British postcard in the series "Keystone cards presented with Home Weekly". Photo: Keystone Film. Chester Conklin and Minta Durfee in A Bird's A Bird (Walter Wright, 1915).
American comedian Chester Conklin (1886-1971) developed for Vaudeville his character patterned after his boss, a German baker named Schultz, with a thick accent and a very bushy "walrus"-type mustache. After seeing several of Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops shorts, Conklin applied for a job and stayed with Sennett for six years. Conklin became famous for his pairing with burly comic Mack Swain in a series of Ambrose and Walrus shorts. He also appeared in several of Charles Chaplin's shorts for the studio.
American comedienne Minta Durfee (1889-1975) began her career on stage in 1908 as a chorus girl in musical revues. She married comedian Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. In 1914, they entered Keystone and were soon a comedy double. Minta became Chaplin's leading lady in the two-reeler Making a Living (1914). In addition to the series of 'Fatty' featurettes, Minta also worked at Keystone in the classic madcap farce Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) and co-starred opposite Chester Conklin, Mack Swain, and Ford Sterling in a series of outrageous daredevil comedies until 1916.
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Tags: Chester Conklin Chester Conklin American Actor Comedian Director William Goodrich William Goodrich Minta Durfee Minta Durfee Actress Actrice Hollywood Movie Star Film Star Cinema Cine Film Kino Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Carte Postale Cartolina Tarjet Postal Postkarte Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart Keystone cards Keystone Home Weekly A Bird'a Bird 1915 Parrot Bird
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British postcard in the series "Keystone cards presented with Home Weekly". Photo: Keystone Film. Mabel Normand in The Sea Nymphs (Mack Sennett, 1914). Caption: Mabel as a sea nymph.
Mabel Normand (1892-1930) was a popular American silent film comedienne, in particular in her films with Charlie Chaplin. But alcohol, drugs, and scandal wrecked her career and TBC killed her at a young age.
Mabel Normand was born in New York City in 1892. She grew up in extreme poverty. Normand was a model before her career as an actress. She became an actress in 1910 at the Eastcoast, at Vitagraph and Biograph. In 1912, director Mack Sennett discovered her and took her to his new studio, Keystone in California. At the start, Normand was primarily portrayed in films as a beautiful woman, but soon her talent for comedy was spotted. She became a highly popular comedienne in shorts with Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle. Normand even defended Chaplin before Sennett, when the latter was initially not convinced of Chaplin's acting qualities. In 1916, Normand opened with Sennett her own company at Culver City, as a subsidiary of Triangle. When Triangle collapsed in 1918 it also took down Mabel's company and also caused Sennett to lose Keystone. In 1918 also the affair of Normand with Sennett ended,
Mabel Normand got a new contract with Samuel Goldwyn. Yet her popularity and health declined. Normand became unhappy and became addicted to alcohol and drugs. Director William Desmond Taylor noticed this and tried to help her. This led to a relationship. In 1922, William Desmond Taylor was killed, 15 minutes after Normand left the house. Since the murder was never unraveled, Normand was suspected by the police. There was also speculation that Normand's cocaine sellers may have been involved, as Taylor had repeatedly helped her to get off her drugs addiction and wanted to file charges against her suppliers. Many suspects of the murder are known but despite a confession of actress Margaret Gibson on her deathbed, the case is still open. Brownlow & Kobal in their book 'Hollywood: The Pioneers' claim there is no real proof of Normand's drugs addiction and the idea that Taylor was murdered by drug dealers was invented by the studio for publicity purposes.
Mabel Normand became involved in another scandal when her driver Joe Kelly (also an ex-criminal) shot one of Normand's lovers with Normand's gun. Normand was hated by the media and in 1923, she decided to end her career. Still, she got a second chance when Hal Roach Studios offered her a contract in 1926. She received a lot of publicity, but her scandals from her past resurfaced and Normand's career was now definitively destroyed. In 1930, Mabel Normand died of tuberculosis at the age of 37. She was married in 1926 to actor Lew Cody (1884-1934), with whom she had appeared in the film Mickey (1918). Cody died four years after Normand because of a heart attack.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, and English), and IMDb.
