On November 9, 1893, scandal-plagued silent film star Mabel Normand was born.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

In this 2022 tweet, it looks as if Dr. Buzz had the year and the date wrong. I'm going with what Wikipedia says.

Silent film star Mabel Normand was #BornOnThisDay, Nov. 10, 1892. The 1920s film star was linked to the 1922 #unsolved #murder of film director William Desmond Taylor. Her film career declined & suffering from tuberculosis she passed in 1930 (age 37) #RIP #GoneTooSoon #truecrime

Link to tweet

Mabel Normand



Normand c. 1920

Born: Amabel Ethelreid Normand; November 9, 1893; New York City, U.S.
Died: February 23, 1930 (aged 36); Monrovia, California, U.S.
Resting place: Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles
Other names: Mabel Normand-Cody, Muriel Fortescue

Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893 – February 23, 1930), better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, director, producer, and comedian. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their Keystone Studios films, and at the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s had her own film studio and production company, the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company. On screen, she appeared in twelve successful films with Charlie Chaplin and seventeen with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, sometimes writing and directing (or co-writing and directing) films featuring Chaplin as her leading man. In the 1920s Normand's name was linked with scandal, including the 1922 murder of her friend, the director, William Desmond Taylor and later the 1924 shooting of Courtland S. Dines: Dines had been shot by Normand's chauffeur, Kelly using her pistol after a drunken Dines had allegedly said derogatory things to Normand. After police interrogation, she was ruled out as a suspect in the murder. Normand suffered a recurrence of tuberculosis in 1923, which led to a decline in her health, an early retirement from films in 1926, and her death in 1930 at age 36.

{snip}

Fri Nov 11, 2022: On November 10, 1892, Mabel Normand was born.

[EYESORE 9001]

1. Makes me wonder

Whether the fictional character in Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond, was named from a mash-up of Mabel Normand and William Desmond Taylor. Pretty big coincidence, it seems.