It was a double tragedy.". HE was one of Hollywood's biggest stars and adored by millions. In her case it wasn't due to the public censure brought on by American clubwomen and clergymen. It was then that she was taken to a hospital where doctors originally thought she had alcohol poisoning from the bootleg liquor. At this point all those present thought Rappe was just very drunk, including the hotel doctors. Arbuckle was one of the most famous actors in world at the time, second only to Charlie Chaplin. Arbuckle was fond of the "pie in the face", a comedy clich that has come to symbolize silent-film-era comedy itself. Wikipedia, 25 Jan. 2012. When Arbuckle and a few of the guests re-entered the room, they found Rappe on the floor near the bed tearing at her clothing and going into violent convulsions. One report had stated that while raping her, Arbuckles weight had caused Rappes bladder to rupture. Roscoe Arbuckle, the youngest of nine children, reportedly weighed 16 pounds at birth in Smith Center, Kansas on March 24, 1887. 15,645 were here. In 1919, Rappe began a relationship with director/producer Henry Lehrman. One newspaper even dubbed her an amateur call-girlwho used to get drunk at parties and start to tear her clothes off.. Author David Yallop cites Arbuckle's father's full name as William Goodrich Arbuckle as the inspiration behind the alias. Addie McPhail, a former Hollywood actress who became the third and last wife of scandal-plagued silent-film comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, has died. Brady had originally planned to seek the death penalty. His stage name was Fatty Arbuckle, and he was a big, graceful actor with acrobatic ingenuity and a befuddled. The scandal that followed her death had nothing to do with the fame, or lack of it, of the pretty actress - it was her link to the man who was known as "America's Funnyman . Arbuckle was charged with first-degree murder, eventually reduced to manslaughter. During the second week of September 1921, like Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, motion picture executives placed a ban on any motion pictures in which Rappe appeared. [37] After a brief reconciliation, Durfee again filed for divorce, this time while in Paris, in December 1924. Wikimedia CommonsOne of the rooms occupied by Arbuckle and his guests in the days after the infamous party. In his testimony, Arbuckle claimed that Rappe (whom he testified he had known for five or six years) came into the party room (1220) around noon that day, and that sometime afterward he went to his room (1219) to change clothes after Mae Taub, daughter-in-law of Billy Sunday, asked him for a ride into town. The grand jury yesterday evening indicted Roscoe Arbuckle on a charge of manslaughter. Truly exotic conditions, such as tuberculous cystitis weren't mentioned during the three trials. Web. When he was a teenager, Arbuckle traveled the West Coast on the vaudeville circuit. It was to star Chris Kattan and Preston Lacy. Rosenberg, Jennifer. [6] This film was not released until 1920, when Balshofer recut it and released it under the title An Adventuress, and later in 1922, after Rappe's death, as The Isle of Love.[7]. A family trip to the cinema shortly after Prohibition takes effect. He later worked as a film director under the pseudonym William Goodrich. 1921. Weekly quiz: Which house are Harry and Meghan vacating? On April 18, 1922, Will Hays, the president of the new organization, banned Arbuckle from filmmaking. Posters for his movies billed the 266-pound comedian as "worth his weight in laughs." Arbuckle and Fischbach then took her to room 1227 and called the hotel manager and doctor. . Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. McPhail, whose most recent . The resulting film, The Frozen North, was released in 1922, almost a year after the scandal first emerged. An infection that developed on his leg became a carbuncle so severe that doctors considered amputation. The next day he signed a contract with Warner Bros. to star in a feature-length film. Elizabeth Fischer . [63], The 2009 novel Devil's Garden is based on the Arbuckle trials. We like the whole world to look upon America as the place where every man gets a square deal. For years, Arbuckle had trouble finding work. His widow Addie requested that his body be cremated, as that was Arbuckle's wish. Arbuckle's accuser, Bambina Maude Delmont, had accompanied Rappe to the party; she had first met Rappe only a few days earlier. [55], In the Gumby movie entitled Gumby: The Movie, the supporting character Fatbuckle is an affectionate reference to Arbuckle. Arbuckle denied any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, the controversy surrounding his possible guilt and the case as a whole continues on. From then until 1913, Roscoe was on the stage, performing as an . In his room, Arbuckle discovered Rappe in the bathroom vomiting into the toilet. Roscoe Arbuckle in FATTY'S WILD RIDE TUESDAY Geo. [6], Arbuckle disliked his screen nickname. There she met dress designer Robert Moscovitz and they became engaged, but shortly afterward he was killed in a streetcar accident, and Rappe moved to Los Angeles. Miss . [13] Subsequent witnesses testified that Rappe had for some time suffered from cystitis, a condition which could have been aggravated by consuming alcohol. Newspapers went wild with the story: popular silent-screen comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle had killed Virginia Rappe with his weight while savagely raping