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British postcard in the Novelty Series, no. D6-14. Photo: Keystone Films.
Mabel Normand (1892-1930) was a popular American silent film comedienne, in particular in her films with Charlie Chaplin. But alcohol, drugs, and scandal wrecked her career and TBC killed her at a young age.
Mabel Normand was born in New York City in 1892. She grew up in extreme poverty. Normand was a model before her career as an actress. She became an actress in 1910 at the Eastcoast, at Vitagraph and Biograph. In 1912, director Mack Sennett discovered her and took her to his new studio, Keystone in California. At the start, Normand was primarily portrayed in films as the beautiful woman, but soon her talent for comedy was spotted. She became a highly popular comedienne in shorts with Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle. Normand even defended Chaplin before Sennett, when the latter was initially not convinced of Chaplin's acting qualities. In 1916, Normand opened with Sennett her own company at Culver City, as a subsidiary of Triangle. When Triangle collapsed in 1918 it also took down Mabel's company and also caused Sennett to lose Keystone. In 1918 also the affair of Normand with Sennett ended,
Mabel Normand got a new contract with Samuel Goldwyn. Yet her popularity and health declined. Normand became unhappy and became addicted to alcohol and drugs. Director William Desmond Taylor noticed this and tried to help her. This led to a relationship. In 1922, William Desmond Taylor was killed, 15 minutes after Normand left the house. Since the murder was never unraveled, Normand was suspected by the police. There was also speculation that Normand's cocaine sellers may have been involved, as Taylor had repeatedly helped her to get off her drug addiction and wanted to file charges against her suppliers. Many suspects of the murder are known but despite a confession of actress Margaret Gibson on her deathbed, the case is still open. Brownlow & Kobal in their book 'Hollywood: The Pioneers' claim there is no real proof of Normand's drug addiction and the idea that Taylor was murdered by drug dealers was invented by the studio for publicity purposes.
Mabel Normand became involved in another scandal when her driver Joe Kelly (also an ex-criminal) shot one of Normand's lovers with Normand's gun. Normand was hated by the media and in 1923, she decided to end her career. Still, she got a second chance when Hal Roach Studios offered her a contract in 1926. She received a lot of publicity, but her scandals from her past resurfaced and Normand's career was now definitively destroyed. In 1930, Mabel Normand died of tuberculosis at the age of 37. She was married in 1926 to actor Lew Cody (1884-1934), with whom she had appeared in the film Mickey (1918). Cody died four years after Normand because of a heart attack.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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Chinese postcard, no. 4. Photo: Hartsook Photo, S.F. - L.A. / Keystone Film. Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand in Fatty and Mabel Adrift (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1916).
American silent film actor, comedian Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle (1887-1933) was one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s. He started at the Selig Polyscope and moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd.
Mabel Normand (1892-1930) was a popular American silent film comedienne, in particular in films with Caplin, but alcohol, drugs, and scandal wrecked her career while TBC killed her at a young age.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Tags: Roscoe Arbuckle Fatty Arbuckle Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle American Actor Comedian Director William Goodrich William Goodrich Mabel Normand Mabel Normand Actress Actrice Hollywood Movie Star Film Star Cinema Cine Film Kino Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Carte Postale Cartolina Tarjet Postal Postkarte Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart Keystone cards Keystone Home Weekly Fatty and Mabel Adrift 1916 Hartsook
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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 150.
Al St. John (1892-1963) was an early American film comedian, and nephew of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, with whom he often appeared. He appeared in dozens of Mack Sennett's early Keystone comedies and worked with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Mabel Normand. He would eventually create and star in his own vehicles for other studios. In the sound era, he was the sidekick of B-Western heroes like Bob Steele and Buster Crabbe. He played the scruffy comedy relief character 'Fuzzy Q. Jones' in the Billy the Kid series (1940-1946), and the Lone Rider series (1941-1943). From 1912 to 1952, Al St. John acted in 346 films.
