Looking for Mabel Normand
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PHOTOS OF DICK JONES
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F. Richard (Dick) Jones, Mabel Normand’s favorite director. |
Dick still has most of his hair and hasn’t grown his mustache yet.Mabel picked the young director to work with on her first full length feature at Mabel’s personal studio, Mickey. 1917 |
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Irene Lentz received 2 Oscar nominations and is in the Costume Designers Guild Hall of Fame. There is a great deal of material on Irene in Special Collection at the Margaret Herrick Library http://www.oscars.org/mhl/sc/irene_215.html |
Premier of Molly O’ 1921 Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand and F. Richard (Dick) Jones. This photo was taken at the premier of Mack’s first feature length drama, Molly O’ starring Mabel and again Mabel had her favorite director, her friend Dick. Mack brought a theater called the
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Molly O’
1921 Mabel Normand and F. Richard (Dick) Jones. The star of Molly O’ and her director stand atop a skyscraper after a long day viewing the sights on location in |
1922
F. Richard (Dick) Jones and Mabel Normand are in deep discussion on the set of Suzanna, the Mack Sennett production filmed in 1922. It was during the filming of Suzanna that William Desmond Taylor was killed and it affected the shooting schedule and Mabel’s mind was not on the film.
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Raggedy Rose
1926
F. Richard (Dick) Jones, Production Supervisor, at Hal Roach Studios; Mabel Normand, star of Raggedy Rose and Richard Wallace, her director with unknown male in the background At this point Mabel had come to Roach Studios after a disappointing try on the legitimate stage. It was through the influence of Dick that Mabel was given a contract. They seem to be in conference by Mabel famous collapsing car...
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MABEL NORMAND AND F. RICHARD JONES RAGGEDY ROSE (1926) HAL ROACH They walked together holding hands as friends do. or does it look like he is taking Mabel to woodshed
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The Extra Girl 1923 Here is George Nichols, Mabel Normand, Homer Scott and F. Richard (Dick) Jones. George often played Mabel’s father in her Mack Sennett films. Mabel has taken over the job of the director here as she is holding the megaphone, perhaps this accounts for Dick holding his head. The man behind the camera is a rare image of the great photographer Homer Scott. He was famous in his day for his pictures of the Mexican Revolution.
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F. Richard (Dick) Jones
and Mabel Normand
1917 Here they are in a soft moment together at the river, early in their time together. Dick and Mabel were born in the same year 1893 and they both died in 1930 of TB. |
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Mickey
1918
The crew and cast of the one and only film made at the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company set around the camp fire, telling stories. Mabel is setting right behind the fire and Dick is standing far left |
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Suaznna 1922 Lunch with the cast and crew during the filming of Suzanna note the milk, it was used in film |
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Suzanna
1922 Senor Sanchez Garcia, unknown male, Mabel Normand and F. Richard (Dick) Jones on the set of the Mack Sennett Feature Production of Suzanna.
Mabel looks up at reporter as he seems to be trying to explain a point. Dick looks as if he is trying to understand. Mabel is in the wedding dress on the set of the film.
The still # 1030 – X indicates that this photo was to be used in publicity for the film. |
Suzanna 1922 Senor Sanchez Garcia, Mabel Normand and F. Richard (Dick) Jones on the set of the Mack Sennett Feature Production of Suzanna. The reporter is interviewing Mabel with notebook in his hand on a visit during the filming of Mabel in the fantastic wedding dress near the end of the film with her friend and director, Dick. He sits on the other end of the sofa listening intently. The still was made for publicity purpose, # 1032-X |
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The Extra Girl 1923 Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett and F. Richard (Dick) Jones on the set of the film within the film. Mabel is playing at making a screen test. Mack seems to have dropped by to see how the production was doing in this candid shot. I wonder if the folded arms and expression mean anything, this was the last film that Mabel made for him. |
The Extra Girl
1923
George Nichols, Mabel Normand, Homer Scott and F. Richard (Dick) Jones posing with the camera on the set. George plays the part of Mabel’s father in this Mack Sennett Production. Mabel has taken over the high director’s chair and his megaphone and Dick just smiles up at his star. The fantastic Homer Scott is behind his camera. |
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So…
Who was F. Richard Jones?
By
Marilyn Slater
Mabel called him, Dick but his name was Frederic Richard Jones; he was from
Part of the incentive that Mack used to draw Mabel back from the Sam Goldwyn Studios was that the dramatic full-length feature, Molly O’ (1921) would be directed by Dick Jones.
As with his earlier work with Mabel, he was able to present her at her very best.
He went on the work with her on her next two Sennett features, Suzanna (1922) and The Extra Girl (1923).
It was during the filming of Suzanna[3] that Mabel’s friend William Desmond Taylor was killed. The investigation of the murder did interfere with film and the effects can be seen on the screen, as the film is not Dick and Mabel at their best, although there are some wonderful moments.
It did not however damage Dick’s reputation as a quality filmmaker.
