Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle, also known as Fatty Arbuckle (March 24 1887June 29 1933), was an American silent film comedian, director, and screenwriter. Arbuckle is noted as one of the most popular actors of his era, but he is best remembered for a heavily publicized criminal prosecution that ended his career. Although he was acquitted by a jury with a written apology, the trial's scandal ruined the actor, who would not appear on screen again for another 10 years.[1]

Roscoe Arbuckle
Born
Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle
Other namesFatty Arbuckle
Years active1909-1933
Spouse(s)Minta Durfee (1908-1925)
Doris Deane (1925-1929)
Addie Oakley Dukes McPhail (1929-1933)
Websitehttp://roscoearbuckle.com

Biography

Early life and career

Born in Smith Center, Kansas, to Mollie and William Goodrich Arbuckle, he had several years of Vaudeville experience, including work at Idora Park in Oakland, California.[2] One of his earliest mentors was comedian Leon Errol. He began his film career with the Selig Polyscope Company in July 1909. 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.

Arbuckle was also 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".

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 under the name Minta Durfee, often with Arbuckle.[3][4]

Screen comedian

Pictures, Jul 23 1921, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle on the cover

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 $1,000 a day/25% of all profits/complete artistic control to make movies with them. The movies were so lucrative and popular that in 1918 they offered Arbuckle a 3-year/$3 million contract.

Arbuckle disliked his screen nickname, which he had been given because of his substantial girth. However, the name Fatty (big buster) 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). Hence, Arbuckle discouraged anyone from addressing him as "Fatty" off-screen.

Buster Keaton

Arbuckle gave Buster Keaton his first film-making work in his 1917 short, The Butcher Boy. They soon became screen partners, with deadpan Buster soberly assisting wacky Roscoe in his crazy adventures. When Arbuckle was promoted to feature films, Keaton inherited the short-subject series, which launched his own career as a comedy star. Arbuckle and Keaton's close friendship never wavered, even when Arbuckle was beset by tragedy at the zenith of his career, and through the depression and downfall that followed. In his autobiography Keaton described Arbuckle's playful nature and his love of practical jokes, including several elaborately constructed schemes the two successfully pulled off at the expense of various Hollywood studio heads and stars.

Charlie Chaplin

After British actor Charlie Chaplin joined Keystone Studios in 1914, Arbuckle mentored him. Chaplin's most famous character, "the Tramp," was created after Chaplin "borrowed" Arbuckle's trademark balloon pants, boots & tiny hat.

The scandal

Jack CooganNazimovaGloria SwansonHollywood BoulevardPicture taken in 1907 of this junctionHarold LloydWill RogersElinor Glyn"Buster" KeatonBill HartRupert HughesFatty ArbuckleWallace ReidDouglas FairbanksBebe DanielsBull MontanaRex IngramPeter the hermitCharlie ChaplinAlice TerryMary PickfordWilliam C. deMilleCecil B. DeMilleUse button to enlarge or cursor to investigate
This 1922 Vanity Fair caricature by Ralph Barton[5] shows the famous people who, he imagined, left work each day in Hollywood; use cursor to identify individual figures.
Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle (1887-1933)

In 1921, at the height of his career, Paramount signed Arbuckle to a contract for $1 million a year.[6] He worked tirelessly, filming three feature films simultaneously. On September 5, 1921 Arbuckle took a break from his hectic film schedule and drove to San Francisco with two friends, Lowell Sherman (an actor/director) and cameraman Fred Fischbach. The three checked into three separate rooms(1219, 1220, 1221) the St. Francis Hotel, decided to have a party in room 1220,[1] and invited several women to their suite. During the carousing, a 30-year-old aspiring actress named Virginia Rappe became seriously ill and was examined by the hotel doctor, who concluded her symptoms were mostly caused by intoxication; Rappe was also, reportedly, a very heavy drinker[1] Rappe was not hospitalized until two days after the incident.[1]

Rappe died one day after her hospitalisation of peritonitis caused by a ruptured bladder. Rappe's companion at the party, Maude Delmont, told police that Arbuckle raped Rappe and the police concluded that the impact Arbuckle's overweight body had on Rappe eventualy caused her bladder to rupture.[1] 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; this rumor, however, was never proven.[1] Arbuckle was confident that he had nothing to be ashamed of, and denied any wrongdoing. Delmont later made a statement incriminating Arbuckle to the police in an attempt to extort money from Arbuckle's attorneys, but the matter soon spun out of her control.

