Fatty Arbuckle
Encyclopedia
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American
silent film
actor
, comedian
, director
, and screenwriter
. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company
he eventually moved to Keystone Studios
where he worked with Mabel Normand
and Harold Lloyd
. He mentored Charlie Chaplin
and discovered Buster Keaton
and Bob Hope
.
He was one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s, and soon became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, signing a contract in 1921 with Paramount Pictures for an unprecedented $1 million.
In September 1921, Arbuckle attended a party at the St. Francis Hotel
in San Francisco during the Labor Day
weekend. Bit player Virginia Rappe
became drunk and ill at the party; she died four days later at a sanitarium known for performing abortions. Arbuckle was accused by a well-known madam of raping and accidentally killing Rappe. Arbuckle endured three widely publicized trials for manslaughter
. His films were subsequently banned and he was publicly ostracized.
Though he was acquitted in the third trial and received a written apology from the jury, the trial's scandal has mostly overshadowed his legacy as a pioneering comedian. Though the ban on his films was lifted within less than a year, Arbuckle only worked sparingly through the 1920s. He died in his sleep of a heart attack, aged 46, in 1933.
, one of nine children born to Mollie and William Goodrich Arbuckle. Roscoe Arbuckle weighed in excess of 13 lb (5.9 kg) at birth and as both parents had slim builds this resulted in his father not believing the child was his own offspring. This disbelief led him to name the child after a politician (and notorious philanderer) whom he despised, Republican senator Roscoe Conkling
. The birth was traumatic for Mollie and resulted in chronic health problems which contributed to her death 12 years later.
Arbuckle had a "wonderful" singing voice and was extremely agile. At the age of eight his mother encouraged him to perform in theatres which he enjoyed until she died in 1899 when he was 12. His father, who had always treated him harshly, now refused to support him and Arbuckle got work doing odd jobs in a hotel. Arbuckle was in the habit of singing while he worked and was overheard by a customer who was a professional singer. The customer invited him to perform in an amateur talent show. The show consisted of the audience judging acts by clapping or jeering with bad acts pulled off the stage by a shepherd's crook. Arbuckle sang, danced and did some clowning around but did not impress the audience. He saw the crook emerge from the wings and to avoid it somersaulted into the orchestra pit
in obvious panic. The audience went wild and he not only won the competition but began a career in vaudeville
.
to sing in his new Unique Theater in San Francisco
, which was the start of a long friendship between the two. He then joined the Pantages Theatre Group
touring the West Coast of the United States
and in 1906 joined the Orpheum Theater in Portland, Oregon
owned by Leon Errol
. Arbuckle became the main act and the group took their show on tour.
On August 6, 1908 he married Minta Durfee
(1889–1975), the daughter of Charles Warren Durfee and Flora Adkins. Durfee starred in many early comedy films, often with Arbuckle. They reportedly made a strange couple as Minta was short and petite while Arbuckle was tall and very large. Arbuckle then joined the Morosco Burbank Stock vaudeville company and went on a tour of China
and Japan
returning in early 1909.
Arbuckle began his film career with the Selig Polyscope Company
in July 1909 when he appeared in Ben's Kid
. Arbuckle appeared sporadically in Selig one-reelers until 1913, moved briefly to Universal Pictures
and became a star in producer-director Mack Sennett
's Keystone Cops comedies. (However, according to the Motion Picture Studio Directory for 1919 and 1921, Arbuckle began his screen career with Keystone in 1913 as an extra for $3 a day, working his way up through the acting ranks to become a lead player and director.) Although his large size was undoubtedly part of his comedic appeal Arbuckle was self-conscious about his weight and refused to use it to get "cheap" laughs. For example he would not allow himself to be stuck in a doorway or chair.
Arbuckle was a talented singer. After Enrico Caruso heard him sing he urged the comedian to "give up this nonsense you do for a living, with training you could become the second greatest singer in the world".
Despite his massive physical size, Arbuckle was remarkably agile and acrobatic. Mack Sennett
, when recounting his first meeting with Arbuckle, noted that he "skipped up the stairs as lightly as Fred Astaire
"; and, "without warning went into a feather light step, clapped his hands and did a backward somersault as graceful as a girl tumbler". His comedies are noted as rollicking and fast-paced, have many chase scenes, and feature sight gags. Arbuckle was fond of the famous "pie in the face
", a comedy cliché
that has come to symbolize silent-film-era comedy itself. The earliest known use of this gag was in the June 1913 Keystone one-reeler A Noise from the Deep
, starring Arbuckle and frequent screen partner Mabel Normand
. (The first known "pie in the face" on-screen is in Ben Turpin
's Mr. Flip in 1909. However, the oldest known thrown "pie in the face" is Normand's.)
In 1914, Paramount Pictures
made the then-unheard of offer of US$1,000-a-day plus 25% of all profits and complete artistic control to make movies with Arbuckle and Normand. The movies were so lucrative and popular that in 1918 they offered Arbuckle a three-year, $3 million contract (2010: $43,057,003).
By 1916, Arbuckle's weight and heavy drinking were causing severe health problems and an infection he caught became a carbuncle
on his leg so bad that amputation was considered. Although he recovered with his leg intact, he had lost 80 lb (36.3 kg)—managing to get his weight down to 266 lbs (120 kg)—and he had become addicted to morphine
. This is reported to have been given to him by doctors to diminish the pains in his legs, as the danger of using morphine was not yet widely known.
Following his recovery, Arbuckle started his own film company, Comique, in partnership with Joseph Schenck
. Although Comique produced some of the best short pictures of the silent era, in 1918 Arbuckle transferred his controlling interest in the company to Buster Keaton
and accepted Paramount's $3 million offer to make up to 18 feature films over three years.
Arbuckle disliked his screen nickname, which he had been given because of his substantial girth. "Fatty" had also been Arbuckle's nickname since school; "It was inevitable", he said. He weighed 185 lb (83.9 kg) when he was 12. Fans also called Roscoe "The Prince of Whales" and "The Balloonatic". However, the name Fatty identifies the character that Arbuckle portrayed on-screen (usually, a naive hayseed)—not Arbuckle himself. When Arbuckle portrayed a female, the character was named "Miss Fatty", as in the film Miss Fatty's Seaside Lovers
. Arbuckle discouraged anyone from addressing him as "Fatty" off-screen and when they did so his usual response was "I've got a name, you know."
joined Keystone Studios
in 1914, Arbuckle mentored him. Chaplin's most famous character, "the Tramp", was created after Chaplin adopted Arbuckle's trademark "balloon" baggy pants, boots and undersized hat.
his first film-making work in the 1917 short, The Butcher Boy
. They soon became screen partners, with a deadpan Buster soberly assisting the wacky Roscoe during his adventures. When Arbuckle was promoted to feature films, Keaton inherited Arbuckle's short-subject company Comique, which launched his own separate career as a comedy star. Their close friendship never wavered, even when Arbuckle was beset by tragedy, depression and his downfall. In his autobiography, Keaton described Arbuckle's playful nature and his love of practical jokes, including several elaborately constructed schemes which the two successfully played, at the expense of various Hollywood studio figures.
his break in show business. In 1927, Arbuckle allowed Hope to be the opening act in his comedy show in Cleveland. Roscoe then gave Hope the names and numbers of his friends in Hollywood, telling him to "go west".
from an accident on set, drove to San Francisco with two friends, Lowell Sherman
(an actor/director) and cameraman Fred Fischbach. The three checked into three rooms 1219 (Arbuckle & Fischbach), 1220 (empty) and 1221 (Sherman) at the St. Francis Hotel
. They had rented 1220 as a party room and invited several women to the suite.
During the carousing, a 26-year-old aspiring actress named Virginia Rappe
was found seriously ill in room 1219 and was examined by the hotel doctor, who concluded her symptoms were mostly caused by intoxication and gave her morphine
to calm her. Rappe was not hospitalized until two days after the incident.
In fact, Virginia Rappe was already an ill woman. She suffered from chronic cystitis
, a condition that flared up dramatically whenever she drank. Her heavy drinking habits and the poor quality of the era's bootleg alcohol could leave her in severe physical distress. She developed a reputation for over-imbibing at parties, then drunkenly tearing at her clothes from the resulting physical pain. But by the time of the St. Francis Hotel party, her reproductive health was a greater concern. She had undergone several abortions in the space of a few years, the quality of care she received for such procedures was probably substandard, and she was preparing to undergo another (or, more likely, had recently done so) as a result of a pregnancy by her boyfriend, director Henry Lehrman
.
Author Andy Edmonds theorized that during the relatively innocent horseplay at the party, Arbuckle may have accidentally struck Rappe's midsection with his knee. If she had undergone a botched abortion during the days immediately before, the blow might have been enough to badly damage her already compromised internal organs. This would also account for the statements that a delirious Rappe was alleged to have made later during the party, statements along the lines of, "Arbuckle did it," or "He hurt me," without implicating Arbuckle in any rape or violent attack on her.
At the hospital, Rappe's companion at the party, Bambina Maude Delmont, told Rappe's doctor that Arbuckle had rape
d her friend. The doctor examined Rappe but found no evidence. Rappe died one day after her hospitalization of peritonitis
, caused by a ruptured bladder
. Delmont then told police that Arbuckle raped Rappe, and the police concluded that the impact Arbuckle's overweight body had on Rappe eventually caused her bladder to rupture. Rappe's manager Al Semnacker (at a later press conference) accused Arbuckle of using a piece of ice to simulate sex with her, which led to the injuries. By the time the story was reported in newspapers, the object had evolved into being a Coca-Cola
or champagne bottle, instead of a piece of ice. In fact, witnesses testified that Arbuckle rubbed the ice on Rappe's stomach to ease her abdominal pain. Arbuckle denied any wrongdoing. Delmont later made a statement incriminating Arbuckle to the police in an attempt to extort money from Arbuckle's attorneys.
Arbuckle's trial was a major media event; exaggerated and sensationalized stories in William Randolph Hearst
's nationwide newspaper chain damaged his career. The story was fueled by yellow journalism
, with the newspapers portraying him as a gross lecher who used his weight to overpower innocent girls. In reality, Arbuckle was a good natured man who was so shy with women that he was regarded by those who knew him as, "the most chaste man in pictures". Hearst was gratified by the Arbuckle scandal, and later said that it had "sold more newspapers than any event since the sinking of the RMS Lusitania
." The resulting scandal destroyed Arbuckle's career and his personal life. Morality groups called for Arbuckle to be sentenced to death, and studio executives ordered Arbuckle's industry friends (whose careers they controlled) not to publicly speak up for him. Charlie Chaplin was in England at the time; Buster Keaton did make a public statement in support of Arbuckle; film actor William S. Hart
, who had never worked with Arbuckle, made public statements which presumed that Arbuckle was guilty.
