MACK Mack Sennett was born in Canada in 1880 and as a teenager moved to the United States where he worked in vaudeville until he met the great movie director D. W. Griffith. Sennett played many roles for Griffith, mostly comedy, until he stumbled into directing when Griffith had him replace a director who was ill. After his initial success Sennett was asked by Griffith to head up his Biograph Comedy Unit. Mack had other plans and and in 1912 the Keystone Studios were opened. Sennett was a prolific movie maker, often making as many as three movies a day. His characters were mainly stereotypical, and he only allowed two types of gags; 'Mistaken Identity' and 'Fall from Grace'. Nevertheless he attracted an amazing array of talent including Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, but his favourite was Mabel Normand. They did most their films together and almost married three times. Sennet refused to move with the times and eventually audiences got tired with his "formulae". His style, however, has changed comedy movies forever. Mack Sennett died in Hollywood, November 5, 1960 |
MABEL Mabel Normand was born in Boston, 1894, the daughter of an itinerant vaudeville pianist and a working mother. At the age of 13 she began work as an artists model in New York. At 16 Mabel started at Biograph (D. W Griffith's company) and after a brief period at another film company she returned to Biograph and met Mack Sennett. When Sennett set up Keystone Studios Mabel went with him. By this time they were more than just colleagues, but kept putting off marriage. Mabel proved her depth as an actress with the film "Mickey". Mabel had moved on from Sennett's slapstick style and had a new contract with Goldwyn to make features. Freed from Sennett's supervision, she entered the Hollywood social whirl with its all night parties, drugs and alcohol. Her work suffered and the final straw came with her involvement in the Taylor murder. Mabel continued to make movies but her heart was not in it. She did not survive long, and died from a combination of pneumonia and tuberculosis in 1930. |
MACK SENNETT AND MABEL NORMAND |
Mack |
Sennett |
Mabel |
Normand |
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