He is credited with directing over 45 films for Sennett. In 1925, Hal Roach Studio appointed Dick, production supervisor at his new studio in
Dick continued at Hal Roach Studios and the records show that he was involved in at lest 19 films. In an interview with Stan Laurel, Stan stated that it was Dick Jones that taught him everything about comedy filmmaking, high praise indeed.
He was able to direct more then comedies, the Douglas Fairbanks
adventure Gaucho (1927) was a Dick Jones film, his peers and as a matter of fact, the whole industry acknowledges his skill[4]. In 1928, at Paramount Pictures he made 3 films before going to Sam Goldwyn in 1929.
Dick had been dealing with tuberculosis for sometime and even through he was very ill, he was able to make the transition to sound with the highly acclaimed Bulldog Drummond with Ronald Colman and Joan Bennett[5]. So it was that his career ended in 1929, but on a high note, he had proved that he could make quality film regardless of genera.
Dick was too ill to act as pallbearer at Mabel Normand’s funeral in February 1930 and Dick[6], himself died in December at the age of 37.
In an article written by Dick’s friend Harry Carr for the Los Angeles Times[7] are a couple of interesting tales. Harry tells that while working on Mickey, a friend drove up and Mabel got into the car and didn’t come back for 2 weeks.
Harry called her ‘Harem Scarem Mabel.’ There is heaps of evidence that Mabel and Dick understood each other and were able to work very successfully together.
Harry refers to Mickey as ‘The Mortgage Lifter’ and ‘that it was the greatest money winner, dollars earned for dollars invested that the screen had known,’ so although Mabel may have been “harem scarem’ in Harry opinion the collaboration of Dick and Mabel worked.
Dick also did his time working, with perhaps, the greatest filmmaker ever, the eminent D. W. Griffith but according to Harry this was one of Dicks few failures[8].
Dick was able to deal with Mabel but not the Gish sisters nor with the great D.W. Here is a Dick and DW story as told by Harry Carr[9], ‘while working at
Everyone was frazzled but not Dick, who was very unruffled. He had had “Harem Scarem Mabel” training. He just laughed and decided the scene wasn’t that important and let the dogs find their ways out of the studio using any exit available and Dick exited to his home in
One more Dick story from Harry Carr, this one in his own words…
He had enough Welsh blood to give him quiet obstinacy. I remember that Dick, having been raised in a country where a bucketful was a lot of water, decided to be a yachtsman. He bought a big racing yacht that looked like an American cup defender. He asked me to sail it for him.
The wind that day was smack abeam in the only course we could hold. Dick insisted that he wanted to have the boat lean over like in yacht pictures. It is a physical impossibility to sail a boat close hauled with the wind at right angles. It keeps coming up into the wind. Dick only laughed at my struggles, fighting the boat along with a lashed tiller, but he didn’t want a boat that wouldn’t lean over on demand. I don’t believe he ever took it out again.
There is nothing to indicate that the friendship between Dick and Mabel was more then the wonderful and joyful friendship seen in photos of the two together. There seems to be a warm and deep understanding.
[2] Even though Irene Lentz went on to a very successful career as a fashion design after the death of Dick Jones, with a couple of academy award nominations and in 2005, Irene was inducted into the Costume Designers Guild. By the age of 62 she was despondent and killed herself in November 1962, she requested to be buried by Dick. At the time of her death, she was married to Eliot Gibbons the screenwriter, brother of Cedric Gibbons.
[3] Oakland Tribune,
[4]
[5] F. Richard Jones directed, with George Barnes as cameraman and Wallace Smith as writer of Bulldog Drummond
[6] F. Richard Jones is interned at Forest Lawn in
[7] Los Angeles Times,
[8] Dorothy Gish’s
[9] Oakland Tribune,
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press on image to see information on Dick's career |
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Harry Carr article on Dick Jones
DICK JONES HOLLYWOOD ANOMALY[1]
Erstwhile Sennett Director, One of Least Know of Film Colony, Proved Ability as “Mortgage Lifter” at Box Office
BY HARRY CARR
F, Richard Jones, who died last Sunday, was one of the anomalies of
One of the least known directors of the film colony and one of the biggest box-office directors who ever had anything to do with motion pictures.
Motion pictures were not, to him a shrine gained after artistic yearnings. After graduating from a small college in the South, he sat down with his mother and they figured out his life together. They decided that law and medicine were washed up and overcrowded. Only two new avenues of success seemed to stand open.
Aviation and motion pictures. At that time aviation had not been well enough commercialized to offer anything beyond a short death and a merry one. By the process of elimination, he became a movie.
FIRST STUDIO
Dick’s first job was in the cutting room at the old Mack Sennett studio. When I first knew him, he had already become a director. As I remember it, he was directing the Keystone Cops. That valiant band including many future stars, including Wallace Beery, Ramon Novarro, slim Summerville, Mal St, Clair (afterwards a famous director) and many others.
Mabel Normand was queen of the studio. Gloria Swanson, Marie Prevost, Mary Thurman were extra girls.
Shortly after I met Dick, Sennett became ambitious and started his first dramatic picture, “Mickie.” Two or three other directors fell down on the job; finally, it was turned over to Dick Jones. He had a knock-down-and drag-out struggle that lasted for a year.