Roscoe Arbuckle's career is cited by many film historians as one of the great tragedies of Hollywood. His trial was a major media event and stories in William Randolph Hearst's nationwide newspaper chain were written with the intent of making Arbuckle appear guilty; Hearst's attacks against Arbuckle would indeed damage his career greatly.[1] By reporting Arbuckle's scandal, Hearst's newspapers would also make record profits as well.[1] The resulting scandal destroyed both his 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) to not publicly speak up for him. Charlie Chaplin was in England at the time. Buster Keaton did make a public statement in support of Arbuckle, calling Roscoe one of the kindest souls he had known. Film actor William S. Hart, who never worked with Arbuckle, made public statements which presumed that Arbuckle was guilty.

The prosecutor was San Francisco District Attorney Mathew Brady, who was determined to get a conviction as he was planning to use the case in his campaign to run for governor. To this end, Brady made public pronouncements of Arbuckle’s guilt and pressured witnesses to make false statements. Brady at first used Maude Delmont as his star witness during the indictment hearing.[1] However, during the hearing and despite the judge threatening a motion to dismiss the case, Brady refused to allow Maude Delmont, the only witness accusing Arbuckle, to take the stand and testify during the trial. Delmont had a long criminal record with convictions for racketeering, bigamy, fraud and extortion. The defense had also gotten hold of a letter from Delmont admitting to a plan to extort Arbuckle. Along with Delmont’s constantly changing story,[1] for her to testify would have ended any chance of going for trial. In his summation, the judge demolished every bit of the prosecution's evidence, and harangued Brady for producing such a flimsy case. The judge found no evidence of rape. The judge, however, did decide, after hearing testimony from one of the party guests, Zey Pevron, that Rappe told her "Roscoe hurt me" on her deathbed, that he could be charged with first-degree murder; the charge was later reduced to manslaughter.[1]

The first trial

Aurbuckle was then arrested on the charges of manslaughter.[1] Arbuckle freed himself on bail,[1] It was also reported that during the beginning of the trial, Arbuckle told his already-estranged wife, Minta Durfee, he didn't harm Rappe,[1] and she believed him and appeared regularly in the courtroom to support him.[1] The first trial began on November 14, 1921.[1]

San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady served as the prosecutor during this trial as well.[1] Brady's first witnesses during the trial included: 1) Model Betty Campbell, who attended the September 5 party and testified that she saw Arbuckle with a smile on his face hours after the alleged rape occured;[1] 2) Grace Hultson, a local nurse who testified it was very likely that Arbuckle did kill Rappe and bruise her body in the process;[1] and 3)Dr. Edward Heinrich, a local criminalogist who claimed he found Arbuckle's fingerprints smeared with Rappe's on room 1219's bathroom door.[1] Betty Campbell, however, would also give Brady's case a heavy blow after she revealed Brady threatened to charge her with perjury if she didn't testify against Arbuckle.[1] Another blow would also take place for Brady's fingerprint exhibit after Arbuckle's defense attorney, Gavin McNabb, got the St. Francis hotel maid to testify that she dusted the entire hotel before the investigation even took place.[1] McNabb was even able to get nurse Hultson to admit that: 1) the rupture of Ms. Rappe's bladder could have very well been as a result of cancer;[1] and 2) the bruises on her body could have also been as a result of the heavy jewelry she was wearing that evening as well.[1] The court's spectators reportedly booed the prosecution during this trial and stood and cheered for Arbuckle after he testified.

In his testimony, Arbuckle claimed Rappe-whom he testified he had known for "five or six years"- came into the party room around 12:00 am that night,, and that in the time afterwards, he went to room 1219 to use the bathroom, and discovered Ms. Rappe vomiting in the toilet. Arbuckle then claimed she told him she felt ill and asked to lie down, and that he carried her into the room's bed. and asked a few of the party guests to help treat Rappe. The prosecution then presented Rappe's bladder as evidence that Rappe had an illness, Arbuckle denied he had any knowledge of Rappe's illness. The prosecution then noted that Arbuckle refused to call a doctor, an argued he refused to do so because he knew of Ms. Rappe's illness and saw a perfect opportunity to kill her. On December 4, 1921, the jury returned deadlocked with a 10–2 not guilty verdict, and a mistrial was declared.[1]

The second trial

The same evidence was presented, but this time one of the witnesses, Zey Prevon, testified that the district attorney had forced her to lie.[7] Another witness who claimed Arbuckle had bribed him turned out to be an escaped prisoner charged with assaulting an 8-year-old girl; plus, Dr. Heinsen also took back his earlier testimony and testified that the case's fingerprint evidence was likely faked.[7] The defense was so convinced of an acquittal that Arbuckle was not called to testify. However, the jury interpreted the refusal to let Arbuckle testify as a sign of guilt.[7] It returned deadlocked with a 10–2 guilty verdict—another mistrial was declared.[7]

The third trial

By this time Arbuckle's films had been banned, and newspapers had been filled for seven months with alleged stories of Hollywood orgies, murder, sexual perversity, and lies about Arbuckle's case. Maude 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.

