirit.
03:28William Sherman is the author of Mabel Normand, a sourcebook to her life in films.
03:33She was independent-minded and courageous and a bit reckless and fun and easygoing and
03:40big-hearted.
03:42She had no time for phoniness and timidity.
03:46She was also a genuine natural-born athlete.
03:49So when she was in Staten Island, she was a champion swimmer.
03:51Her parents said that she swam to Bayon and back daily.
03:54Swimming the Hudson River to New Jersey certainly helped Normand's figure.
03:58In 1908, Mabel was offered a whopping 50 cents an hour to model dress patterns for a delineator
04:04magazine.
04:05It's not so surprising that she went into modeling.
04:07She posed for, like, Charles Dana Gibson, who's well-known for his Gibson girl.
04:12She did advertisements for hats, combs, shoes, and all kinds of things.
04:17Her career was brief but intense.
04:19It was sort of the first time she got to wear pretty clothes.
04:23But it did not pay very well.
04:26Movies paid a lot more.
04:27In 1909, Mabel was hired as an extra in a silent picture directed by the legendary D.W.
04:32Griffin.
04:33Mabel got paid $10 for the shoot.
04:35But I mean, this would be about five times what you'd be paid as a model.
04:39And that first day she went home, she didn't get through filming till, I think, 11 at night.
04:43And her mother was outraged and said, don't you dare go back to the movies.
04:48You go back to modeling.
04:50Mabel listened to her mom.
04:52That is, until a 28-year-old actor and aspiring director named Mack Sennett convinced 16-year-old
04:57Normand she belonged on screen.
04:59Film historian Mark Wanamaker.
05:01At the Biograph Company, Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand not only worked together, but
05:07got together in a very intimate way and became boyfriend-girlfriend, you might say.
05:13But the romance was threatened in December 1909 when Mack Sennett took off for Tinseltown.
05:17One of the early tragedies, as far as Mabel was concerned, was that when Mack got up and
05:23left for Hollywood, he didn't take her with him.
05:27She was greatly disappointed.
05:29Mabel turned her attention to her budding career.
05:31In 1910, Normand joined the troupe of actors at Vitagraph Studio.
05:35And within a few months, moviegoers couldn't get enough of the 17-year-old comedienne.
05:40She just added life and vitality and energy to any situation.
05:46And of course, you know, a lot of people have that.
05:50But in her case, the camera could record it.
05:55It transferred.
05:56It translated.
05:57And the audience picked it up.
05:59When Mack came back from California, he had to have a star.
06:02And Mabel was right there.
06:04And I think he thought, together we're going to set this town on fire.
06:06We're going to create comedy in Hollywood.
06:09But was Hollywood ready for Mabel Normand?
06:11When we come back, Mabel's most shocking antics on screen and off.
06:15How did a short-term drug problem invite a lifetime of chaos for Mabel Normand?
06:19And how could one good woman have so much bad luck, bad press, and bad habits?
08:57When Mabel Normand arrived in Hollywood in 1912, the 20-year-old silent film actress
09:19felt she found the promised land.
09:21And Mabel's adventurous and carefree spirit only enhanced her comedic performances.
09:26Mabel's lover, director Max Sennett, often cast Normand as the damsel in distress in
09:30his famous film comedy series, The Keystone Cops.
09:33So Mabel, who was not considered a bathing beauty, was doing these kinds of risque, as
09:39they say in those days, kind of comedies, showing her sexuality in some way.
09:45She was known to have done a lot of stunts, riding horses, and going up in hot air balloons,
09:50being tied to the railroad track, swimming across lakes, and being dragged through the
09:55mud on a rope, all kinds of things.
09:57In the spring of 1913, Mabel met fellow comedian Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle.
10:02Over the next three years, the duo starred in 26 films together.
10:06For example, in Mabel's Simple Life, it had this natural sort of comedic sense.
10:12So these different elements combined give those films a certain special charm and fun,
10:20which is quite unique.
10:21Mabel also had fun behind the camera at Max Sennett's Keystone Studios.
10:26During the time when Mabel said, you know, you're going to let me direct, Max gave her
10:30a little.
