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Extreme Youth Theatre

Presents
THE "REEL" MACK AND MABEL
Mabel Normand 1918
Beginning of a contract with Goldwyn
Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand
The musical Mack and Mabel was written around the love affair between silent screen director Mack Sennett, founder of the Keystone Kops and the Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties, and actress-comedienne Mabel Normand.

Mabel Ethelreid Normand was born on 9 November 1892, on Staten Island, New York and died on 23 February 1930, in Monrovia, California. Mack Sennett, the King Behind the Kops, was born on 17 January  1880, in Danville, Quebec, Canada and died on 5 November 1960, in Woodland Hills, California.

Mabel Normand made her film debut in The Indiscretions of Betty in 1910 as a serious, dramatic actress. Before that, Mabel was already popular as a model for fashions and illustrations. Throughout parts of 1910 and 1911, Mabel worked for the Vitagraph studio. Mabel was proud of the Normand name and was determined to keep it although some of her movies show her credited as "Muriel Fortesque". Mabel had great comic talent, and D W Griffith assigned her comic plots and eventually a young actor-turned-director named Mack Sennett was engaged by Griffith to guide Mabel's comic hijinks.

Mack Sennett was an actor, writer, director, producer, deal-maker and star-maker often considered to be a full-blown studio at the pinnacle of his career. When considering Mabel Normand's filmography (see www.imdb.com) she made in excess of 220 movies with Mack Sennett. This output was staggering considering that Mack was simultaneously supervising dozens of other Keystone productions showcasing other comics, and on many occasions directing and acting in them.

Mack Sennett started as a devoted student and employee of D.W. Griffith, only to outgrow his short pants, but not before he made his mark with the master. Sennett was the comedy mask to Griffith's mask of tragedy. If you were a dramatic actor, Griffith's was your school. If humor was your game, you enrolled at Sennett's Komedy Kollege. Even if you weren't a comic, Mack would try to make you one anyway. Screen diva, Gloria Swanson, who began her early screen career as a Sennett bathing beauty attested to this. Mack Sennett influenced the tides of fashion through his artful and liberal application of his Bathing Beauties, one of his more inspired creations. Also, Mack was loved, reviled and envied. He was a slave driver of epic proportions.

The male population of the early 1910s never forgot the first time the adorable Mabel donned a bathing costume and historically, the first Sennett bathing beauty was inevitably the beautiful knockabout, Mabel.

Beautiful Mabel could take a hearty pratfall with the best of the Keystone Kops, but one could also fall in love with her as a custard pie was thrust into that angelic face. Like a gambler with a sure bet, Mack could see that his future with Mabel was in the cards. As vivacious and charismatic as Mabel was, one can't think of her without thinking of Mack. As soon as he spotted her captivating beauty adorned with her comic gifts (and it didn't take long), he turned on the old Sennett charm and skillfully won her over - plucking her heartstrings in the process.

By September 1912, most of Mabel's films were being directed by Sennett, still at the eastern Biograph studio. Between February and September, that same year, the two cranked out no less than 22 one and two-reelers. Then, in late September, Mack took his comic protégée (and by now the love of his life) out West and formed his own studio in Hollywood - Keystone.

Mabel wanted more from tinsel town than mere acting so beginning in early 1914, Mabel took over completely as her own director, beginning with the one-reeler Mabel's Stormy Love Affair (Keystone/Mutual, 1914). Mabel could claim the rare and unique distinction of directing the great Charlie Chaplin early in his Keystone Kontract.

Mack went through many changes from a business standpoint. Like a millionaire adventurer who had won and lost his fortune many times over, Mack rose up like the phoenix from the ashes. When he lost Keystone in a deal gone bad, he went on to create new production companies with new names. His dream would not be sidelined by anyone or anything. If he waited long enough, things would go his way again. Even Mabel came back after "leaving for good."

As Mabel's fame and fortune grew, so did her intense relationship with Mack. Those two "Wild Irish Roses" alternately courted and clobbered each other in their dizzy affair. Mack was forever trying to tame his "I-don't-care" girl, as she came to be known. Mabel was trying to elevate Mack to a classier stature. However, the strapping Irishman was set in his ways. A good gag and a good cigar was the creed he lived by. They were together so long that marriage seemed inevitable - but it never happened. Mack ultimately betrayed Mabel by his dalliance with another beautiful actress just before the wedding was to take place. There was a change in Mabel after that. She began her attempt to walk out of Mack's life. He would not let her go easily and dangled an enticing carrot that included her own studio and production company, plus a film that he knew she could not resist.

During the production of Mickey the tension between Mack and Mabel came to a head and before filming was over she signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn, sealing her departure from Mack and Keystone. By 1917, Mabel had slipped through Mack's fingers, privately and professionally.

Life had escalated into one long, endless pain-killing party for Mabel. She suppressed her enormous disillusionment mostly through alcohol. After she left Mack, an innocence left her. Her pictures finally became classier, full-length features, but her freshness and drive dwindled. Even by the time Mabel realized her downward spiral and tried to stop it, the scandals descended. She began to decline alarmingly, bit by miserable bit.

Mabel was a dear friend and successful comedy partner (between 1913 and 1916) of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Arbuckle, tainted by allegations of assault and murder, and subsequent trials in 1921, negatively affected many in the Hollywood community, including Mabel. A woman of integrity where her friends were concerned, Mabel loved and cared enough about Roscoe to defend him publicly. Unfortunately, it did not help him, and it only hurt her.
Mabel went back to Mack Sennett to revive her sagging career and life. She returned to knockabout and attempted to reclaim her youthful energy. Mack even sweetened the deal by giving Mabel her own small studio lot to play on.

In 1926, Mabel married her longtime friend, Lew Cody. At that point, it was safer and healthier for her to live a quieter, more domestic life. This positive change boosted her spirits, but perhaps that was all what was left of her brilliant spark. That same year she made her last film, the two-reeler One Hour Married (Roach/Pathe) that was released in 1927.

All the hard living and hard grieving prematurely aged Mabel and made her susceptible to tuberculosis - which claimed her life in 1930 at the age of 37. The world might never have known her voice, but it would never forget her face. Mabel was so beloved by the Hollywood community that her funeral was packed to the rafters.

Mabel Normand, in her knockabout prime, was unsurpassable in the "beautiful, slapstick comedienne" niche. Many of her films have been lost, including all of her Goldwyn productions save one, What Happened to Rosa? (Goldwyn, 1921). However, a fair sample still survive, including many of her Keystone shorts. Her funniest comedies not only show us frisky and physically demanding performances, but also the subtler fact that she was lovingly photographed. One normally does not associate Sennett's slapstick with stunning cinematography, but some of Mabel's films extruded the glow of the silver nitrate image of Mabel, in a sunset, beckoning us to come and play.

Mack continued to make his movies well into the sound era, and was a regular fixture in the Hollywood community. Mack never lost the moniker "The King of Comedy." All the greats recognized this. This recognition has placed the name of Mack Sennett in the golden annals of Hollywood history for all time.


Mack Sennett