The prosecutor, San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady
, an intensely ambitious man who planned to run for governor, made public pronouncements of Arbuckle’s guilt and pressured witnesses to make false statements. Brady at first used Delmont as his star witness during the indictment hearing. Although the judge threatened Brady with dismissal of the case, Brady refused to allow Delmont, the only witness accusing Arbuckle, to take the stand and testify. Delmont had a long criminal record with convictions for racketeering, bigamy
, fraud
, and extortion
, and allegedly was making a living by luring men into compromising positions and capturing them in photographs, to be used as evidence in divorce proceedings. The defense had also obtained a letter from Delmont admitting to a plan to extort payment from Arbuckle. In view of Delmont’s constantly changing story, her testimony would have ended any chance of going to trial. Ultimately, the judge found no evidence of rape. After hearing testimony from one of the party guests, Zey Prevon, that Rappe told her "Roscoe hurt me" on her deathbed, the judge decided that Arbuckle could be charged with first-degree murder. Brady had originally planned to seek the death penalty. The charge was later reduced to manslaughter
.
after nearly three weeks in jail. The first trial began on November 14, 1921 in the city courthouse in downtown San Francisco. At the beginning of the trial Arbuckle told his already-estranged wife, Minta Durfee, that he did not harm Rappe; she believed him and appeared regularly in the courtroom to support him. Public feeling was so negative that she was later shot at while entering the courthouse.
San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady
served as the prosecutor. Brady's first witnesses during the trial included Betty Campbell, a model, who attended the September 5 party and testified that she saw Arbuckle with a smile on his face hours after the alleged rape occurred; Grace Hultson, a local nurse who testified it was very likely that Arbuckle did rape Rappe and bruise her body in the process; and Dr. Edward Heinrich, a local criminologist
who claimed he found Arbuckle's fingerprints smeared with Rappe's blood on room 1219's bathroom door. Dr. Arthur Beardslee, the hotel doctor, testified that an external force seemed to have damaged the bladder. During cross-examination, Betty Campbell, however, revealed that Brady threatened to charge her with perjury
if she did not testify against Arbuckle. Dr. Heinrich's claim to have found fingerprints was cast into doubt after Arbuckle's defense attorney, Gavin McNab, produced the St. Francis hotel maid, who testified that she had cleaned the room before the investigation even took place and did not find any blood on the bathroom door. Dr. Beardslee admitted that Rappe had never mentioned being assaulted while he was treating her. McNab was furthermore able to get Nurse Hultson to admit that the rupture of Rappe's bladder could very well have been a result of cancer
, and that the bruises on her body could also have been a result of the heavy jewelry she was wearing that evening. During the defense stage of the trial, McNab called various pathology experts who testified that while Virginia Rappe's bladder had ruptured, there was evidence of chronic inflammation and no evidence of any pathological changes preceding the rupture; in other words, there was no external cause for the rupture.
Taking the witness stand as the defense's final witness, Arbuckle was simple, direct, and unflustered in both direct and cross examination. In his testimony, Arbuckle claimed that Rappe, whom he testified he had known for five or six years, came into the party room around midnight, and that some time afterward Mae Taub (daughter-in-law of Billy Sunday
) asked him for a ride into town, so he went to his room (1219) to change his clothes and discovered Rappe vomiting in the toilet. Arbuckle then claimed Rappe told him she felt ill and asked to lie down, and that he carried her into the bedroom and asked a few of the party guests to help treat her. To calm Rappe down, they placed her in a bathtub of cool water. Arbuckle and Fischbach then took her to room 1227 and called the hotel manager and doctor. After the doctor declared Rappe was just drunk, Arbuckle then drove Taub to town. The courtroom spectators, most of whom were fans and supporters of Arbuckle, reportedly booed and jeered at Brady and most of the prosecution witnesses during the entire trial, and they also reportedly stood, cheered and applauded for Arbuckle after he testified.
The prosecution presented medical descriptions of Rappe's bladder as evidence that she had an illness. In his testimony, Arbuckle calmly denied he had any knowledge of Rappe's illness. During cross-examination, Brady aggressively grilled Arbuckle that he refused to call a doctor, and argued that he refused to do so because he knew of Rappe's illness and saw a perfect opportunity to kill her. After over two weeks of testimony with 60 prosecution and defense witnesses, including 18 doctors who testified about Miss Rappe's illness, the defense rested. On December 4, 1921, the jury returned deadlocked
after 44 straight hours of deliberation with a 10–2 not guilty verdict, and a mistrial was declared.
Members of the jury later revealed that one holdout named Helen Hubbard had announced to them in private that she would vote guilty "until hell freezes over" and that she refused to discuss the evidence, look at the exhibits, or read the trial transcripts. All others voted for acquittal until at the end one male juror joined Hubbard. Hubbard's husband was a lawyer who did business with the D.A.'s office. It was also revealed that Hubbard was a member of the first California Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution
, a feminist organization. According to American sociologist Gary Alan Fine
, "Reaction to Arbuckle's arrest was linked to the gender politics of the early 1920s," and indeed Hubbard was referred to in the press as a representative of women's rights. The Examiner described her favorably as "a titian-haired Amazon combining the exact knowledge of a housewife and a firm belief in equal rights."
The third trial began on March 13, 1922, and this time the defense took no chances. McNab took an aggressive defense, completely tearing apart the prosecution's case. This time, Arbuckle again testified and maintained his denials in his heartfelt testimony about his version of the events at the hotel party. McNab also managed to get in still more evidence about Virginia Rappe's lurid past, and reviewed how the district attorney, Matthew Brady fell for the outlandish charges of Maude Delmont, whom McNab described in his long closing statement as "the complaining witness who never witnessed". Another hole in the prosecution's case was opened because Zey Pevron, a key witness, was out of the country and unable to testify. On April 12, the jury began deliberations and it took only six minutes to return a unanimous not guilty verdict—five of those minutes were spent writing a statement of apology, a public apology unprecedented in American justice. The jury statement as read by the jury foreman stated:
Some experts later concluded that Rappe's bladder might also have ruptured as a result of an abortion she might have had a short time before the September 5, 1921 party. However, Rappe's organs had been destroyed and it was now impossible to test for pregnancy. Because alcohol was consumed at the party, Arbuckle was forced to plead guilty to one count of violating the Volstead Act
, and had to pay a $500 fine. At the time of his acquittal, Arbuckle owed $700,000 in legal fees to his attorneys for the three criminal trials, and had lost his house and his cars to pay off some of the debt.
Although cleared of all criminal charges, the scandal and trials had greatly damaged his popularity among the general public, and Will H. Hays
, who served as the head of the newly-formed Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America
(MPPDA) Hollywood censor
board, cited Arbuckle as an example of the poor morals in Hollywood. On April 18, 1922, six days after Arbuckle's acquittal, Hays banned Roscoe Arbuckle from ever working in U.S. movies again. He had also requested that all showings and bookings of Arbuckle films be canceled, and exhibitors complied. In December of the same year, Hays elected to lift the ban, but Arbuckle was not able to secure work as an actor for a long time. Most exhibitors still declined to show Arbuckle's films, several of which now have no copies known to have survived intact. One of Arbuckle's feature-length films known to survive is Leap Year, which Paramount declined to release in the United States due to the scandal. It was eventually released in Europe.
died after drinking a large quantity of medication meant for her husband (matinee idol Jack Pickford
), which she had mistaken for water. In February 1922, the murder of director William Desmond Taylor
effectively ended the careers of actresses Mary Miles Minter
and former Arbuckle screen partner Mabel Normand
. In 1923, actor/director Wallace Reid
's drug addiction resulted in his death. In 1924, actor/writer/director Thomas H. Ince
died mysteriously, aboard W. R. Hearst's yacht.
filed for divorce, charging grounds of desertion. In January 1924, the divorce was granted on her part. They had been separated since 1921, though Durfee always claimed he was the nicest man in the world, and that they were still friends. After a brief reconciliation, Durfee again filed for divorce, this time from Paris
, in December 1924. Arbuckle married Doris Deane on May 16, 1925.
Arbuckle tried returning to filmmaking, but industry resistance to distributing his pictures continued to linger after his acquittal. He retreated into alcoholism
. In the words of his first wife, "Roscoe only seemed to find solace and comfort in a bottle".
Buster Keaton
attempted to help Arbuckle by giving him work on his films. Arbuckle wrote the story for a Keaton short called Daydreams
(1922). Arbuckle allegedly co-directed scenes in Keaton's Sherlock, Jr.
(1924), but it is unclear how much of this footage remained in the film's final cut
.
In 1925, Carter Dehaven
made the short Character Studies. Arbuckle appeared alongside Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd
, Rudolph Valentino
, Douglas Fairbanks
, and Jackie Coogan
.
in The Day the Laughter Stopped (a biography of Arbuckle with special attention to the scandal and its aftermath), Arbuckle's father's full name was William Goodrich Arbuckle. A persistent but unsupported legend credited Keaton, an inveterate punster, with suggesting that Arbuckle become a director under the alias "Will B. Good". The pun being too obvious, Arbuckle adopted the more formal pseudonym "William Goodrich".
During the middle and late 1920s and early 1930s, Arbuckle directed a number of comedy shorts under the pseudonym for Educational Pictures
, which featured lesser-known comics of the day. Louise Brooks
, who played the ingenue in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood
(1931), told Kevin Brownlow
:
, charging desertion and cruelty. On June 21, 1931 Roscoe married Addie Oakley Dukes McPhail
(later Addie Oakley Sheldon, 1905–2003) in Erie, Pennsylvania
.
studios in Brooklyn
. These six shorts constitute the only recordings of his voice. Silent-film comedian Al St. John (Arbuckle's nephew) and actors Lionel Stander
and Shemp Howard appeared with Arbuckle. The films were very successful in America, although when Warner Brothers attempted to release the first one (Hey, Pop!
) in the United Kingdom
, the British Board of Film Censors
cited the 10-year-old scandal and refused to grant an exhibition certificate.
Roscoe Arbuckle had finished filming the last of the two-reelers on June 28, 1933. The next day he was signed by Warner Brothers to make a feature-length film. He reportedly said, "This is the best day of my life." He suffered a heart attack later that night and died in his sleep. He was 46. Arbuckle was cremated, and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
, survive only as worn prints with foreign-language inter-titles. Little or no effort was made to preserve original negatives and prints during Hollywood's first two decades. By the early 21st century some of Arbuckle's short subjects (particularly those co-starring Chaplin or Keaton) had been restored, released on DVD
and even screened theatrically. Arbuckle's early influence on American slapstick comedy is widely cited.