10:32And particularly with this newcomer, this little creepy guy fell off the stage who came
10:37to be known as Charlie Chaplin.
10:38According to Chaplin himself in his autobiography, there was a point where he as much fell in
10:44love with Mabel, but she did not return his affection in that way.
10:49And while Chaplin was lusting for Mabel, Mabel's heart still belonged to Sennett.
10:54Composer and lyricist Jerry Herman wrote the 1974 Broadway musical Mac and Mabel.
10:59I wrote a song called I Won't Send Roses, which is my favorite song from Mac and Mabel.
11:05And the last line of the song is, I won't send roses and roses suit you so.
11:12That here's a man who doesn't know how to say what he would like to say to her.
11:17And therefore, she remains a frustrated lover all their lives together.
11:23She had the affection from thousands of fans, but never from the one man that she truly
11:29loved.
11:30Norman and Sennett planned to marry during the summer of 1915, but the wedding was called
11:35off when Mabel caught Mac in the sack with actress May Bush.
11:39Mac tried to make it up to Mabel.
11:41In order to win her back, he was not only going to give her her own picture and let
11:45her direct, but he built her own studio for her.
11:49This was her ticket to professional equality, and it meant a very great deal to her.
11:54In 1916, 23-year-old Mabel took complete creative control over the feature film Mickey, but
12:00financial problems postponed the movie's release for two years.
12:04Norman was savvy enough to turn the delay into a publicity stunt.
12:07There was Mickey everything and in the store windows and so on.
12:10So when the film finally did get out, it was an enormous success.
12:15Mickey became a hit song, one of the first hit songs out of movies.
12:19At the peak of her popularity, 26-year-old Mabel left Keystone Studios and her lover
12:24Mac Sennett.
12:25Mabel signed with Goldwyn Pictures, and within three years, Norman was earning four grand
12:29a week.
12:30Samuel Goldwyn enjoyed the revenue from her work, but couldn't tolerate Mabel's party
12:34girl attitude.
12:36She did have severe drug problems.
12:38She's hollow, thin, sallow.
12:41Her eyes look drugged.
12:43Goldwyn wanted to get rid of her, in effect.
12:47Mac wanted her back, but at this point, she was being rescued by a third man, William
12:53Desmond Taylor, who got her into a drug clinic in the East and saved her life that way.
13:00Although he would help ruin it later, inadvertently, at that moment, he saved her from the drug.
13:04In February 1922, one evening, Mabel was visiting Taylor.
13:09After being there for about an hour, Taylor escorted Mabel out to her car, and that was
13:14the last she saw of Taylor, because the next morning, he was found shot, lying in a pool
13:20of blood at his bungalow.
13:23Mabel Norman's Hollywood fortune was about to run out.
13:25Straight ahead, a dead director, a pistol-packing chauffeur, and a resentful wife.
15:09In the early 1920s, silent screen star, Mabel Norman, enjoyed all the perks of success,
15:29but 1922, Mabel's fame worked against her, when Hollywood director, William Desmond Taylor,
15:34was murdered in cold blood.
15:36Suddenly, the 29-year-old actress was caught in a web of vicious rumors.
15:40In all honesty, I don't think the press was all that interested in the truth.
15:44This was a circus, and the greater it played, and the more newspapers it sold, the happier
15:51they were.
15:52This was Hollywood Babylon at three cents a pop.
15:55Mabel was the last person to see Taylor alive, besides the killer, of course.
16:00Word on the street was that the 49-year-old director was supplying Mabel with drugs.
16:04And the sad irony, the sad truth of the matter was, you know, Mabel Norman was being helped
16:09by William Desmond Taylor.
16:11William Desmond Taylor was helping Mabel Norman learn to read.
16:14He was a mentor.
16:15He was her guide.
16:16He was an anchor in her life.
16:20After being thoroughly interrogated by police, Mabel Norman was not charged with Taylor's
16:25murder.
16:26The crime was never solved.
16:27But just the mystery behind it, and the scandal behind it, you know, it caught a lot of undesirable
16:33publicity, and a lot of people prying, and questions about her character.
16:38She lost her audiences very quickly.
