Excitement was most likely the predominate emotion Mabel Normand felt as she took the trip from California to New York, she had taken this train ride a number of times since she had come to California with D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Blanche Sweet and Mack Sennett to make films, it was a small group of players. The following season she came with Mack and an even smaller group to begin Keystone. She was a girl back then going to a new world of adventure, so much unknown so much to discover; a golden future in the golden state.
Now she was a woman, a knowing woman, a woman of experience, who had discovered that a new world didn’t always mean a better one, perhaps now it was a time to explore the Old World.
The great, luxurious ocean liner, Aquitania was waiting at a New York dock to carry her and her golf clubs, trucks of clothes, pile of books and yes the good wishes of her friends to Europe. She had enough of the American newspaper reporters, having to watch her every step for fear she would be tripped up and worrying that something she said will be misconstrued. Mabel announced in the New York Times, March 16, 1922 that she planed to go to Europe in June and would visit London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Naples and Madrid. It was now, June of 1922, in Los Angeles the month is often referred to as “June gloom” and as she looked out of the window, the clicky-clack of the train wheels rolled over the miles of track the world must have looked brighter the farther she got from Hollywood; first the connection in Chicago and then home; mother, father, brother, sister, home, friends and the things that were familiar, New York.
Than the new and unfamiliar; Juliette Courtell, her friend would travel with her. Julie, as Mabel called her, had been in Europe as a French interpreter during the war, Mabel needed a friend. William Desmond Taylor had been in Europe just 7 months before, was it only such a short time ago, so much had happen. The lovely powder box he sent from England, the wonderful New Years Eve dinner at the Ambassador Hotel, the easy pleasant evening at the theater or setting around just talking about this new book or play or movie. Someone killed him on that February evening after she had left him, he had said, “I’ll call you later”…he never did and never would. That evil assassin had murdered her friend but the assassin had also wound her deeply; a wound that had not healed and perhaps never would. She was not the same. The people that loved her saw a new sadness, she needed a rest, a vacation, to go where she would be able to relax, a little.
Suzanna, the movie she had been filming in February was finished in late
May and in the hands of Mack Sennett and Dick Jones; she left them to figure out how to put it together in post-production and promote it. The usual promotional tour, which had been so successful with Molly O' wouldn’t work this time as the reporters’ questions were about her relationship with William Desmond Taylor, not her new movie. She had signed 100s of copies of the novel Suzanna to be given out by the studio.
The sheet music and the records were sent to the theaters as give-a-ways and there were tons of pictures, signed and ready to send out. They would know what to do.
Marilyn Slater
Looking for Mabel
October 10, 2009
Aquitania
“Ship Beautiful”
The Aquitania was the “Ship Beautiful” of the Cunard Shipping Line. Mabel needed something “Beautiful” and pleasant and joyful, she needed to laugh. The Aquitania was all that and more.
First a few numbers (because I like them). She (ships are all “she”) was launched April 21, 1913 by Alice Stanley, the Countess of Derby at the John Brown yards in Scotland. Tonnage, 46,000 tons, length 900 feet, beam 97 feet, 4 smokestacks, 23 knots service speed, in 1914 the ship carried 3,230 passengers (618 first class), in 1926 the ship had room for 2,200 (610 first class) and a crew of 972. The Aquitania was smaller than the Titanic; there was a rivalry between the Cunard line and the White Star. Cunard had the Aquitania’s sister ships Mauretania and Lusitania and the White Star Line had the Olympic and Titanic. The White Star liners were more luxurious, Cunard liners were faster on the north Atlantic route, the Aquitania appointments were like those of the White Star’s Olympic, fabulous. Because of the Titanic disaster, Aquitania made sure to carry enough lifeboats for all the passengers and crew, they even had two motorized launches with wireless equipment, Mabel was safe.
The public spaces were designed by Arthur Joseph Davis at Mewès and Davis, the same firm that decorated the Ritz Hotel in London and the Paris Ritz. The interiors of the Aquitania were largely the work of Davis, the Louis XVI dining saloon, the splendid Carolean smoking room, the Egyptian indoor swimming pool and the amazing Palladian lounge.
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PALLADIAN LOUNGE |
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LOUIS XVI DINING SALOON |
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CAROLRAN SMOKING ROOM |
A little history (because I like it); the Aquitania only made 3 trips before it was put into military use at the beginning of World War I, however it was too large and too fragile for practical use in battles, later it was converted to a hospital ship. June 1919, the ship was refitted with her original fittings and her art pieces were brought out of storage and reinstalled. This brings us to the 1920s when the Aquitania became one of the most popular liners on the North Atlantic route. She became one of the most profitable ocean liners ever. The restrictions on immigration in the early 1920s cut the numbers of 3rd class passengers, which had been almost 2,000 per trip. By 1922, much of the big money now came from movie stars and royalty, other aristocracy and politicians. Aquitania became their favorite; this was the most lucrative age in ocean travel history.
Mabel Normand walked up the gangplank; she didn’t reach the ship until just before it was ready to set sail. Her leaving was quiet, only a few intimate friends where there to see her off on June 13, 1922 on her way to Cherbourg and Southampton, Juliette Courtell was with her. Of course, the press was there peppering her with questions about the shooting of William Desmond Taylor. What could she say that she hadn’t already told them, “Please don’t discuss that.” “I’ve been running away from it for months. That is one of the reasons I am going away to get a rest.”
Soon Mabel would be skipping around Piccadilly Circus, shopping in Paris, and she planned to parade down the Wilhelmstrassa, pray at the altar at St. Peter’s in Rome, listen to a dashing toreador in Old Madrid, she dreamed of faraway places, where her restless feet and care-free heart could romp.
