Looking for Mabel Normand

Mary Garden in an unknown Opera         &                     in her role as Aphrodite

 “We'd put on our record, and hidden back of a potted fern or a screen would be the Ince phonograph. When it had been an­nounced that Miss Normand was to sing, somebody would turn on the phonograph and the celebrities would sit dumbfounded while they listened to my marvelous voice  ¾  which was Mary Garden's or Lina Cavalieri's.

“Then I would simper and blush when they demanded I sing then and there, and explain that I had a slight cold and dared not strain my golden throat.

 Mary Garden as Margurite

Sam Goldwyn explained in his autobiography that “Every theatre-owner in the country wanted personalities. Stars were now made over night. New names came out in electric light almost every evening. Obviously, therefore, the only guarantee for the success of a new motion-picture organization was the assemblage of a list of big names.

            Hence, it was upon an array of planets that the Goldwyn Company concentrated its initial energy. The first star we engaged was Mabel Normand; the second, Mae Marsh; the third, Madge Kennedy. Add to these such towering figures from other histrionic firmaments as Mary Garden, Jane Cowl, and Maxine Elliott, and you will see why our competitors were warranted in feeling a deep uneasiness. For the engagement of these people was attended by enormous publicity. Newspapers featured many of our stellar connections and, added to this; huge posters blazoned with the names of our trophies carried promise of greatness to every hamlet in America.

In April 1918, Mabel made Dodging a Million where she plays an opera singer in a play within the film with Minnie Metho, who told Mabel stories of the days when she shared a dressing room with a fellow student Mary Garden first in Chicago and later in Paris. 

The April 6, 1921 Los Angeles Examiner has a story by Cholly Angeleno regarding the second evening of the opera season, “All the gayety and the beauty of the opening night was repeated last evening in the personnel of the audience, the dazzling beauty of the gowns and the women who wore them. Many who attended “Othello” were present again last evening to hear Mary Garden sing her famous Carmen role. Antonio Moreno and Rudolpho Valentino were among the screen stars present. Mary Miles Minter wore a gown of silver cloth and lace and a silver bandeau in her hair. Miss Mabel Normand was attractive in a gown of white satin, made without any suggestion of color, and an ermine wrap. Eva Novak, who was with William S. Hart, was in black lace with an exquisite coat of black heavily embroidered in gold.