Mabel Normand: The Life and Career of a Hollywood Madcap, 2nd Ed

Writer/teacher/artist Lefler’s affectionate reappraisal recognizes Mabel Normand, the silent film actress, screenwriter, director, and producer, as the holder of many firsts; she was among the first screen comediennes and the first to receive a pie in the face on film. Based on archival and secondary sources, this retrospective shows Normand as exuberant, flirtatious, bookish, and generous. Her career swiftly ascended in collaborations with D.W. Griffith, Mack Sennett, Sam Goldwyn, and Hal Roach. She became a key player in several films, including 1918’s Mickey, her career best, which outgrossed the box office returns of 1915’s The Birth of a Nation during its initial release. Normand’s reputation was sullied by her association (although not actual involvement) with the Fatty Arbuckle-Virginia Rappe rape and murder trial (Arbuckle was acquitted) and by her being the last one to see actor William Desmond Taylor alive before he was found murdered, an unsolved case. Lefler writes that Normand objected to gross ethnic stereotypes prevalent in the industry and pursued a nontraditional lifestyle by eloping with Lew Cody but maintaining separate dwellings and bank accounts. Her health declined from tuberculosis, and she died from pulmonary tuberculosis in her late thirties.