He was the only director, other than Sennett himself, who ever could get anything out of Mabel Normand. Under his direction, she became the greatest comedienne that has ever been seen on the screen.
HAREM SCAREM MABEL
But what a time! Harem scarem little Mabel. I remember one while they were working on a big set that a friend drive up alongside in a car and Mabel went over to speak to her. She got in the car and didn’t return for two weeks.
When “Mickie” finally staggered to a close, everybody regarded it as a prune, except Sennett. Dick had nothing to say. It turned out to be the greatest money winner, dollars earned for dollars invested that the screen has ever known. It is still known to the trade as “The Mortgage Lifter.”
Dick made two other comedies with Mabel, “Molly O’” and that little early-California picture whose name I have forgotten. I shall always think that the scene where Mabel went walking down the hot dusty road and sat down on a hot rock was the finest piece of comedy that any woman comedian ever gave to the screen.
Afterward, Dick went to the
Coming back to
Dick was a charming fellow. He was always cool, unexcited with no delusions about “art.” A good deal of his success came from his experiences in the cutting room. He knew what the scene before him was going to look like after it got to the screen.
I remember one day at the
He had enough Welsh blood to give him quiet obstinacy. I remember that Dick, having been raised in a country where a bucketful was a lot of water, decided to be a yachtsman. He bought a big racing yacht that looked like an American cup defender. He asked me to sail it for him.
The wind that day was smack abeam in the only course we could hold. Dick insisted that he wanted to have the boat lean over like in yacht pictures. It is a physical impossibility to sail a boat close hauled with the wind at right angles. It keeps coming up into the wind. Dick only laughed at my struggles, fighting the boat along with a lashed tiller, but he didn’t want a boat that wouldn’t lean over on demand. I don’t believe he ever took it out again.
1921 Motion Picture Classic March
-gift from William Thomas Sherman to the fans of Mabel Normand-
from Motion Picture Classic, March, 1921
The Man Who Made Mickey
by Frederick James Smith
Not only Mabel Normand's "Mickey" but that burlesque satire, "Yankee Doodle in
Somehow or other, the spotlight of publicity has rather missed Dick Jones. Yet it is about time that film fans jotted down his name in their memory book. For Jones has just gone West to be super-comedy director for Mack Sennett with a studio all to himself and the cream of the Sennett lot-beauties and comediennes-from which to select his casts.
Jones has a $105,000 contract to make at least three, and not more than four, features during the coming year. These are to be super-comedies; (note the word!) six reels or more in length, according to the subject requirements.
There is a picturesque and colorful story behind Dick Jones. He fought his way to success in every sense of the words. Jones was born in
Next, Dick drifted to the Coast and secured a position with Mack Sennett. There he remained over seven years. He started as cutter, rapidly advanced to head of his department and soon was writing and editing those subtitles so characteristic of the Sennett comedies of a few years ago. Remember them?
About this time, "Mickey" was started as a special Mabel Normandy production. One director after another began work and then failed, until a total of five had fallen down on "Mickey." Then Mr. Sennett, who had come to rely upon Dick Jones, called him to general headquarters and made him a director - with "Mickey" as his first task.
Most young men would have feared to take a chance, but not Dick Jones. He started by throwing away everything that had been made previously. He took the scenario, but one and a quarter page in length, and wrote a brand-new story. Then he started. That "Mickey" later scored so strongly testifies to Jones' ability. "Mickey," be it known, holds the screen's comedy record as money maker.
David Griffith, meanwhile, had cast his eye upon Jones and called him East to direct Dorothy Gish.[1]
Jones is a hard worker. He literally lives his motion picture work. He has just one hobby - yachting. While in the East, he purchased a small yacht and spent his spare time cruising around the Sound off Mamaroneck, where the
Jones has interesting ideas upon screen farce comedy. "I see radical changes coming very shortly," he says. "The trouble with the present-day farce lies in the fact that it is but a series of comic incidents strung together. There is no romance, no sympathetic theme running thru. Harold Lloyd's comedies have leaped into popularity because there is a sympathy-winning story revolving around Lloyd's efforts to win the girl. The same thing, more deeply characterized, won for Chaplin. There is, in a phrase, no personal interest in the average farce.
"Directors have simply endeavored to film something funny. They have not tried for heart interest. In reality, situations are infinitely more humorous if they revolve around characters in which you have a personal interest. We must have more real characters in our farces, people who aren't mere comic supplement cartoons.
"Screen farce has developed a routine set of characters. There is the huge, usually bewhiskered, man who pursues the comedian. There is the comic - flirtative but henpecked - father of the heroine, along with the iron-jawed mother. The set includes a comic count, a burlesque parson and the usual squad of bathing girls. No imagination goes into the story.
"Other days are coming. Farces must be cleaner. Again, they must have better photography. There is no reason why a farce cannot be as beautiful in camera work as serious drama."
Jones has ideas and an alert imagination. He has youth. He has grown up with the screen. Hence, his forthcoming super-farces should be well worth watching.
[1] The Dorothy Gish films Jones did for