Al St. John was born as Alfred St. John in 1892 in Santa Ana, California to Walter St. John and Nora Arbuckle. Gawky, loose-limbed Alfred performed from childhood with his family in vaudeville and burlesque around his home state of California, perfecting an athletic bicycle act that would stand him in good stead for the remainder of his career. He entered silent films around 1912 and soon rose to co-starring and starring roles in short comic films from a variety of studios. His uncle on his mother's side, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, may have helped him in his early days at Mack Sennett Studios, but talent kept him working. He was slender, sandy-haired, handsome, and a remarkable acrobat. St. John became a 'Keystone Kop' in that famous congregation's very first film, The Bangville Police (Henry Lehrman, 1913). He supported Charles Chaplin and Marie Dressler in the feature comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance (Mack Sennett, Charles Bennett, 1914), and frequently appeared as Arbuckle's mischievously villainous rival for the attentions of leading ladies like Mabel Normand and Minta Durfee. He worked with Arbuckle and Charles Chaplin in The Rounders (Charles Chaplin, 1914), although his most critically praised film during this period with Arbuckle remains Fatty and Mabel Adrift (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1916). In France, he was billed as "Picratt." When Arbuckle formed his own production company, he brought St. John with him and recruited stage star Buster Keaton into his films, creating a formidable roughhouse trio. After Arbuckle was involved in a widely publicised scandal that prevented him from appearing in films, he pseudonymously directed his nephew Al as a comic leading man in silent and sound films such as The Iron Mule (William Goodrich, Grover Jones, 1925) and Bridge Wives (William Goodrich, 1932).
During the sound era, Al St. John was mainly seen as an increasingly scruffy and bearded comic character with oversized overalls and a porkpie hat. Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie: "St. John himself later claimed that a deal with the Fox company went sour and that he suddenly found himself more or less blacklisted by the major studios. He did appear in one of Roscoe Arbuckle's comeback shorts, Buzzin' Around (Alfred J. Goulding, 1933), but by the mid-'30s he seemed all washed up. To keep food (and, it was rumored, quite a bit of spirits) on the table, St. John switched gears and began pursuing a career in independently produced B-Westerns." He created the character 'Stoney' in the film The Law of 45's (John P. McCarthy, 1935). It was the start of a continuing Western film series, The Three Mesquiteers, that was later played at a low point in his own career by John Wayne. St. John also appeared in Buster Keaton's comedy Love Nest on Wheels (Charles Lamont, 1937). That same year he began supporting cowboy stars Fred Scott and later Jack Randall, but most of his films were made for Poverty Row studio Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). For that studio, he played the limber, baggy-pants braggart 'Fuzzy Q. Jones' in the Billy the Kid series starring Bob Steele, the Lone Rider series (starring George Houston and later Bob Livingston), and the Billy the Kid/Billy Carson series starring Buster Crabbe. The name "Fuzzy" originally belonged to a different actor, John Forrest “Fuzzy“ Knight, who took on the role of cowboy sidekick before St. John. The studio first intended to hire Knight for the Western series, but then gave the role to St. John instead, who took on the nickname of his rival for his screen character. Exhibitors loved Fuzzy, who could be counted on to attract filmgoers. Fuzzy's character was the main box-office draw in these films when shown in England and Europe. These ultra-low-budget Westerns took only a bit more than a week to film, so that Crabbe and St. John made 36 films together in a surprisingly short time. When Crabbe left PRC, St. John was paired with new star Lash LaRue. Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie: "Al St. John was unique among B-Western sidekicks in that he actually carried his films rather than the easily disposable leading men. Both Crabbe and LaRue were well aware of that and remained steadfast in their praise for the diminutive performer. When the LaRue era finally ended with a short-lived television series, Lash of the West (1953), St. John returned to the boards" Ultimately, St. John had made more than 80 Westerns as Fuzzy. Until his death in 1963 in Lyons, Georgia, he made personal appearances at fairs and rodeos and traveled with the Tommy Scott Wild West Show. In 1960, he was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6313 Hollywood Blvd. Ak St. John was working with a traveling Wild West show in Georgia and was waiting to go on when he suffered a massive heart attack and died at age 70. He was married to Lillian Marion Ball, Yvonne June Villon Price Pearce, and Flo-Bell Moore. He had one daughter with Lillian Marion Ball: Mary Jane St. John. Dozens of St. John's early films were screened during the 56-film Arbuckle retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2006.
Sources: Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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