In 2007 director Kevin Connor
planned a film, The Life of the Party, based on Arbuckle's life. It was to star Chris Kattan
and Preston Lacy
. However the project was unable to find funding and was shelved in late 2008.
The 1975 James Ivory
film The Wild Party
has been repeatedly but incorrectly cited as a film dramatization of the Arbuckle/Rappe scandal. In fact it is loosely based on the 1920s poem by Joseph Moncure March
. In this film, James Coco
portrays a heavy-set silent-film comedian named Jolly Grimm whose career is on the skids, but who is desperately planning a comeback. Raquel Welch
portrays his mistress, who ultimately goads him into shooting her. This film may have been inspired by misconceptions surrounding the Arbuckle scandal, yet it bears almost no resemblance to the documented facts of the case.
An episode of Mathnet
featured the death of a silent film actor named Roscoe "Fatty" Tissue. When asked if he buried his fortune with him, secretary Lynne Thigpen
declares, "there was nothing in the casket but Fatty Tissue."
Chris Farley
had expressed interest in starring as Arbuckle in a biography film. This idea was suggested to him by comedy guru Del Close
. Farley died before any details of the film had been worked out.
Fatty Arbuckle's
is an American themed restaurant chain in the UK prominent during the 1980s named after Arbuckle.
In April and May 2006, the Museum of Modern Art
in New York City
mounted a 56-film, month-long retrospective of all of Arbuckle's known surviving work, running the entire series twice. Highlights included The Rounders (1914) with Charlie Chaplin
and Mabel and Fatty's Simple Life
(1915) with Mabel Normand
.
Arbuckle is the subject of a novel entitled I, Fatty
by author Jerry Stahl
. The Day the Laughter Stopped by David Yallop and Frame-Up! The Untold Story of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle by Andy Edmonds are other books on Arbuckle's life.
A scene of one of Fatty Arbuckle's silent films was featured in the HBO pilot episode of Boardwalk Empire. In the scene, Arbuckle is burying a bottle of alcohol and giving it a fake funeral.
In a dream sequence on the TV series Wilfred
, a wine bottle is brought to a party as a gift. The main character, played by actor Elijah Wood
, states that it was Fatty Arbuckle's favorite wine.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company
Selig Polyscope Company
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. Selig Polyscope is noted for establishing Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles...
he eventually moved to Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios was an early movie studio founded in Edendale, California in 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman, owners of the New York Motion Picture Company...
where he worked with Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...
and Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....
. He mentored Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
and discovered Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
.
He was one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s, and soon became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, signing a contract in 1921 with Paramount Pictures for an unprecedented $1 million.
In September 1921, Arbuckle attended a party at the St. Francis Hotel
St. Francis Hotel
The Westin St. Francis is a historic luxury hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square in San Francisco, California. The two twelve-story south wings of the hotel were built just before the San Francisco Earthquake, in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913,...
in San Francisco during the Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
weekend. Bit player Virginia Rappe
Virginia Rappe
Virginia Rappe was an American model and silent film actress.-Early life and career:Rappe was born to unwed mother Mabel Rapp in New York City. Mabel died when Virginia was 11, and Virginia was then raised by her grandmother in Chicago. At age 14 she began working as a commercial and art model in...
became drunk and ill at the party; she died four days later at a sanitarium known for performing abortions. Arbuckle was accused by a well-known madam of raping and accidentally killing Rappe. Arbuckle endured three widely publicized trials for manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
. His films were subsequently banned and he was publicly ostracized.
Though he was acquitted in the third trial and received a written apology from the jury, the trial's scandal has mostly overshadowed his legacy as a pioneering comedian. Though the ban on his films was lifted within less than a year, Arbuckle only worked sparingly through the 1920s. He died in his sleep of a heart attack, aged 46, in 1933.
Early life
Born in Smith Center, KansasSmith Center, Kansas
Smith Center is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,665.-Geography:Smith Center is located at...
, one of nine children born to Mollie and William Goodrich Arbuckle. Roscoe Arbuckle weighed in excess of 13 lb (5.9 kg) at birth and as both parents had slim builds this resulted in his father not believing the child was his own offspring. This disbelief led him to name the child after a politician (and notorious philanderer) whom he despised, Republican senator Roscoe Conkling
Roscoe Conkling
Roscoe Conkling was a politician from New York who served both as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. He was the leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party and the last person to refuse a U.S. Supreme Court appointment after he had...
. The birth was traumatic for Mollie and resulted in chronic health problems which contributed to her death 12 years later.
Arbuckle had a "wonderful" singing voice and was extremely agile. At the age of eight his mother encouraged him to perform in theatres which he enjoyed until she died in 1899 when he was 12. His father, who had always treated him harshly, now refused to support him and Arbuckle got work doing odd jobs in a hotel. Arbuckle was in the habit of singing while he worked and was overheard by a customer who was a professional singer. The customer invited him to perform in an amateur talent show. The show consisted of the audience judging acts by clapping or jeering with bad acts pulled off the stage by a shepherd's crook. Arbuckle sang, danced and did some clowning around but did not impress the audience. He saw the crook emerge from the wings and to avoid it somersaulted into the orchestra pit
Orchestra pit
An orchestra pit is the area in a theater in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music or in cases when incidental music is required...
in obvious panic. The audience went wild and he not only won the competition but began a career in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
.
Career
In 1904 Arbuckle was invited by Sid GraumanSid Grauman
Sidney Patrick Grauman was an American showman who created one of Southern California's most recognizable and visited landmarks, Grauman's Chinese Theater. He was the son of David Grauman who died in 1921 in Los Angeles, California and Rosa Goldsmith...
to sing in his new Unique Theater in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, which was the start of a long friendship between the two. He then joined the Pantages Theatre Group
Alexander Pantages
Alexander Pantages was an American vaudeville and early motion picture producer and impresario who created a large and powerful circuit of theatres across the western United States and Canada.-Early life:...
touring the West Coast of the United States
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
and in 1906 joined the Orpheum Theater in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
owned by Leon Errol
Leon Errol
Leon Errol , was an Australian-born American comedian and actor, popular in the first half of the 20th century.-Biography:...
. Arbuckle became the main act and the group took their show on tour.
On August 6, 1908 he married Minta Durfee
Minta Durfee
Araminta Estelle "Minta" Durfee was an American silent film actress from Los Angeles, California, possibly best known for her role in Mickey .-Biography:...
(1889–1975), the daughter of Charles Warren Durfee and Flora Adkins. Durfee starred in many early comedy films, often with Arbuckle. They reportedly made a strange couple as Minta was short and petite while Arbuckle was tall and very large. Arbuckle then joined the Morosco Burbank Stock vaudeville company and went on a tour of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
returning in early 1909.
Arbuckle began his film career with the Selig Polyscope Company
Selig Polyscope Company
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. Selig Polyscope is noted for establishing Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles...
in July 1909 when he appeared in Ben's Kid
Ben's Kid
Ben's Kid is a 1909 short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle. It was Arbuckle's acting debut.-Cast:* Tom Santschi * Harry Todd* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle...
. Arbuckle appeared sporadically in Selig one-reelers until 1913, moved briefly to Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
and became a star in producer-director Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
's Keystone Cops comedies. (However, according to the Motion Picture Studio Directory for 1919 and 1921, Arbuckle began his screen career with Keystone in 1913 as an extra for $3 a day, working his way up through the acting ranks to become a lead player and director.) Although his large size was undoubtedly part of his comedic appeal Arbuckle was self-conscious about his weight and refused to use it to get "cheap" laughs. For example he would not allow himself to be stuck in a doorway or chair.
Arbuckle was a talented singer. After Enrico Caruso heard him sing he urged the comedian to "give up this nonsense you do for a living, with training you could become the second greatest singer in the world".
Screen comedian
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
, when recounting his first meeting with Arbuckle, noted that he "skipped up the stairs as lightly as Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
"; and, "without warning went into a feather light step, clapped his hands and did a backward somersault as graceful as a girl tumbler". His comedies are noted as rollicking and fast-paced, have many chase scenes, and feature sight gags. Arbuckle was fond of the famous "pie in the face
Pieing
Pieing is the act of throwing a pie at a person or persons. This can be a political action when the target is an authority figure, politician, or celebrity and can be used as a means of protesting against the target's political beliefs, or against perceived arrogance or vanity. Perpetrators...
", a comedy cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
that has come to symbolize silent-film-era comedy itself. The earliest known use of this gag was in the June 1913 Keystone one-reeler A Noise from the Deep
A Noise from the Deep
A Noise from the Deep is a 1913 comedy short starring Mabel Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. The film was directed by Mack Sennett and also features the Keystone Cops on horseback...
, starring Arbuckle and frequent screen partner Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...
. (The first known "pie in the face" on-screen is in Ben Turpin
Ben Turpin
Ben Turpin was a cross-eyed American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films.-Personal life:...
's Mr. Flip in 1909. However, the oldest known thrown "pie in the face" is Normand's.)
In 1914, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
made the then-unheard of offer of US$1,000-a-day plus 25% of all profits and complete artistic control to make movies with Arbuckle and Normand. The movies were so lucrative and popular that in 1918 they offered Arbuckle a three-year, $3 million contract (2010: $43,057,003).
By 1916, Arbuckle's weight and heavy drinking were causing severe health problems and an infection he caught became a carbuncle
Carbuncle
A carbuncle is an abscess larger than a boil, usually with one or more openings draining pus onto the skin. It is usually caused by bacterial infection, most commonly Staphylococcus aureus. The infection is contagious and may spread to other areas of the body or other people...
on his leg so bad that amputation was considered. Although he recovered with his leg intact, he had lost 80 lb (36.3 kg)—managing to get his weight down to 266 lbs (120 kg)—and he had become addicted to morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
. This is reported to have been given to him by doctors to diminish the pains in his legs, as the danger of using morphine was not yet widely known.
Following his recovery, Arbuckle started his own film company, Comique, in partnership with Joseph Schenck
Joseph Schenck
Joseph Michael Schenck was a pioneer executive who played a key role in the development of the United States film industry.Born in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia to a Jewish household, he and his family-including younger brother Nicholas- emigrated to New York City in 1893, he and Nicholas...
. Although Comique produced some of the best short pictures of the silent era, in 1918 Arbuckle transferred his controlling interest in the company to Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
and accepted Paramount's $3 million offer to make up to 18 feature films over three years.
