Examines the life of silent film star Mabel Normand. Mabel spent her life and career as a movie star, director, writer, and studio head. This book highlights her enormous, yet long overlooked, contribution to film history and popular culture. It traces her life from humble beginnings on Staten Island to the heights of superstardom around the world.

American silent film star Mabel Normand (1892-1930) appeared in a string of popular movies opposite the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle during the 1910s and 1920s, before dying of tuberculosis at age 37. Her brief but remarkable career, which included director and writer credits as well as heading her own studio and production company, was marred by scandal--police connected her to the unsolved 1922 murder of director William Desmond Taylor--that defined her legacy. This book highlights Normand's substantial yet long overlooked contributions to film history and popular culture, tracing her life from humble beginnings on Staten Island to the heights of world superstardom.