her. After Arbuckle was arrested, the San Francisco D.A., one Matthew Brady, a man who wanted to be governor of California, pursued the case with a vengeance. The story was fueled by yellow journalism, with the newspapers portraying Arbuckle as a gross lecher who used his weight to overpower innocent girls. Succumbs at 46 After He and Wife Had Celebrated Their First Wedding Anniversary", "Minta Durfee, actress, 85, Dies; Former Wife of Fatty Arbuckle", "Home Video: Arbuckle Shorts, Fresh and Frisky", "The death of an actress in San Francisco. Zukor was faced with the moral outrage of various groups such as the Lord's Day Alliance, the powerful Federation of Women's Clubs and even the Federal Trade Commission to curb what they perceived as Hollywood debauchery run amok and its effect on the morals of the general public. He had merely carried her to the bed and she had fallen off, insisted Arbuckle. During cross-examination, however, Campbell revealed that Brady had threatened to charge her with perjury if she did not testify against Arbuckle. Girls win big. "Rappe was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time because she wound up dead. Arbuckle was able to stay in film by doing some directing, but even behind the camera, his career didnt have a chance of finding its footing. He directed most of his output from 1914 and onwards. After three manslaughter trials, Arbuckle was formally acquitted; his acquittal in the third trial was accompanied by an unprecedented statement of apology from the jury stating, in part, that, "Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. Rosenberg, Jennifer. In the newspapers, Arbuckle was assumed guilty and Virginia Rappe was an innocent, young girl. Video'Trump or bust' - grassroots Republicans are still loyal, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry. [39], Arbuckle tried returning to filmmaking, but industry resistance to distributing his pictures continued to linger after his acquittal. By 1930, Arbuckle sold his interest and it became known as George Olsen's Plantation Caf, later The Plantation Trailer Court and then Foreman Phillips County Barn Dance. After a third trial in 1922, the jury took just a few minutes to unanimously acquit Arbuckle - he was found guilty only of drinking bootleg alcohol. The first Arbuckle trial began on November 1921 and charged Arbuckle with manslaughter. The third jury took the unusual step of giving Arbuckle a written statement of apology for his treatment by the justice system. Probably assuming Rappe would simply sleep it off, Arbuckle drove Taub into town. He died of a heart attack in 1933 at age 46, having never fully restored his reputation. [45] On June 21, 1932, Roscoe married Addie Oakley Dukes McPhail (later Addie Oakley Sheldon, 19052003) in Erie, Pennsylvania. "[26] Morality groups called for Arbuckle to be sentenced to death. Arbuckle researcher Joan Myers describes the political climate and the media attention to the presence of women on juries (which had only been legal for four years at the time) and how Arbuckle's defense immediately singled out Hubbard as a villain; Myers also records Hubbard's account of the jury foreman August Fritze's attempts to bully her into changing her vote to 'not guilty'. In 1921, Arbuckle signed a three-year contract with Paramount for $1 millionan unheard-of amount at the time, even in Hollywood. Will H. Hays, who served as the head of the newly formed Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) censor board, cited Arbuckle as an example of the poor morals in Hollywood. At the hospital, Rappe's companion at the party, Bambina Maude Delmont, told a doctor that Arbuckle had raped her friend. 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. Arbuckle's father had always treated him harshly[8] and now refused to support him, so he got work doing odd jobs in a hotel. He was manly throughout the case and told a straightforward story on the witness stand, which we all believed. Fatty Arbuckle, a silent-film era performer at the height of his fame, is arrested in San Francisco for the rape and murder of aspiring actress Virginia Rappe. [citation needed], Arbuckle was regarded by those who knew him closely as a good-natured man who was shy around women; he has been described as "the most chaste man in pictures". "[27] Buster Keaton reportedly did make one public statement in support of Arbuckle's innocence, a decision which earned him a mild reprimand from the studio where he worked. At this point in time she came to know Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle who had worked at Keystone with her fiance Henry Lehrman. He thought a victory in the Arbuckle case would send him on his way to . After helping her onto the bed, he and several other guests summoned the hotel doctor, who determined that Rappe was just heavily intoxicated and took her into another hotel room to sleep it off. He was simple, direct, and unflustered in both direct and cross-examination. comment. [33] It was eventually released in Europe. [61] The 1963 novel Scandal in Eden by Garet Rogers[62] is a fictionalized version of the Arbuckle scandal. Hollywoods highest-paid star was now box office poison: his movies were pulled from cinemas and he never worked onscreen again. ", a song by comedy metal band GWAR on their album America Must Be Destroyed. Both Fatty Arbuckle and Virginia Rappes names were dragged through the mud in the competition to print the most salacious rumors. Are you sure Roscoe Arbuckle is