Arbuckle disliked his screen nickname, which he had been given because of his substantial girth. "Fatty" had also been Arbuckle's nickname since school; "It was inevitable", he said. He weighed 185 lb (83.9 kg) when he was 12. Fans also called Roscoe "The Prince of Whales" and "The Balloonatic". However, the name Fatty identifies the character that Arbuckle portrayed on-screen (usually, a naive hayseed)—not Arbuckle himself. When Arbuckle portrayed a female, the character was named "Miss Fatty", as in the film Miss Fatty's Seaside Lovers
Miss Fatty's Seaside Lovers
Miss Fatty's Seaside Lovers is a 1915 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle and featuring Harold Lloyd.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Finnegan's Daughter* Joe Bordeaux - Short Masher* Edgar Kennedy - Masher* Harold Lloyd - Masher...
. Arbuckle discouraged anyone from addressing him as "Fatty" off-screen and when they did so his usual response was "I've got a name, you know."
Charlie Chaplin
After British actor Charlie ChaplinCharlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
joined Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios was an early movie studio founded in Edendale, California in 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman, owners of the New York Motion Picture Company...
in 1914, Arbuckle mentored him. Chaplin's most famous character, "the Tramp", was created after Chaplin adopted Arbuckle's trademark "balloon" baggy pants, boots and undersized hat.
Buster Keaton
Arbuckle gave Buster KeatonBuster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
his first film-making work in the 1917 short, The Butcher Boy
The Butcher Boy (1917 film)
The Butcher Boy is a 1917 short comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. This was the first in Arbuckle's series of films with the Comique Film Corporation, and Keaton's film debut.- Plot :...
. They soon became screen partners, with a deadpan Buster soberly assisting the wacky Roscoe during his adventures. When Arbuckle was promoted to feature films, Keaton inherited Arbuckle's short-subject company Comique, which launched his own separate career as a comedy star. Their close friendship never wavered, even when Arbuckle was beset by tragedy, depression and his downfall. In his autobiography, Keaton described Arbuckle's playful nature and his love of practical jokes, including several elaborately constructed schemes which the two successfully played, at the expense of various Hollywood studio figures.
Bob Hope
Arbuckle also gave Bob HopeBob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
his break in show business. In 1927, Arbuckle allowed Hope to be the opening act in his comedy show in Cleveland. Roscoe then gave Hope the names and numbers of his friends in Hollywood, telling him to "go west".
The scandal
On September 5, 1921 Arbuckle took a break from his hectic film schedule and, despite suffering from second degree burns to both buttocksButtocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
from an accident on set, drove to San Francisco with two friends, Lowell Sherman
Lowell Sherman
Lowell Sherman was an American actor and film director....
(an actor/director) and cameraman Fred Fischbach. The three checked into three rooms 1219 (Arbuckle & Fischbach), 1220 (empty) and 1221 (Sherman) at the St. Francis Hotel
St. Francis Hotel
The Westin St. Francis is a historic luxury hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square in San Francisco, California. The two twelve-story south wings of the hotel were built just before the San Francisco Earthquake, in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913,...
. They had rented 1220 as a party room and invited several women to the suite.
During the carousing, a 26-year-old aspiring actress named Virginia Rappe
Virginia Rappe
Virginia Rappe was an American model and silent film actress.-Early life and career:Rappe was born to unwed mother Mabel Rapp in New York City. Mabel died when Virginia was 11, and Virginia was then raised by her grandmother in Chicago. At age 14 she began working as a commercial and art model in...
was found seriously ill in room 1219 and was examined by the hotel doctor, who concluded her symptoms were mostly caused by intoxication and gave her morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
to calm her. Rappe was not hospitalized until two days after the incident.
In fact, Virginia Rappe was already an ill woman. She suffered from chronic cystitis
Cystitis
Cystitis is a term that refers to urinary bladder inflammation that results from any one of a number of distinct syndromes. It is most commonly caused by a bacterial infection in which case it is referred to as a urinary tract infection.-Signs and symptoms:...
, a condition that flared up dramatically whenever she drank. Her heavy drinking habits and the poor quality of the era's bootleg alcohol could leave her in severe physical distress. She developed a reputation for over-imbibing at parties, then drunkenly tearing at her clothes from the resulting physical pain. But by the time of the St. Francis Hotel party, her reproductive health was a greater concern. She had undergone several abortions in the space of a few years, the quality of care she received for such procedures was probably substandard, and she was preparing to undergo another (or, more likely, had recently done so) as a result of a pregnancy by her boyfriend, director Henry Lehrman
Henry Lehrman
Henry Lehrman was an American actor, screenwriter and film director and producer.Born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Lehrman emigrated to the United States at a young age and although he is best remembered as a film director, he began his career as an actor in a 1909 Biograph Studios production...
.
Author Andy Edmonds theorized that during the relatively innocent horseplay at the party, Arbuckle may have accidentally struck Rappe's midsection with his knee. If she had undergone a botched abortion during the days immediately before, the blow might have been enough to badly damage her already compromised internal organs. This would also account for the statements that a delirious Rappe was alleged to have made later during the party, statements along the lines of, "Arbuckle did it," or "He hurt me," without implicating Arbuckle in any rape or violent attack on her.
At the hospital, Rappe's companion at the party, Bambina Maude Delmont, told Rappe's doctor that Arbuckle had rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
d her friend. The doctor examined Rappe but found no evidence. Rappe died one day after her hospitalization of peritonitis
Peritonitis
Peritonitis is an inflammation of the peritoneum, the serous membrane that lines part of the abdominal cavity and viscera. Peritonitis may be localised or generalised, and may result from infection or from a non-infectious process.-Abdominal pain and tenderness:The main manifestations of...
, caused by a ruptured bladder
Bladder
Bladder usually refers to an anatomical hollow organBladder may also refer to:-Biology:* Urinary bladder in humans** Urinary bladder ** Bladder control; see Urinary incontinence** Artificial urinary bladder, in humans...
. Delmont then told police that Arbuckle raped Rappe, and the police concluded that the impact Arbuckle's overweight body had on Rappe eventually caused her bladder to rupture. Rappe's manager Al Semnacker (at a later press conference) accused Arbuckle of using a piece of ice to simulate sex with her, which led to the injuries. By the time the story was reported in newspapers, the object had evolved into being a Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
or champagne bottle, instead of a piece of ice. In fact, witnesses testified that Arbuckle rubbed the ice on Rappe's stomach to ease her abdominal pain. Arbuckle denied any wrongdoing. Delmont later made a statement incriminating Arbuckle to the police in an attempt to extort money from Arbuckle's attorneys.
Arbuckle's trial was a major media event; exaggerated and sensationalized stories in William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
's nationwide newspaper chain damaged his career. The story was fueled by yellow journalism
Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism or the yellow press is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism...
, with the newspapers portraying him as a gross lecher who used his weight to overpower innocent girls. In reality, Arbuckle was a good natured man who was so shy with women that he was regarded by those who knew him as, "the most chaste man in pictures". Hearst was gratified by the Arbuckle scandal, and later said that it had "sold more newspapers than any event since the sinking of the RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
." The resulting scandal destroyed Arbuckle's career and his personal life. Morality groups called for Arbuckle to be sentenced to death, and studio executives ordered Arbuckle's industry friends (whose careers they controlled) not to publicly speak up for him. Charlie Chaplin was in England at the time; Buster Keaton did make a public statement in support of Arbuckle; film actor William S. Hart
William S. Hart
William Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered for having "imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity."-Biography:...
, who had never worked with Arbuckle, made public statements which presumed that Arbuckle was guilty.
Matthew Brady (district attorney)
Matthew Brady was a district attorney in San Francisco from 1919 through 1943.Brady defeated previous district attorney Charles Fickert, who was responsible for the conviction of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings in the Preparedness Day bombing....
, an intensely ambitious man who planned to run for governor, made public pronouncements of Arbuckle’s guilt and pressured witnesses to make false statements. Brady at first used Delmont as his star witness during the indictment hearing. Although the judge threatened Brady with dismissal of the case, Brady refused to allow Delmont, the only witness accusing Arbuckle, to take the stand and testify. Delmont had a long criminal record with convictions for racketeering, bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
, fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
, and extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
, and allegedly was making a living by luring men into compromising positions and capturing them in photographs, to be used as evidence in divorce proceedings. The defense had also obtained a letter from Delmont admitting to a plan to extort payment from Arbuckle. In view of Delmont’s constantly changing story, her testimony would have ended any chance of going to trial. Ultimately, the judge found no evidence of rape. After hearing testimony from one of the party guests, Zey Prevon, that Rappe told her "Roscoe hurt me" on her deathbed, the judge decided that Arbuckle could be charged with first-degree murder. Brady had originally planned to seek the death penalty. The charge was later reduced to manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
.
The first trial
Arbuckle was then arrested on the charges of manslaughter but arranged bailBail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
after nearly three weeks in jail. The first trial began on November 14, 1921 in the city courthouse in downtown San Francisco. At the beginning of the trial Arbuckle told his already-estranged wife, Minta Durfee, that he did not harm Rappe; she believed him and appeared regularly in the courtroom to support him. Public feeling was so negative that she was later shot at while entering the courthouse.
San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady
Matthew Brady (district attorney)
Matthew Brady was a district attorney in San Francisco from 1919 through 1943.Brady defeated previous district attorney Charles Fickert, who was responsible for the conviction of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings in the Preparedness Day bombing....
served as the prosecutor. Brady's first witnesses during the trial included Betty Campbell, a model, who attended the September 5 party and testified that she saw Arbuckle with a smile on his face hours after the alleged rape occurred; Grace Hultson, a local nurse who testified it was very likely that Arbuckle did rape Rappe and bruise her body in the process; and Dr. Edward Heinrich, a local criminologist
Criminology
Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...
who claimed he found Arbuckle's fingerprints smeared with Rappe's blood on room 1219's bathroom door. Dr. Arthur Beardslee, the hotel doctor, testified that an external force seemed to have damaged the bladder. During cross-examination, Betty Campbell, however, revealed that Brady threatened to charge her with perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
if she did not testify against Arbuckle. Dr. Heinrich's claim to have found fingerprints was cast into doubt after Arbuckle's defense attorney, Gavin McNab, produced the St. Francis hotel maid, who testified that she had cleaned the room before the investigation even took place and did not find any blood on the bathroom door. Dr. Beardslee admitted that Rappe had never mentioned being assaulted while he was treating her. McNab was furthermore able to get Nurse Hultson to admit that the rupture of Rappe's bladder could very well have been a result of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, and that the bruises on her body could also have been a result of the heavy jewelry she was wearing that evening. During the defense stage of the trial, McNab called various pathology experts who testified that while Virginia Rappe's bladder had ruptured, there was evidence of chronic inflammation and no evidence of any pathological changes preceding the rupture; in other words, there was no external cause for the rupture.
