Looking for Mabel Normand

Madcap Mabel Normand

(Camera article courtesy of Bruce Long)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 24, 1930

Los Angeles Times, 

Mack Sennett Grieved Over Star's Death

When informed of Mabel Normand's death by newspaper men, Mack Sennett, under whose direction and management she rose to stardom, was visibly affected. He was playing golf on the Brent­wood Country club course when the news reached him.

“That is indeed most regrettable,” he said. “She was a wonderful character, very generous, and a marvelous little woman. I am deeply pained to hear of her death.”

 

 

1926

I have been a little preoccupied with Mabel and the game of golf and right there on the advertisment for the Raggedy Rose film that was sent by a member of the Mabel Normand Yahoo Group, it also had an announcement for the film Kid Boots and there it was…”The first epic comedy of America’s favorite outdoor craze – golf!”  The film stared Eddie Cantor with Lawrence Gray and Clara Bow and Billie Dove – “A riot of divots and kisses played before a gallery of gorgeous girls.”  What a great double bill: Mabel – Billie – Clara – all 3 together in one theater and golf too!

 

 

Florence Reed

Florence Reed was born in Philadelphia in 1883 and first appeared on the stage in 1901. In 1907-08 she played Ophelia on tour with the company of E. H. Sothern. She was playing at the Times Square Theatre 219 W. 42nd St., New York in The Mirage. It ran from September 1920 to March 1921 over 190 performances. It was during this run that Mabel came to visit Florence in her dressing room; which Mabel’s friend. Louella Parsons wrote about Mabel’s playing golf. 

 

October 17, 1920

New York Morning Telegraph,

Louella Parsons

            Mabel Normand has a pair of callused hands to prove she has been rusticating in Staten Island. She breezed into Florence Reed's dressing room at the new Times Square Theatre the other night and told of her efforts to conquer that fascinating game called golf. Also Mabel is trying to gain weight. She says she is putting on a pound a week. It seems only yesterday she was trying to get rid of an extra pound that she noticed had crept upon her unawares.

          “I am not going back to the Coast,” she said, “at least not until I make a picture in the East. The company promises me I may make my next picture here.”

          Mabel was very enthusiastic over “The Mirage.”

          “Make that last scene long,” she told Florence Reed. “It is so wonderful; the audience wanted to hear that final sacrifice. It is superb.”

 

 

 

 

 

In 1928 Florence played Lady Macbeth and in 1935 the Nurse in a production of Romeo and Juliet that starred Katherine Cornell but she also had a successful career in films. She played in her first motion picture in 1915 and, after fifteen films and several television appearances; she played her last film role in 1955 in a production of Thorton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth made for television. But she is best remembered as Miss Havisham in the 1934 film of Great Expectations. Florence pasted away in 1967 at her home on Long Island.