getting one today? Today we continue with the ruination of Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle, circa 1921. [10] She was buried at Hollywood Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever Cemetery). That night he died of a heart attack in the arms of his third wife. Working mostly in bit parts, Rappe died after attending a party with actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was accused of manslaughter and rape in connection with her death, though he was ultimately acquitted of both charges. [54], In Ken Russell's 1977 biopic Valentino, Rudolph Nureyev as a pre-movie star Rudolph Valentino dances in a nightclub before a grossly overweight, obnoxious, and hedonistic celebrity called "Mr. Fatty" (played by William Hootkins), a caricature of Arbuckle rooted in the public view of him created in popular press coverage of the Rappe rape trial. The Fatty Arbuckle trial was marked by little strong evidence and dominated by unpre dictable testimony. While Arbuckle saw a resurgence in his popularity immediately after his third trial (in which he was acquitted) Zukor decided he had to be sacrificed to keep the movie industry out of the clutches of censors and moralists. Hearst was gratified by the profits he accrued during the Arbuckle scandal, and he later said that it had "sold more newspapers than any event since the sinking of the Lusitania. Arbuckle later wrote a premise for a film parodying Hart as a thief, bully, and wife beater, which Keaton purchased from him. The Arbuckle family moved to the Los Angeles area (Santa Ana, California) when Roscoe was 8. The earliest known pie thrown in film was in the June 1913 Keystone one-reeler A Noise from the Deep, starring Arbuckle and frequent screen partner Mabel Normand. Balshofer hired her again to costar with early drag performer Julian Eltinge and newcomer Rudolph Valentino in Over the Rhine, for which she was awarded the title of "Best Dressed Girl in Pictures". He was the first movie star in America to systematically direct his own films. [citation needed]. [9][10] He then joined the Pantages Theatre Group touring the West Coast and in 1906 played the Orpheum Theater in Portland, Oregon, in a vaudeville troupe organized by Leon Errol. Delmont then told police that Arbuckle had raped Rappe; the police concluded that the impact of Arbuckle's overweight body lying on top of Rappe had eventually caused her bladder to rupture. Somebody did very well, finding out about or remembering this apposite clip. The third trial began March 13, 1922, and this time the defense took no chances. 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. ThoughtCo. When others then entered the room, they found Rappe tearing at her clothes (something that has been claimed she did often when she was drunk). Keaton co-wrote, directed and starred in the picture; consequently, Hart refused to speak to Keaton for many years. [citation needed], Before his death in 1997, comedian Chris Farley expressed interest in starring as Arbuckle in a biography film. [26], Among the more visible directorial projects under the Goodrich pseudonym was the Eddie Cantor feature Special Delivery (1927), which was released by Paramount and co-starred William Powell and Jobyna Ralston. "Scandal hits industry," blared a Sept. 16, 1921, Variety. Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection. Meanwhile, although Arbuckles lawyers showed that the autopsy had concluded that there were no marks of violence on the body, no signs that the girl had been attacked in any way and various witnesses corroborated the actors version of events, it took three trials before Arbuckle was acquitted after the first ended with hung juries. A day later Rappe died from peritonitis, caused by a ruptured bladder. On Thursday, Rappe was taken to the Wakefield Sanitorium, a maternity hospital known for giving abortions. The first two trials resulted in hung juries, but Keaton testified for the defense in the third trial,[citation needed] which acquitted Arbuckle. The papers went wild with thestory. But when Arbuckle left the room, Rappe remained lying on the bed writhing in pain. Four days later, she was dead of a ruptured bladder. "Fatty Arbuckle was known to have one of the biggest cellars, which meant he had all of this alcohol at his disposal," says Mann. [4][5] At 18, she began working as a commercial and art model. In the summer of 1921, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was on top of the world. Arbuckle was one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/fatty-arbuckle-scandal-1779625. Even so, the actor was tried three times. 1977. 's office,[31] and expressed surprise that she was not challenged when selected for the jury pool. Rooms 1219 and 1221 were for them, and room 1220 was to be used for a party room. By Friday of that week, Virginia had died in the hospital and Arbuckle was charged with her murder. [40] The same year, in Photoplay's August issue, James R. Quirk wrote: "I would like to see Roscoe Arbuckle make a comeback to the screen." Mississippi-based Arbuckle historian David Pearson says the star was the inspiration to many overweight comics, such as John Belushi, Benny Hill, John Candy and Chris Farley. 'Fatty' Arbuckle in silent film Coney Island, from 1917. Arbuckle seemed to give up on his passion and took odd jobs to get by. 