Taking the witness stand as the defense's final witness, Arbuckle was simple, direct, and unflustered in both direct and cross examination. In his testimony, Arbuckle claimed that Rappe, whom he testified he had known for five or six years, came into the party room around midnight, and that some time afterward Mae Taub (daughter-in-law of Billy Sunday
Billy Sunday
William Ashley "Billy" Sunday was an American athlete who, after being a popular outfielder in baseball's National League during the 1880s, became the most celebrated and influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century.Born into poverty in Iowa, Sunday spent some...
) asked him for a ride into town, so he went to his room (1219) to change his clothes and discovered Rappe vomiting in the toilet. Arbuckle then claimed Rappe told him she felt ill and asked to lie down, and that he carried her into the bedroom and asked a few of the party guests to help treat her. To calm Rappe down, they placed her in a bathtub of cool water. Arbuckle and Fischbach then took her to room 1227 and called the hotel manager and doctor. After the doctor declared Rappe was just drunk, Arbuckle then drove Taub to town. The courtroom spectators, most of whom were fans and supporters of Arbuckle, reportedly booed and jeered at Brady and most of the prosecution witnesses during the entire trial, and they also reportedly stood, cheered and applauded for Arbuckle after he testified.
The prosecution presented medical descriptions of Rappe's bladder as evidence that she had an illness. In his testimony, Arbuckle calmly denied he had any knowledge of Rappe's illness. During cross-examination, Brady aggressively grilled Arbuckle that he refused to call a doctor, and argued that he refused to do so because he knew of Rappe's illness and saw a perfect opportunity to kill her. After over two weeks of testimony with 60 prosecution and defense witnesses, including 18 doctors who testified about Miss Rappe's illness, the defense rested. On December 4, 1921, the jury returned deadlocked
Hung jury
A hung jury or deadlocked jury is a jury that cannot, by the required voting threshold, agree upon a verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is unable to change its votes due to severe differences of opinion.- England and Wales :...
after 44 straight hours of deliberation with a 10–2 not guilty verdict, and a mistrial was declared.
Members of the jury later revealed that one holdout named Helen Hubbard had announced to them in private that she would vote guilty "until hell freezes over" and that she refused to discuss the evidence, look at the exhibits, or read the trial transcripts. All others voted for acquittal until at the end one male juror joined Hubbard. Hubbard's husband was a lawyer who did business with the D.A.'s office. It was also revealed that Hubbard was a member of the first California Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....
, a feminist organization. According to American sociologist Gary Alan Fine
Gary Alan Fine
Gary Alan Fine is an American sociologist and author.- Life and career :The son of Bernard David Fine and Bernice Estelle Tanz, Fine grew up in Manhattan and went to the Horace Mann School. He studied psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and then received his PhD from Harvard in social...
, "Reaction to Arbuckle's arrest was linked to the gender politics of the early 1920s," and indeed Hubbard was referred to in the press as a representative of women's rights. The Examiner described her favorably as "a titian-haired Amazon combining the exact knowledge of a housewife and a firm belief in equal rights."
The second trial
The second trial began on January 11, 1922 with a different jury, but with the same legal defense and prosecution as well as the same presiding judge. The same evidence was presented, but this time one of the witnesses, Zey Prevon, testified that district attorney Brady had forced her to lie. Another witness who claimed Arbuckle had bribed him turned out to be an escaped prisoner charged with assaulting an eight-year-old girl, and who was looking for a sentence reduction. Heinsen took back his earlier testimony and testified that the case's fingerprint evidence was likely faked. Further, in contrast to the first trial, Rappe's history of promiscuity and heavy drinking was detailed. The second trial also discredited some major evidence such as the identification of Arbuckle's fingerprints on the hotel bedroom door. The defense was so convinced of an acquittal that Arbuckle was not called to testify. Arbuckle's lawyer, McNab, barely made a closing argument to the jury. However, the jury interpreted the refusal to let Arbuckle testify as a sign of guilt. After over 40 hours of deliberation, the jury returned on February 3, deadlocked with a 9–3 guilty verdict. Another mistrial was declared.The third trial
By the time of the third trial, Arbuckle's films had been banned, and newspapers had been filled for the past seven months with stories of alleged Hollywood orgies, murder, and sexual perversion. Delmont was touring the country giving one-woman shows as "The woman who signed the murder charge against Arbuckle", and lecturing on the evils of Hollywood.The third trial began on March 13, 1922, and this time the defense took no chances. McNab took an aggressive defense, completely tearing apart the prosecution's case. This time, Arbuckle again testified and maintained his denials in his heartfelt testimony about his version of the events at the hotel party. McNab also managed to get in still more evidence about Virginia Rappe's lurid past, and reviewed how the district attorney, Matthew Brady fell for the outlandish charges of Maude Delmont, whom McNab described in his long closing statement as "the complaining witness who never witnessed". Another hole in the prosecution's case was opened because Zey Pevron, a key witness, was out of the country and unable to testify. On April 12, the jury began deliberations and it took only six minutes to return a unanimous not guilty verdict—five of those minutes were spent writing a statement of apology, a public apology unprecedented in American justice. The jury statement as read by the jury foreman stated:
Some experts later concluded that Rappe's bladder might also have ruptured as a result of an abortion she might have had a short time before the September 5, 1921 party. However, Rappe's organs had been destroyed and it was now impossible to test for pregnancy. Because alcohol was consumed at the party, Arbuckle was forced to plead guilty to one count of violating the Volstead Act
Volstead Act
The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was the enabling legislation for the Eighteenth Amendment which established prohibition in the United States...
, and had to pay a $500 fine. At the time of his acquittal, Arbuckle owed $700,000 in legal fees to his attorneys for the three criminal trials, and had lost his house and his cars to pay off some of the debt.
Although cleared of all criminal charges, the scandal and trials had greatly damaged his popularity among the general public, and Will H. Hays
Will H. Hays
William Harrison Hays, Sr. , was the namesake of the Hays Code for censorship of American films, chairman of the Republican National Committee and U.S. Postmaster General from 1921 to 1922....
, who served as the head of the newly-formed Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
(MPPDA) Hollywood censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
board, cited Arbuckle as an example of the poor morals in Hollywood. On April 18, 1922, six days after Arbuckle's acquittal, Hays banned Roscoe Arbuckle from ever working in U.S. movies again. He had also requested that all showings and bookings of Arbuckle films be canceled, and exhibitors complied. In December of the same year, Hays elected to lift the ban, but Arbuckle was not able to secure work as an actor for a long time. Most exhibitors still declined to show Arbuckle's films, several of which now have no copies known to have survived intact. One of Arbuckle's feature-length films known to survive is Leap Year, which Paramount declined to release in the United States due to the scandal. It was eventually released in Europe.
Similar concurrent scandals
Though it was regarded as Hollywood's first major scandal, the Arbuckle case was one of four major Paramount-related scandals of the period. In 1920, Olive ThomasOlive Thomas
Olive Thomas was an American silent film actress and model. She is best remembered for her marriage to Jack Pickford and her death.-Early life:...
died after drinking a large quantity of medication meant for her husband (matinee idol Jack Pickford
Jack Pickford
Jack Pickford was a Canadian-born American actor. He was best known for his tabloid lifestyle, marriage to the top starlets of his day, and being of the famous Pickford acting family.-Early life:...
), which she had mistaken for water. In February 1922, the murder of director William Desmond Taylor
William Desmond Taylor
William Desmond Taylor was an Irish-born American actor, successful film director of silent movies and a popular figure in the growing Hollywood film colony of the 1910s and early 1920s...
effectively ended the careers of actresses Mary Miles Minter
Mary Miles Minter
Mary Miles Minter was an American film actress of the silent film era.-Early life and rise to stardom:Born Juliet Reilly in Shreveport, Louisiana, Minter was the daughter of Broadway actress Charlotte Shelby...
and former Arbuckle screen partner Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...
. In 1923, actor/director Wallace Reid
Wallace Reid
Wallace Reid was an actor in silent film referred to as "the screen's most perfect lover".-Early life:Born William Wallace Reid in St...
's drug addiction resulted in his death. In 1924, actor/writer/director Thomas H. Ince
Thomas H. Ince
Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "Father of the Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early Hollywood to the "assembly line"...
died mysteriously, aboard W. R. Hearst's yacht.
Aftermath
In November 1923, Arbuckle's estranged wife Minta DurfeeMinta Durfee
Araminta Estelle "Minta" Durfee was an American silent film actress from Los Angeles, California, possibly best known for her role in Mickey .-Biography:...
filed for divorce, charging grounds of desertion. In January 1924, the divorce was granted on her part. They had been separated since 1921, though Durfee always claimed he was the nicest man in the world, and that they were still friends. After a brief reconciliation, Durfee again filed for divorce, this time from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, in December 1924. Arbuckle married Doris Deane on May 16, 1925.
Arbuckle tried returning to filmmaking, but industry resistance to distributing his pictures continued to linger after his acquittal. He retreated into alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. In the words of his first wife, "Roscoe only seemed to find solace and comfort in a bottle".
Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
attempted to help Arbuckle by giving him work on his films. Arbuckle wrote the story for a Keaton short called Daydreams
Daydreams (1922 film)
Daydreams is a 1922 short comedy film directed by and featuring Buster Keaton.-Cast:* Buster Keaton - The Young Man* Renée Adorée - The Girl* Edward F. Cline - The Theater Director * Joe Keaton - The Girls Father...
(1922). Arbuckle allegedly co-directed scenes in Keaton's Sherlock, Jr.
Sherlock, Jr.
Sherlock, Jr. is an American silent comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton and written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez and Joseph A. Mitchell...
(1924), but it is unclear how much of this footage remained in the film's final cut
Final cut
Final cut may refer to:* The Final Cut , a 1983 album by Pink Floyd** "The Final Cut" , a song included on the above Pink Floyd album* The Final Cut , an industrial music group...
.
In 1925, Carter Dehaven
Carter DeHaven
Carter DeHaven was a movie and stage actor, movie director, and writer....
made the short Character Studies. Arbuckle appeared alongside Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....
, Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
, Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
, and Jackie Coogan
Jackie Coogan
John Leslie Coogan , known professionally as Jackie Coogan, was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family...
.