16:41She lost some of that magic that she had, you know, and very soon she became involved
16:46in a second scandal, another shooting, and that was, you know, that was the death knell.
16:50On New Year's Day 1924, Mabel, along with actress Edna Proviance and millionaire playboy
16:56Cortland Dines, spent the afternoon getting drunk.
17:00Mabel's chauffeur had been instructed by Mabel to take her home if she got too tipsy.
17:04The chauffeur was trying to protect Mabel, and Mabel didn't want to go home, which you
17:08can see Mabel saying, oh no, I'm not going home, the party has just begun.
17:12There was at a certain point this altercation between Dines and the chauffeur.
17:17Dines perhaps said something insulting about Mabel.
17:21The chauffeur, very defensive and protective of her, took offense at this, and he was carrying
17:29with him a pistol, and he shot Dines.
17:32The chauffeur claimed he fired the gun at Cortland Dines in self-defense.
17:36He wasn't killed, but again, this certainly hit the headlines, and Mabel was theirs, they
17:41were all hauled down to the police station.
17:43And then it turns out that the chauffeur was an ex-convict who had changed his name.
17:48Mabel's ex-con chauffeur, Horace Greer, was acquitted of all charges, but the gun used
17:53in the shooting belonged to, guess who, Mabel Norman.
17:57Talk about starting the new year off with a bang.
17:59Once again, Mabel made the front page, it wasn't pretty.
18:03Most people were fed up with her private life, her parties, and all of these scandals, thus
18:09her acting career would suffer.
18:11She was not considered anymore the innocent, loving, kind of funny, comedic girl.
18:16They looked at her with a different light.
18:19So how many explosive scandals does it take to destroy a career in Hollywood?
18:23Apparently the three strikes you're out rule applies to movie stars too.
18:26The summer before the infamous chauffeur shooting and after the William Desmond Taylor
18:30murder, Mabel checked into Good Samaritan Hospital for an appendectomy.
18:34Now you'd think that emergency surgery would give Mabel a reprieve from negative press.
18:38Think again.
18:39When she comes out of the hospital, an aggravated, aggrieved wife of another patient of the hospital
18:47sues Mabel for estrangement of affection in a divorce case.
18:52This is a woman named Mrs. Church.
18:54Ah, we're back in the newspapers.
18:56Mr. Church happened to be at Good Samaritan Hospital when Mabel was there in the summer
18:59of 1923.
19:00Mabel hardly spoke to the guy, and the charges of adultery were absolutely groundless.
19:05Still, when Mrs. Church made her claims public in the fall of 1924, 31-year-old Mabel was
19:11disgraced.
19:12It's not just bad luck and bad timing, because she was an absolutely reckless girl.
19:17That's part of her charm.
19:18And also, people wanted her to be that reckless girl.
19:23We want that excitement and that exhilaration, but also this was still shocking, but we also
19:28wanted to be shocked.
19:29So Mabel became the first kind of scapegoat of that particular comedy girl kind.
19:35Her career was already, you know, heading downwards, and it began to spiral now.
19:41She had already squandered what creative talent, what energy she had were quickly being used
19:48up.
19:49She was drained.
19:50Mabel was exhausted and depressed, but the 31-year-old actress mustered up the strength
19:54for one last battle.
19:55There's one interesting fallout on the Mrs. Church accusation, and that is Mabel felt
20:01that she had been kicked around by the media, as we would say today, and certainly she had
20:05by the press.
20:06And she said, well, this time I'm going to kick back.
20:10And so she filed suit against Mrs. Church, a libel suit, for the first time a libel suit.
20:16Could Mabel save her wounded reputation, or was it already too late?
20:19Coming up, a strange marriage and a deadly disease for an unlucky screen star.
23:19In Hollywood, careers can be made if you're in the right place at the right time, and
23:48if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could end up like silent screen
23:51actress Mabel Norman, humiliated, miserable, and forgotten.
23:55In 1924, the 31-year-old comedienne tried to get the last laugh, and Mabel filed a libel
23:59suit against the money-grubbing wife who dragged Norman's name through the mud.
24:03It went to court, and typical Mabel fashion at this period, the bad luck Mabel, she lost
24:09the suit.
