Cultural References
A nod to Normand's celebrity in early Hollywood came through the name of a leading character in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, "Norma Desmond", which has been cited as a combination of the names Mabel Normand and William Desmond Taylor. The 1974 Broadway musical Mack & Mabel (Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman) fictionalized the romance between Normand and Mack Sennett. Normand was played by Bernadette Peters and Robert Preston played Mack Sennett.
Normand is played by actress Marisa Tomei in the 1992 film Chaplin, by Morganne Picard in the motion picture Return to Babylon (2008), and by Penelope Lagos in the first bio-pic about her life, a 35-minute dramatic short film entitled Madcap Mabel (2010).
"Hello Mabel" is a song by the Bonzo Dog Band released in England on their album The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (released as Urban Spaceman in the US.) in November 1968.
In Season 2, Episode 1 of Downton Abbey, the housemaid Ethel is seen reading a photoplay about Mabel Normand.
Read more about this topic: Mabel Normand
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