William Goodrich pseudonym
Eventually, Arbuckle was given work as a film director under the alias William Goodrich. According to author David YallopDavid Yallop
David Anthony Yallop is an agnostic British author who writes chiefly about unsolved crimes. In the 1970s he also contributed scripts for a number of BBC comedy shows...
in The Day the Laughter Stopped (a biography of Arbuckle with special attention to the scandal and its aftermath), Arbuckle's father's full name was William Goodrich Arbuckle. A persistent but unsupported legend credited Keaton, an inveterate punster, with suggesting that Arbuckle become a director under the alias "Will B. Good". The pun being too obvious, Arbuckle adopted the more formal pseudonym "William Goodrich".
During the middle and late 1920s and early 1930s, Arbuckle directed a number of comedy shorts under the pseudonym for Educational Pictures
Educational Pictures
Educational Pictures was a film distribution company founded in 1919 by Earle Hammons . Educational primarily distributed short subjects, and today is probably best known for its series of 1930s comedies starring Buster Keaton, as well as for a series of one-reel comedies featuring Shirley...
, which featured lesser-known comics of the day. Louise Brooks
Louise Brooks
Mary Louise Brooks , generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, noted for popularizing the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W...
, who played the ingenue in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood
Windy Riley Goes Hollywood
Windy Riley Goes Hollywood is a 1931 short comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle using the pseudonym of William Goodrich. It featured Louise Brooks in her first talkie.-Plot:...
(1931), told Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent...
:
He made no attempt to direct this picture. He sat in his chair like a man dead. He had been very nice and sweetly dead ever since the scandal that ruined his career. But it was such an amazing thing for me to come in to make this broken-down picture, and to find my director was the great Roscoe Arbuckle. Oh, I thought he was magnificent in films. He was a wonderful dancer—a wonderful ballroom dancer, in his heyday. It was like floating in the arms of a huge doughnut—really delightful.
Second divorce
In 1929, Doris Deane sued for divorce in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, charging desertion and cruelty. On June 21, 1931 Roscoe married Addie Oakley Dukes McPhail
Addie McPhail
Addie McPhail was an American film actress. She appeared in 64 films between 1927 and 1941. She was the third and final wife of Fatty Arbuckle....
(later Addie Oakley Sheldon, 1905–2003) in Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...
.
Brief comeback and death
In 1932 Arbuckle signed a contract with Warner Brothers to star under his own name in a series of two-reel comedies, to be filmed at the VitaphoneVitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
studios in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. These six shorts constitute the only recordings of his voice. Silent-film comedian Al St. John (Arbuckle's nephew) and actors Lionel Stander
Lionel Stander
Lionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...
and Shemp Howard appeared with Arbuckle. The films were very successful in America, although when Warner Brothers attempted to release the first one (Hey, Pop!
Hey, Pop!
Hey, Pop! is a 1932 American comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle, and the first under Arbuckle's new contract with Warner Brothers.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty, chef* Billy Heyes - Bill* Connie Almy - Landlady* Jack Shutta - Restaurant owner...
) in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the British Board of Film Censors
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
cited the 10-year-old scandal and refused to grant an exhibition certificate.
Roscoe Arbuckle had finished filming the last of the two-reelers on June 28, 1933. The next day he was signed by Warner Brothers to make a feature-length film. He reportedly said, "This is the best day of my life." He suffered a heart attack later that night and died in his sleep. He was 46. Arbuckle was cremated, and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
Legacy
Many of Arbuckle's films, including the feature Life of the PartyLife of the Party (1920 film)
Life of the Party is a 1920 short comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Algernon Leary * Winifred Greenwood - Mrs. Carraway* Roscoe Karns - Sam Perkins* Julia Faye - 'French' Kate...
, survive only as worn prints with foreign-language inter-titles. Little or no effort was made to preserve original negatives and prints during Hollywood's first two decades. By the early 21st century some of Arbuckle's short subjects (particularly those co-starring Chaplin or Keaton) had been restored, released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and even screened theatrically. Arbuckle's early influence on American slapstick comedy is widely cited.
In 2007 director Kevin Connor
Kevin Connor (director)
Kevin Connor is an English film and television director currently based in Hollywood.Connor was born in London on the 24 of September 1937 and grew up during the 2nd World War...
planned a film, The Life of the Party, based on Arbuckle's life. It was to star Chris Kattan
Chris Kattan
Christopher Lee "Chris" Kattan is an American actor/comedian, best known for his work on Saturday Night Live.-Early life:Kattan was born in Sherman Oaks, California. His father, Kip King, was an actor and voice actor who appeared on the series Reno 911! as Larrie Plum. His mother, Hajnalka E....
and Preston Lacy
Preston Lacy
Preston Lacy is an American daredevil, actor and writer for the television show and companion movies, Jackass.- Jackass :...
. However the project was unable to find funding and was shelved in late 2008.
The 1975 James Ivory
James Ivory (director)
James Francis Ivory is an American film director, best known for the results of his long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, which included both Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...
film The Wild Party
The Wild Party (1975 film)
The Wild Party is a 1975 Merchant Ivory Productions film directed by James Ivory, produced by Ismail Merchant, and starring James Coco and Raquel Welch....
has been repeatedly but incorrectly cited as a film dramatization of the Arbuckle/Rappe scandal. In fact it is loosely based on the 1920s poem by Joseph Moncure March
Joseph Moncure March
Joseph Moncure March was an American poet and essayist, best known for his long narrative poems The Wild Party and The Set-Up.- Life :...
. In this film, James Coco
James Coco
James Coco was an American character actor.- Early life and career :Born James Emil Coco in New York City, son of Feliche Coco, a shoemaker and Ida Detestes Coco, James began acting straight out of high school. As an overweight and prematurely balding adult, he found himself relegated to character...
portrays a heavy-set silent-film comedian named Jolly Grimm whose career is on the skids, but who is desperately planning a comeback. Raquel Welch
Raquel Welch
Jo Raquel Tejada , better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in a animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. , for which she may be...
portrays his mistress, who ultimately goads him into shooting her. This film may have been inspired by misconceptions surrounding the Arbuckle scandal, yet it bears almost no resemblance to the documented facts of the case.
An episode of Mathnet
Mathnet
Mathnet is a segment on the children's television show Square One, of which five seasons were produced . This parody of Dragnet featured detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department who solved mysteries using their mathematical skills. There were two main characters: detectives Kate Monday and...
featured the death of a silent film actor named Roscoe "Fatty" Tissue. When asked if he buried his fortune with him, secretary Lynne Thigpen
Lynne Thigpen
Cherlynne Theresa “Lynne” Thigpen was an American stage and television actress, most famous as "The Chief" in the various Carmen Sandiego television series.-Early life:...
declares, "there was nothing in the casket but Fatty Tissue."
Chris Farley
Chris Farley
Christopher Crosby "Chris" Farley was an American comedian and actor. Farley was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1995....
had expressed interest in starring as Arbuckle in a biography film. This idea was suggested to him by comedy guru Del Close
Del Close
Del Close was an actor, improviser, writer, and teacher. Considered one of the premier influences on modern improvisational theater, Close had a prolific career, appearing in a number of films and television shows...
. Farley died before any details of the film had been worked out.
Fatty Arbuckle's
Fatty Arbuckle's
Fatty Arbuckle's American Diners is an American themed restaurant chain in the UK founded by Pete Shotton. The chain was prominent in the 1980s, but has since declined. It focused on large portions at cheap prices...
is an American themed restaurant chain in the UK prominent during the 1980s named after Arbuckle.
In April and May 2006, the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
mounted a 56-film, month-long retrospective of all of Arbuckle's known surviving work, running the entire series twice. Highlights included The Rounders (1914) with Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
and Mabel and Fatty's Simple Life
Mabel and Fatty's Simple Life
Mabel and Fatty's Simple Life is a 1915 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Roscoe* Mabel Normand - Mabel* Al St. John - The Squire's son* Josef Swickard - Mabel's father...
(1915) with Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...
.
Arbuckle is the subject of a novel entitled I, Fatty
I, Fatty
I, Fatty is a novel by American writer Jerry Stahl published in 2004. The book is a fictionalized autobiography of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, the famous silent film comedian, and probes his early life in vaudeville, his rise to fame in the movies, and his crash into infamy following a false murder...
by author Jerry Stahl
Jerry Stahl
Jerry Stahl is an American novelist and screenwriter, He is best known for his memoir of addiction Permanent Midnight. A film adaptation followed with Ben Stiller in the lead role....
. The Day the Laughter Stopped by David Yallop and Frame-Up! The Untold Story of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle by Andy Edmonds are other books on Arbuckle's life.
A scene of one of Fatty Arbuckle's silent films was featured in the HBO pilot episode of Boardwalk Empire. In the scene, Arbuckle is burying a bottle of alcohol and giving it a fake funeral.
In a dream sequence on the TV series Wilfred
Wilfred (U.S. TV series)
Wilfred is an American sitcom television series which debuted on June 23, 2011, and is based on the Australian SBS One series of the same name. It stars Elijah Wood and series co-creator Jason Gann, reprising his role of the eponymous dog Wilfred. The series was adapted for the American television...
, a wine bottle is brought to a party as a gift. The main character, played by actor Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor. He made his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II , then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9. He is best known for his high-profile role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's...
, states that it was Fatty Arbuckle's favorite wine.
Filmography
- The GangstersThe GangstersThe Gangsters is a 1913 short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle as one of the Keystone Cops.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle* Nick Cogley* Fred Mace* Hank Mann* Ford Sterling* Al St. John...
. 1913. Approx. 10 min. - Fatty Joins the ForceFatty Joins the ForceFatty Joins the Force is a 1913 short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle. It features the Keystone Kops in a background role.-Plot:Fatty is an obese and timid man who rescues a little girl from drowning. The girl who turns out to be the daughter of the Police Commissioner. The grateful...
. 1913. Approx. 14:30 min. - Fatty's New RoleFatty's New RoleFatty's New Role is a 1915 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Hobo* Mack Swain - Ambrose Schnitz* Joe Bordeaux* Glen Cavender* Luke the Dog* Bobby Dunn* Billy Gilbert* Frank Hayes...
. 1915. Approx. 10 min. - The Waiters' BallThe Waiters' BallThe Waiters' Ball is a 1916 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. Arbuckle's nephew Al St. John has a memorable role as Roscoe's rival.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - The Cook* Al St...
. 1916. With Al St. John. Approx. 20 min. - A Noise from the DeepA Noise from the DeepA Noise from the Deep is a 1913 comedy short starring Mabel Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. The film was directed by Mack Sennett and also features the Keystone Cops on horseback...
. 1913. With Mabel NormandMabel NormandMabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...
