Myra Normand was born in 1892 on Staten Island. Her destiny as an actress seems to have been forged by her ancestry. Her grandmother on her father’s side, Adrienne Marie Beraud, had been a stage actress in France before moving to Quebec and, later, to Providence, Rhode Island, where her son Claude grew up in local theaters and later played piano to supplement the family income. From her father, Normand inherited a love for art, music and romance, as well as an inclination to the reckless behavior and depression that would eventually cut short her career and her life. To her mother, she attributed the poor judgment that contributed to her demise but also the boundless energy and a strong determination that would propel her quick rise to stardom.

In 1908, the ambitious Normand moved to Manhattan, then still the entertainment hub of the country. At sixteen, she was already a vivacious beauty with a slim curvaceous figure, large expressive eyes and a mass of jet-black curly hair. She quickly made her mark. After a stint as a Gibson girl model, in 1910 she joined Griffith’s Biograph acting troupe, where she met Sennett. Working with him at Biograph and later at Keystone, Normand developed into more than a highly gifted comedienne. Foreshadowing the Jazz Age flapper girls and Clara Bow’s “It Girl,” Normand was the original “I Don’t Care Girl.” She flaunted her beauty in a spirit of playful misbehavior that stood in stark contrast to the era’s still prevalent, if rapidly
fading, Victorian mores


Normand’s The Diving Girl role predicted another of Sennett’s trademarks: showing young women in provocative bathing suits at a time when “knees were a treat and ankles being an orgy.”75 Although Normand remained a cut above Sennett’s so-called Bathing Beauties, several of these, who started out anonymously, would become stars in their own right, including Phyllis Haver, Marie Prevost, Carole Lombard and Gloria Swanson.


While Sennett is rightly credited with discovering many great talents, Normand played a crucial role in their development as well, most famously with Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle, both of whom Sennett was ready to give up on but for her intervention. Her own screen persona extended beyond her “I Don’t Care Girl” sexuality. Belying her dainty appearance, she possessed considerable athletic skill, performed many of her own stunts and was capable of playing anything from daredevil to clown. By 1915, Sennett affirmed Normand’s superstar status by building for her a still standing (and again operating) studio on Bates Avenue in Silver Lake—its triangle shape clearly a nod to Harry and Roy Aitken’s Triangle Film Corporation, which Sennett had joined in 1915 with the era’s other two film making giants, D.W. Griffith and Thomas Ince. The gift was also compensation for one of Sennett’s own weaknesses: womanizing. The night before their planned wedding on the Fourth of July 1915, Sennett was caught in bed with one of Normand’s acting rivals, Mae Busch. The damage, this time, was too great to repair. Sennett and Normand made only one film together at her new studio, their first feature-length comedy, Mickey, which, though a hit, could not mend their long-turbulent, now tattered, romantic and working relationship

In 1917, Sennett formed a new company, Mack Sennett Comedies, from which the Bathing Beauties would stem. In 1918, Normand signed with Samuel Goldwyn, where she received a boost in salary and total control of her pictures. Just as her professional life reached its peak, however, Normand’s personal life began to unravel. Like many celebrities, past and present, who rocketed to stardom at an early age, she was unable to deal with the fame and accoutrements of success. The one-time tomboy who thumbed her nose at upper-class snobbery—preferring to flirt with boys, smoke cigarettes, chug whiskey and snort cocaine—would become the victim of her own excess. Normand died on May 8, 1930, after an extended stay at Pottenger Sanitarium in Monrovia, California

-excerpted from "Silver Lake Chronicles: Exploring an Urban Oasis in Los Angeles", Used with permission.

© All Rights Reserved

Myra Normand was born in 1892 on Staten Island. Her destiny as an actress seems to have been forged by her ancestry. Her grandmother on her father’s side, Adrienne Marie Beraud, had been a stage actress in France before moving to Quebec and, later, to Providence, Rhode Island, where her son Claude grew up in local theaters and later played piano to supplement the family income. From her father, Normand inherited a love for art, music and romance, as well as an inclination to the reckless behavior and depression that would eventually cut short her career and her life. To her mother, she attributed the poor judgment that contributed to her demise but also the boundless energy and a strong determination that would propel her quick rise to stardom.

In 1908, the ambitious Normand moved to Manhattan, then still the entertainment hub of the country. At sixteen, she was already a vivacious beauty with a slim curvaceous figure, large expressive eyes and a mass of jet-black curly hair. She quickly made her mark. After a stint as a Gibson girl model, in 1910 she joined Griffith’s Biograph acting troupe, where she met Sennett. Working with him at Biograph and later at Keystone, Normand developed into more than a highly gifted comedienne. Foreshadowing the Jazz Age flapper girls and Clara Bow’s “It Girl,” Normand was the original “I Don’t Care Girl.” She flaunted her beauty in a spirit of playful misbehavior that stood in stark contrast to the era’s still prevalent, if rapidly
fading, Victorian mores


Normand’s The Diving Girl role predicted another of Sennett’s trademarks: showing young women in provocative bathing suits at a time when “knees were a treat and ankles being an orgy.”75 Although Normand remained a cut above Sennett’s so-called Bathing Beauties, several of these, who started out anonymously, would become stars in their own right, including Phyllis Haver, Marie Prevost, Carole Lombard and Gloria Swanson.


While Sennett is rightly credited with discovering many great talents, Normand played a crucial role in their development as well, most famously with Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle, both of whom Sennett was ready to give up on but for her intervention. Her own screen persona extended beyond her “I Don’t Care Girl” sexuality. Belying her dainty appearance, she possessed considerable athletic skill, performed many of her own stunts and was capable of playing anything from daredevil to clown. By 1915, Sennett affirmed Normand’s superstar status by building for her a still standing (and again operating) studio on Bates Avenue in Silver Lake—its triangle shape clearly a nod to Harry and Roy Aitken’s Triangle Film Corporation, which Sennett had joined in 1915 with the era’s other two film making giants, D.W. Griffith and Thomas Ince. The gift was also compensation for one of Sennett’s own weaknesses: womanizing. The night before their planned wedding on the Fourth of July 1915, Sennett was caught in bed with one of Normand’s acting rivals, Mae Busch. The damage, this time, was too great to repair. Sennett and Normand made only one film together at her new studio, their first feature-length comedy, Mickey, which, though a hit, could not mend their long-turbulent, now tattered, romantic and working relationship

In 1917, Sennett formed a new company, Mack Sennett Comedies, from which the Bathing Beauties would stem. In 1918, Normand signed with Samuel Goldwyn, where she received a boost in salary and total control of her pictures. Just as her professional life reached its peak, however, Normand’s personal life began to unravel. Like many celebrities, past and present, who rocketed to stardom at an early age, she was unable to deal with the fame and accoutrements of success. The one-time tomboy who thumbed her nose at upper-class snobbery—preferring to flirt with boys, smoke cigarettes, chug whiskey and snort cocaine—would become the victim of her own excess. Normand died on May 8, 1930, after an extended stay at Pottenger Sanitarium in Monrovia, California

-excerpted from "Silver Lake Chronicles: Exploring an Urban Oasis in Los Angeles", Used with permission.

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