OPEN POST: Norma Visits The Manor!

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Bow down, bitches. Miss Norma Desmond, the famed star of stage and screen, has decided to bless the Manor with her presence today. Or rather, La Burnett, who first played Norma on her variety show in 1976, and continued the role in a delightful series of sketches which parodied Gloria Swanson's silent movie queen from the 1950 film-noir, "Sunset Boulevard." 

But it wasn't just Gloria who fueled Norma. As Carol revealed years later, another inspiration for her performance was Mabel Normand, a popular silent movie comic - she was the first actor to get a pie thrown in the face - and one of the very first female screenwriters. Tragically, she was also the last person known to have seen director William Desmond Taylor alive before he was shotgunned to death in a famed Hollywood murder which remains unsolved to this day, and which haunted Mabel's career thereafter. She died at age 36 from tuberculosis. 

Reportedly, Gloria got a good chuckle out of Carol's performance and its razzing of "Sunset Boulevard. Years previous, Gloria was a guest on Carol's show, and in one sketch flawlessly played Charlie Chaplin. So all hail Mabel, all hail Gloria, and all hail 91 year-old Carol, the last living star to befriend and work with actors from the silent era. 

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