. Approx. 10 min. - Mabel's New HeroMabel's New HeroMabel's New Hero is a 1913 short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle* Charles Avery* Nick Cogley* Edgar Kennedy* Mabel Normand...
. 1913. With Mabel Normand. Approx. 10 min. - His Sister's KidsHis Sister's KidsHis Sister's Kids is a 1913 short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle....
. 1913. With Minta DurfeeMinta DurfeeAraminta Estelle "Minta" Durfee was an American silent film actress from Los Angeles, California, possibly best known for her role in Mickey .-Biography:...
. Approx. 10 min. - A Flirt's MistakeA Flirt's MistakeA Flirt's Mistake is a 1914 short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - The Husband* Minta Durfee - The Wife* William Hauber - Cop* Edgar Kennedy - The Rajah* Virginia Kirtley* Henry Lehrman -...
. 1914. With Edgar KennedyEdgar KennedyEdgar Livingston Kennedy was an American comedic film actor, known as "the king of the slow burn". A slow burn is an exasperated facial expression, performed very deliberately; Kennedy embellished this by rubbing his hand over his bald head and across his face, in an attempt to hold his temper...
. Approx.10 min. - Mabel's BlunderMabel's BlunderMabel's Blunder is a silent comedy film directed by, written by, and starring Mabel Normand, the most successful of the early silent screen comediennes.-Plot:...
. 1914. With Mabel Normand. Approx 13:30 min. - A Bath House BeautyA Bath House BeautyA Bath House Beauty is a 1914 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle....
. 1914. With Minta Durfee. Approx. 10 min. - Those Country KidsThose Country KidsThose Country Kids is a 1914 short comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand, and directed by Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:In alphabetical order:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle* Gordon Griffith* Billy Jacobs* Mabel Normand* Al St. John...
. 1914. With Mabel Normand. Approx. 10 min. - The Rounders. 1914. With Charles Chaplin. Approx. 10 min.
- Lover's LuckLover's LuckLover's Luck is a 1914 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty* Minta Durfee - The Girl* Al St. John - Fatty's Rival* Josef Swickard - The Girl's Father* Phyllis Allen - The Girl's Mother...
. 1914. With Minta Durfee. Approx. 10 min. - Fatty's Jonah DayFatty's Jonah DayFatty's Jonah Day is a 1914 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle* Edward Dillon - * Frank Hayes* Norma Nichols* Ted Edwards - Cop...
. 1914. With Norma Nichols. Approx. 10 min. - Mabel and Fatty's Simple LifeMabel and Fatty's Simple LifeMabel and Fatty's Simple Life is a 1915 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Roscoe* Mabel Normand - Mabel* Al St. John - The Squire's son* Josef Swickard - Mabel's father...
(Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life). 1915. With Mabel Normand. Approx. 20 min. - Wished on MabelWished on MabelWished on Mabel is a 1915 short comedy film directed by Mabel Normand and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty* Mabel Normand - Mabel* Alice Davenport - Mabel's mother* Joe Bordeaux - Thief* Edgar Kennedy - Cop...
. 1915. With Mabel Normand. Approx. 10 min. - Mabel and Fatty's Married LifeMabel and Fatty's Married LifeMabel and Fatty's Married Life is a 1915 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Mabel Normand - Mabel* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty, her husband* Al St...
(Fatty and Mabel's Married Life). 1915. With Mabel NormandMabel NormandMabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...
. Approx. 10 min. - Miss Fatty's Seaside LoversMiss Fatty's Seaside LoversMiss Fatty's Seaside Lovers is a 1915 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle and featuring Harold Lloyd.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Finnegan's Daughter* Joe Bordeaux - Short Masher* Edgar Kennedy - Masher* Harold Lloyd - Masher...
. 1915. With Harold LloydHarold LloydHarold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....
. Approx. 10 min. - Fatty's Tintype TangleFatty's Tintype TangleFatty's Tintype Tangle is a 1915 comedy short film. A man, tired of his mother-in-law's henpecking, leaves home in anger and sits on a park bench, where a photographer takes a picture of him sitting next to a married woman, whose husband is not pleased....
. 1915. With Louise Fazenda, Edgar Kennedy. Approx. 20 min. - Fatty's Reckless FlingFatty's Reckless FlingFatty's Reckless Fling is a 1915 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty* Edgar Kennedy - Neighbor* Minta Durfee - Neighbor's wife* Glen Cavender - House detective* Frank Hayes - Card player...
. 1915. Approx. 10 min. - Fatty's Plucky PupFatty's Plucky PupFatty's Plucky Pup is a 1915 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. A print of the film survives.-Plot:Fatty plays a somewhat lazy young man who disrupts his mother's life by causing a fire by smoking in bed, then ruins laundry day by dropping it in the mud. He has two loves of...
. 1915. 6:35 min. - Fatty's Faithful FidoFatty's Faithful FidoFatty's Faithful Fido is a 1915 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty* Minta Durfee - Fatty's girl* Al St...
. 1915. With Luke the dog. Approx. 10 min. - That Little Band of GoldThat Little Band of GoldThat Little Band of Gold is a 1915 short comedy film directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and starring Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, and Ford Sterling.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Hubby* Mabel Normand - Wifey* Ford Sterling - Gassy Gotrox...
. 1915. With Mabel Normand, Ford SterlingFord SterlingFord Sterling was an American comedian and actor best known for his work with Keystone Studios. One of the 'Big 4' he was the original chief of the Keystone Cops.-Biography:...
. Approx. 20 min. - He Did and He Didn'tHe Did and He Didn'tHe Did and He Didn't is a 1916 short comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. The dark plot, extremely sophisticated for its time, involves a corpulent husband who finds himself consumed with jealousy when his wife's dashingly handsome old schoolmate unexpectedly turns up...
. 1916. With Mabel Normand. Approx. 20 min. - Fatty and Mabel AdriftFatty and Mabel AdriftFatty and Mabel Adrift is a 1916 Keystone short comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, and Al St. John.- Plot :The story involves Arbuckle as a farm boy marrying his sweetheart, Normand. They have their honeymoon with Fatty's dog Luke, at a cottage on the seashore. At high...
. 1916. With Mabel Normand. Approx. 30 min. - His Wife's Mistake. 1916. With Minta Durfee. Approx. 20 min.
- A Reckless RomeoA Reckless RomeoA Reckless Romeo is a 1917 short silent comedy film directed by and starring Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle.-Production background:The film was produced by the Comique Film Corporation when it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey...
. 1917. With Al St. John. Approx. 20 min - A Creampuff RomanceA Creampuff RomanceA Creampuff Romance is a 1916 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle* Alice Lake* Al St. John...
. 1917. Approx. 22 min. - The Butcher BoyThe Butcher Boy (1917 film)The Butcher Boy is a 1917 short comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. This was the first in Arbuckle's series of films with the Comique Film Corporation, and Keaton's film debut.- Plot :...
. 1917. With Buster KeatonBuster KeatonJoseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
, Al St. John. (Keaton's first film) Approx. 20 min. - The Rough HouseThe Rough HouseThe Rough House is a short comedy film written and directed by and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. The Rough House was Keaton's first film as a director.-Cast:* Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle - Mr Rough...
. 1917. With Buster Keaton. Approx. 20 min. - His Wedding NightHis Wedding NightHis Wedding Night is a 1917 short comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle, Al St. John, and Buster Keaton, and directed by Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Drugstore soda clerk* Al St...
. 1917. With Al St. John. Approx. 20 min. - Coney IslandConey Island (1917 film)Coney Island is a 1917 short silent film comedy written and directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and starring Arbuckle and Buster Keaton.-Synopsis:...
. 1917. With Buster Keaton, Al St. John. Approx. 20 min. - Out WestOut West (1918 film)Out West is a 1918 short comedy film, a satire on contemporary westerns, starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, and Al St. John. It was the first of Arbuckle's "Comique" films to be filmed on the west coast, the previous five having been filmed in and around New York City...
. 1918. With Buster Keaton, Al St. John. Approx. 20 min. - MoonshineMoonshineMoonshine is an illegally produced distilled beverage...
. 1918. With Buster Keaton, Al St. John. Approx. 20 min. - A Scrap of PaperA Scrap of PaperA Scrap of Paper is a 1918 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty* Glen Cavender - The Kaiser* Al St. John - The Crown Prince* Monty Banks - Soldier...
. 1918. With Al St. John. Approx. 5 min. - Good Night, Nurse. 1918. With Buster Keaton, Al St. John. Approx. 20 min.
- The CookThe CookThe Cook is a silent film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. The movie is a slapstick comedy and focuses on goings-on at a high-end restaurant with Arbuckle as the Cook and Keaton as the Waiter....
. 1918. With Buster Keaton, Al St. John. Approx. 20 min. - The HayseedThe HayseedThe Hayseed is a 1919 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Mailman* Buster Keaton - Manager, general store* Molly Malone - Rural girl* Jack Coogan Sr. - Constable...
. 1919. With Buster Keaton, Jack Coogan, Sr. Approx. 20 min. - The Round-Up. 1920. With Tom Forman, Jean AckerJean AckerJean Acker was an American film actress with a career dating from the silent film era through the 1950s. She was perhaps best known as the estranged wife of silent film star Rudolph Valentino.-Early life and career:...
, Wallace BeeryWallace BeeryWallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
. Approx. 70 min. - Camping OutCamping Out (film)Camping Out is a 1919 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle* Al St. John* Alice Lake* Monty Banks...
. 1919. With Al St. John. Approx. 20 min. - LoveLove (1919 film)Love is a 1919 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. Prints of the film still survive.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty* Al St. John - Al Clove, Fatty's rival* Winifred Westover - Winnie* Frank Hayes - Frank, Winnie's father...
. 1919. With Al St. John. Approx. 20 min. - The Life of the PartyLife of the Party (1920 film)Life of the Party is a 1920 short comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Algernon Leary * Winifred Greenwood - Mrs. Carraway* Roscoe Karns - Sam Perkins* Julia Faye - 'French' Kate...
. 1920. With Viora Daniel, Roscoe Karns. Approx. 50 min. - The GarageThe Garage (film)The Garage is a 1920 American short comedy film starring Buster Keaton and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. It was directed by Arbuckle himself. The film was also known as Fire Chief. This was the fourteenth film starring the duo...
. 1920. With Buster Keaton. Approx 20 min. - Leap Year (film)Leap Year (film)Leap Year is a 1921 comedy film directed by and starring Roscoe Arbuckle. The film was never released in the United States, due to Arbuckle's involvement in the Virginia Rappe death scandal.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Stanley Piper...