24:10And at that time, she said, to hell with it, I'm going, I'm leaving town.
24:14In 1925, 32-year-old Mabel took off for New York to star in a Broadway musical called
24:19The Little Mouse.
24:20It did not go over very well, essentially because it was not a very good play, Mabel's
24:26voice didn't carry, and it simply was just not a good time for this kind of career change.
24:32She had saddled with so much else.
24:34So it was really not that surprising that it didn't work out.
24:37In the spring of 1926, 33-year-old Mabel returned to Hollywood.
24:42Broadway producer and Hourgang creator Hal Roach reluctantly offered the out-of-work
24:46comedienne a three-year film contract.
24:49But it was too little, too late.
24:51The damage had been done.
24:52Part of it was her own character, her being so independent-minded, flamboyant, reckless
24:57in a way.
24:58But there was, you know, people were jealous, she was powerful.
25:01And these ingredients together just made her life and career impossible, ultimately.
25:07Mabel's past exploits and associations frequently came back to haunt her.
25:11One bad thing for Mabel was that every successive D.A. tried to work his political career by
25:16solving the William Desmond Taylor murder.
25:19And because it was not solved, the event never died, so it never died out of the newspapers.
25:24Mabel found comfort in the company of friends and a bottle of gin.
25:28One night in the fall of 1926, Mabel embraced both when she foolishly married actor Lou
25:32Cody.
25:33Lou Cody was, he was a drunk who sometimes appeared to act.
25:38But at one of these parties, it ended up with him on his knees proposing and Mabel accepting
25:45for a gag.
25:46And off they went to Ventura and got a judge out of bed.
25:50It was just like a movie.
25:51It was a lot of fun.
25:53They got married.
25:54They came home.
25:55And I think they both woke up and thought, oh my God, what do we do?
25:59I know we're married.
26:02And neither one of them, I think, wanted to be, but they were good sports about it.
26:06They tried to make it work, although they each kept their own houses.
26:09It was comfortable to be married to him at that time.
26:12And she was, you know, searching, searching for structure.
26:16And Lou could provide that in many respects, you know, it's a blessing.
26:21She had him.
26:22But the blessing Norman really needed was better health.
26:25In 1927, 34-year-old Mabel contracted pneumonia.
26:28In the hospital, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
26:32She was sick for about two or three years after she really had to quit roach.
26:37So by the time we got to 1929, January 5th, 1929, she's taken off to a sanitarium, Pottinger's
26:47Sanitarium in Pasadena.
26:49For about a year, there was this kind of everybody in the area knowing that Mabel was dying and
26:55there's nothing to do about it.
26:57Mabel Norman drew her last breath on February 23rd, 1930.
27:01At the age of 38, the gifted comedienne was finally able to rest in peace.
27:05It was like that candle in the wind and it got blown out.
27:10You go back and you look at Mabel's films and, you know, there was a classic talent.
27:15I mean, a real genuine brilliance, you know, to her work and it stands up over time.
27:23It's as fresh and interesting and lively today, you know, as it was back in the 20s.
27:29Mabel was quite different in that she was this comical person, but she was quite the
27:36adorable, cute gal, but with this sort of sprite-like mischief about her.
27:43Mabel was really one of the first comedic actresses to explore the playfulness of women.
27:49In other words, women not being shut away, but more women being more aggressive, outgoing,
27:54you know, on their own.
27:56This was her thing.
27:58And again, she was playing herself.
28:00She was a playful, warm person, but she was reckless in some ways and took chances in
28:06a way you couldn't really separate the two.
28:09I think she had something in her that was a little wild and crazy and that's why she
28:14was such a good comedienne.
28:17But I think she used it without any question as a mask to hide the fact that she was in
28:24pain inside.
28:26On screen and off, Mabel Norman was spontaneous and wicked, adored and reviled, but was she
28:31a troublemaker or a magnet for misfortune?
28:33Hey, this is Hollywood, folks.
28:35Nothing's ever just black and white.
28:37I'm A.J. Benzo.
28:38Join me the next time we take a stroll down the flip side of the Walk of Fame.
29:56Thanks for watching.
29:57See you next time.
29:58Bye.