'Fatty' Arbuckle in silent film The Waiters' Ball, from 1916. had grocery-store gags reminiscent of Arbuckle's 1917 short The Butcher Boy, with vaudeville comic Fritz Hubert as his assistant, dressed like Buster Keaton. Around 3 o'clock, Arbuckle retired from the party in order to get dressed to go sight-seeing with a friend. Read about our approach to external linking. He made his first movie, a short comedy called Ben's Kid, in 1909. The charge was later reduced to manslaughter. Fans also called Roscoe "The Prince of Whales" and "The Balloonatic". Virginia Rappe died the following day from peritonitis, caused by a ruptured bladder. [citation needed], Fatty Arbuckle's was an American-themed restaurant chain in the UK named after Arbuckle. He retreated into alcoholism. Although cleared, Arbuckle faced ruinous legal bills and a public still widely convinced of his guilt. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, onscreen, discovered an empty whisky bottle and gives it a decent burial, using flowers he had gathered for his girlfriend. Los Angeles-based film historian Cari Beauchamp says: "This was the first scandal in Hollywood with box office implications. [56] In 2007, director Kevin Connor planned a film, The Life of the Party, based on Arbuckle's life. During closing statements, McNab reviewed how flawed the case was against Arbuckle from the very start and how Brady fell for the outlandish charges of Delmont, whom McNab described as "the complaining witness who never witnessed". Paramount had just signed a giant $1 million ($13 million in today's money) deal with Fatty,. Delmont was never actually called to the stand because prosecutors knew her testimony would never hold up in court due to her ever-changing stories. [42] Keaton himself told this story during a recorded interview with Kevin Brownlow in the 1960s.[43]. Gina Dimuro is a New York-based writer and translator. Arbuckle hated the nickname "Fatty" and insisted that his friends and acquaintances always address him by his real first name, Roscoe. Director: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. On the heels of million-dollar comedian Fatty Arbuckle's manslaughter charge, and actor Wallace Reid's drug-related death, Taylor's murder spurred a newfound interest in Hollywood scandal. With morality groups demanding he face the death penalty, movie moguls ordered Arbuckle's industry friends to disown him. Virtually the only indisputable facts seem to be that on September 5, 1921, there was a party at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco where alcohol was in abundance (despite Prohibition laws) and that both Arbuckle, then age 33, and a woman named Virginia Rappe were in attendance. Her organs had been destroyed and it was now impossible to test for pregnancy. The main character in the story is Dashiell Hammett, a Pinkerton detective in San Francisco at the time of the trials. "Roscoe Arbuckle." Seventeen people in cast. Allegedly, during the party, Rappe made several drunkenly statements such as, Arbuckle did it and He hurt me. On April 18, 1922, six days after Arbuckle's acquittal, Hays banned him from ever working in U.S. movies again. Some 8,000 strangers attended her funeral at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in East Hollywood. The pun being too obvious, Arbuckle adopted the more formal pseudonym "William Goodrich". To calm Rappe down, they placed her in a bathtub of cool water. During a party held on Labor Day, September 5, 1921, in Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's suite at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, Rappe allegedly suffered a trauma. Few know he was eventually acquitted of his crimes (after three trials). Arbuckle calmly maintained that he never physically hurt or sexually assaulted Rappe in any way during the party, and he also stated that he never made any inappropriate sexual advances against any woman in his life. Arbuckle told them - it was a story he always stuck to - that he had gone to use the bathroom where he found Rappe in a drunken faint on the floor. Perhaps even more than the specific charges of rape and murder, Arbuckle became a symbol of Hollywood's immorality. Though Hays lifted the ban in December of the same year, the damage was done -- Arbuckle's career had been destroyed. She never took the stand. Film actor William S. Hart, who had never met or worked with Arbuckle, made a number of damaging public statements in which he presumed that Arbuckle was guilty. Fatty Arbuckle got his first break while working at the hotel. Rappe was not hospitalized until two days after the incident.[3]. [32], The second trial began January 11, 1922, with a new jury, but with the same legal defense and prosecution as well as the same presiding judge. Jennifer Rosenberg is a historian and writer who specializes in 20th-century history. "[21], On September 5, 1921, Arbuckle took a break from his hectic film schedule and, despite suffering from second-degree burns to both buttocks from an on-set accident, drove to San Francisco with two friends, Lowell Sherman and Fred Fishback. It is expected the. The "Fatty" Arbuckle Scandal. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle had long been a performer. Mugshot of Fatty Arbuckle. [citation needed] Several women were invited to the suite. [38] Arbuckle married Doris Deane on May 16, 1925. He moved gracefully, threw pies, and humorously tumbled. [2] Hays lifted the ban within a year, but Arbuckle only worked sparingly through the 1920s. Although Arbuckle was never tried for sexual assault, this notion has endured, largely because of how the trial was reported at the time.