. 1921. Directed by James Cruze, with Lucien Littlefield and Mary Thurman. Approx 56 min.
Director
- Special DeliverySpecial Delivery (1922 film)Special Delivery is a 1922 comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle. It was Arbuckle's first film as a director, albeit uncredited, since he was acquitted of the manslaughter of Virginia Rappe. A print of the film survives in the film archive of the Museum of Modern Art....
. 1922. With Al St. John, Vernon DentVernon DentVernon Bruce Dent was a comic actor who appeared in over 400 films in his career. He co-starred in many short films for Columbia Pictures, frequently as the foil to the Three Stooges.-Early career:...
. Approx. 20 min. - No Loafing. 1923. With Poodles Hanneford, Joe RobertsJoe RobertsJoe Roberts was an American comic actor, most notably in Buster Keaton's silent short films of the 1920s....
. (a surviving fragment of a two-reel short) Approx. 8 min. - Stupid But Brave. 1924. With Al St. John, George DavisGeorge DavisGeorge Davis may refer to:*George Davis , Dutch-born American actor*George Davis , American environmental policy analyst*George Davis , British armed robber...
. Approx. 20 min. - The MoviesThe Movies (film)The Movies is a 1925 comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Lloyd Hamilton - A Country Boy* Marcella Daly - An Actress* Arthur Thalasso - The Villain* Frank Jonasson - The Director* Glen Cavender - A Traffic Officer...
. 1925. With Lloyd HamiltonLloyd HamiltonLloyd Vernon Hamilton was a major silent film star. Hamilton is best remembered as the stocky half of silent comedy's "Ham and Bud" , and later, his own series of short comedies...
. Approx. 20 min. - Curses!Curses!Curses! is a 1925 comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle....
. 1925. With Al St. John, Bartine BurkettBartine BurkettBartine Burkett was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1916 and 1983, a number of TV series episodes and TV commercials.She was born in Robeline, Louisiana and died in Burbank, California....
. Approx. 20 min. - The Iron MuleThe Iron MuleThe Iron Mule is a 1925 comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Al St. John* George Davis* Glen Cavender* Doris Deane* Buster Keaton - Indian...
. 1925. With Al St. John, Glen CavenderGlen CavenderGlen Cavender was an American film actor. He appeared in 259 films between 1914 and 1949.He was born in Tucson, Arizona, and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:* Cruel, Cruel Love...
. Approx. 20 min. - Dynamite Doggie. 1925. With Al St. John, Pete the PupPete the PupPete the Pup was a Pit Bull character in Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies during the 1920s and 1930s...
. Approx. 20 min. - His Private LifeHis Private LifeHis Private Life is a 1926 comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Lupino Lane* George Davis* Glen Cavender* Wallace Lupino...
. 1926. With Lupino LaneLupino LaneLupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...
, George DavisGeorge DavisGeorge Davis may refer to:*George Davis , Dutch-born American actor*George Davis , American environmental policy analyst*George Davis , British armed robber...
. Approx. 20 min. - Home CuredHome CuredHome Cured is a 1926 comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Johnny Arthur* Virginia Vance* George Davis* Glen Cavender...
. 1926. With Johnny ArthurJohnny ArthurJohnny Arthur was an American stage and motion picture actor.-Early years:Born John Lennox Arthur Williams in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, Arthur was a veteran of twenty-five years on stage before he made his screen debut in 1923's The Unknown Purple...
, Virginia Vance. Approx. 20 min. - Fool's LuckFool's LuckFool's Luck is a 1926 silent comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Lupino Lane - The Dude* George Davis - His Valet* Virginia Vance - The Girl* Jack Lloyd - Her Father...
. 1926. With Lupino LaneLupino LaneLupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...
, George DavisGeorge DavisGeorge Davis may refer to:*George Davis , Dutch-born American actor*George Davis , American environmental policy analyst*George Davis , British armed robber...
. Approx. 20 min. - My StarsMy Stars-Cast:* Johnny Arthur - The Boy* Florence Lee - His Mother* Virginia Vance - The Girl* George Davis - The Butler* Glen Cavender - The Gardener...
. 1926. With Johnny ArthurJohnny ArthurJohnny Arthur was an American stage and motion picture actor.-Early years:Born John Lennox Arthur Williams in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, Arthur was a veteran of twenty-five years on stage before he made his screen debut in 1923's The Unknown Purple...
, Virginia Vance, Florence LeeFlorence LeeFlorence Lee was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 99 films between 1911 and 1931.She was born in Jamaica, Vermont and died in Hollywood, California at the age of 104.-Selected filmography:...
. Approx. 20 min. - Special DeliverySpecial Delivery (1927 film)Special Delivery is a 1927 silent comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Eddie Cantor - Eddie, The Mail Carrier* Jobyna Ralston - Madge, The Girl* William Powell - Harold Jones* Donald Keith - Harrigan, The Fireman...
. 1927. With Eddie CantorEddie CantorEddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
, Jobyna RalstonJobyna RalstonJobyna Ralston was an American stage and film actress.-Early life and career:Born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland...
, William PowellWilliam PowellWilliam Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
. Approx. 60 min. - Bridge WivesBridge Wives-Cast:* Al St. John - Al Smith* Fern Emmett - Al's wife, Mrs. Smith* Billy Bletcher - Radio announcer* Lynton Brent - Reporter* Roger Moore - Sewer worker...
. 1932. With Al St. John, Fern EmmettFern EmmettFern Emmett was an American film actress. She appeared in 212 films between 1930 and 1946.-Selected filmography:The following were with John Wayne:* Riders of Destiny...
. Approx. 10 min.
Vitaphone shorts
- Hey, Pop!Hey, Pop!Hey, Pop! is a 1932 American comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle, and the first under Arbuckle's new contract with Warner Brothers.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty, chef* Billy Heyes - Bill* Connie Almy - Landlady* Jack Shutta - Restaurant owner...
1932. With Billy Hayes. Approx. 20 min. - Close RelationsClose Relations-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Wilbur Wart* Harry Shannon - Harry Wart* Charles Judels - Uncle Ezra Wart* Hugh O'Connell - Doctor Carver* Mildred Van Dorn - The Nurse* Shemp Howard - One of the Moles...
. 1933. With Charles JudelsCharles JudelsCharles Judels was a Dutch-born American film actor. He appeared in 137 films between 1915 and 1949. He also did extensive work as a voice-over actor in animated films, notably as the voice of Stromboli in Walt Disney's Pinocchio, and in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes short Porky's Garden.He was...
, Harry ShannonHarry Shannon (actor)Harry Shannon was an American character actor. He often appeared in Western films.-Biography:Shannon was born on a farm in Saginaw, Michigan. Developing into a first-rate musical comedy performer, Shannon went on to work in virtually all branches of live entertainment, including vaudeville and...
, Shemp Howard. Approx. 20 min. - Buzzin' AroundBuzzin' Around-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Cornelius* Al St. John - Al* Dan Coleman - Bit Part * Fritz Hubert - Bit Part * Donald MacBride - Policeman * Gertrude Mudge - Cornelius's Ma * Al Ochs - Bit Part...
. 1933. With Al St. John, Pete the PupPete the PupPete the Pup was a Pit Bull character in Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies during the 1920s and 1930s...
. Approx. 20 min. - How've You Bean?How've You Bean?How've You Bean? is a comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Abner* Jean Hubert* Fritz Hubert - Willie* Mildred Van Dorn - The Bride* Edmund Elton - The Mayor* Dora Mills Adams - Mother of the Groom* Paul Clare...
1933. With Fritz Hubert. Approx. 20 min. - In the DoughIn the DoughIn the Dough is a 1932 comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle and featuring Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle* Fritz Hubert* Gracie Worth* Lionel Stander* Shemp Howard* Dan Coleman* Ethel Davis* Dexter McReynolds...
. 1933. With Lionel StanderLionel StanderLionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...
, Shemp Howard. Approx. 20 min. - TomalioTomalioTomalio is a comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle. It was Arbuckle's final film.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Wilbur* Fritz Hubert - Wilbur's pal* Charles Judels - The General* Phyllis Holden - Lolita* Philip Ryder* Jerry Bergen...
. 1933. With Charles JudelsCharles JudelsCharles Judels was a Dutch-born American film actor. He appeared in 137 films between 1915 and 1949. He also did extensive work as a voice-over actor in animated films, notably as the voice of Stromboli in Walt Disney's Pinocchio, and in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes short Porky's Garden.He was...
. Approx. 20 min.
See also
- I, FattyI, FattyI, Fatty is a novel by American writer Jerry Stahl published in 2004. The book is a fictionalized autobiography of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, the famous silent film comedian, and probes his early life in vaudeville, his rise to fame in the movies, and his crash into infamy following a false murder...
, a fictional account of the actor's life and career written by Jerry StahlJerry StahlJerry Stahl is an American novelist and screenwriter, He is best known for his memoir of addiction Permanent Midnight. A film adaptation followed with Ben Stiller in the lead role.... - List of United States comedy films
Further reading
- "Devil's Garden" Ace Atkins Publisher G.P.Putnam's Sons New York 2009
- The New York Times; September 12, 1921; pg. 1. "San Francisco, California; September 11, 1921. "Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle was arrested late last night on a charge of murder as a result of the death of Virginia Rappe, film actress, after a party in Arbuckle's rooms at the Hotel St. Francis. Arbuckle is still in jail tonight despite efforts by his lawyers to find some way to obtain his liberty."
- The New York Times; September 13, 1921; pg. 1. "San Francisco, California; September 12, 1921. "The Grand Jury met tonight at 7:30 o'clock to hear the testimony of witnesses rounded up by Matthew Brady (District Attorney)Matthew Brady (district attorney)Matthew Brady was a district attorney in San Francisco from 1919 through 1943.Brady defeated previous district attorney Charles Fickert, who was responsible for the conviction of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings in the Preparedness Day bombing....
of San Francisco to support his demand for the indictment of Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle for the murder of Miss Virginia Rappe."
External links
- The Official Roscoe Arbuckle Website
- Fatty Arbuckle Scandal and other Top 25 Crimes of the Century at Time.com
- Corliss, Richard. (2001) That Old Feeling: Fatty and Buster at TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
online. - Crime Library on Roscoe Arbuckle
- Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle Photos
- Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle website: CallMeFatty.com
- Contemporary press articles pertaining to Arbuckle
- Literature on Roscoe Arbuckle
- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/tgladysz/detail?entry_id=96032&plckItemsPerPage=10&plckSort=TimeStampAscending Banned Film Resurfaces 90 Years After San Francisco Scandal