This time, Arbuckle again testified and maintained his denials.[7] Another hole in the prosecution's case would also occur after of it's star witnesess, Zey Pevron, had fled the country.[1] It took the jury a mere 6 minutes to return a unanimous not guilty verdict; five of those were taken to write a statement of apology. Some experts later concluded that Rappe's bladder may have also ruptured as a result of an abortion she may have had in the short time before the September 5, 1921 party[1]Unfortunately, because alcohol was used at the party, Arbuckle was forced to plead guilty to violating that Volstead Act and had to pay a $500.00.[8] at the time of his acquittal, Arbuckle had lost his owed $700,000 to his attorneys,[8] and had lost his house and his cars as well.[8] By the time Arbuckle was acquitted, his scandal had greatly damaged his popularity among the general public, and Will H. Hays, who served as the head of the newly-formed Motion Pictures Producors and Distributors of America (MPPDA) Hollywood censor board, now saw Arbuckle as a bad example of how moral Hollywood actors should be represented as.[8] In April of 1922, Hays banned Roscoe Arbuckle from ever working in U.S. movies again.[8] In December of 1922, Hays decided to lift Arbuckle's Hollywood ban,[8] but Arbuckle would still not be able find work as an actor for a long time.[8]

Though it was regarded as Hollywood's first major scandal,[1] the Arbuckle case was one of four major Paramount-related scandals of the period. In 1920 Olive Thomas died after drinking a large quantity of medication meant for her husband (matinee idol Jack Pickford) which she had mistaken for water. In 1922 the murder of director William Desmond Taylor effectively ended the careers of actresses Mary Miles Minter and former Arbuckle screen partner Mabel Normand and in 1923 actor/director Wallace Reid's drug addiction resulted in his death. The scandals caused by these tragedies rocked Hollywood, leading major studios to include morality clauses in contracts.

Owing to the scandal, most exhibitors declined to show Arbuckle's latest films, several of which have no copies known to have survived intact. Ironically, one of the few feature-length films known to survive is Leap Year, one of two finished films Paramount withheld the release of, amid the scandal. It was eventually released in Europe, but was never theatrically released in the United States or Britain.

Aftermath

In November of 1923, Arbuckle's estranged wife Minta Durfee filed for divorce, charging grounds of desertion.[9] In January of 1924, the divorce was granted on her part[10] They had been separated since 1921 though Durfee always claimed he was the nicest man in the world, and they were still friends.[11] After a brief reconciliation, Durfee again filed for divorce,this time from Paris, in December of 1924.[12] Arbuckle married Doris Deane on May 16, 1925.

Arbuckle tried returning to moviemaking, but industry resistance to distributing his pictures lingered 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 Keaton's films. Arbuckle wrote the story for a Keaton short called "Daydreams." Arbuckle allegedly co-directed scenes in Keaton's Sherlock, Jr., 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 Sr., and Jackie Coogan.[13]

Arbuckle also directed a number of comedy shorts under the pseudonym William Goodrich for Educational Pictures, which featured lesser-known comics of the day. Louise Brooks, who played the ingenue in one of them (Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, 1931), told Kevin Brownlow,

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.

Arbuckle is said to have helped Bob Hope early in his career with a crucial job referral.[citation needed]

Divorce

In 1929, Doris Deane sued for divorce in Los Angeles, charging desertion and cruelty.[14] On June 21, 1931 Roscoe married Addie Oakley Dukes McPhail (later Addie Oakley Sheldon, 1906 – 2003) in Erie, Pennsylvania. Shortly before this marriage, Arbuckle signed a contract with Jack Warner to star in six two-reel Vitaphone short comedies under his own name.

The six Vitaphone shorts, filmed in Brooklyn, 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 UK, the British film board 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. At last, Arbuckle's professional reputation was restored, and he was welcomed back into the world he loved. He reportedly said, "This is the best day of my life." The exhilaration may have been too much for him.

Death

He died at 3:00 am in his sleep of a heart attack on June 29 1933, he was 46.[2] He was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

William Goodrich pseudonym

Eventually, Arbuckle found work as a film director under the alias "William Goodrich." According to author David Yallop 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".

Yallop's book also states that Roscoe Arbuckle was extremely large and heavy even at birth and that William Goodrich Arbuckle did not believe the child was his own offspring; this disbelief led him to name the child after a politician whom he despised: Roscoe Conkling.

Legacy

Many of Arbuckle's films, including the feature Life of the Party, 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.

Director Kevin Connor will helm the Roscoe Arbuckle feature film, The Life of the Party, as reported by the website Dark Horizons. Preston Lacy will portray Arbuckle and Chris Kattan will play Buster Keaton. The movie is being produced by Doug Peterson and writer Victor Bardack.

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.

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.

In April and May of 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 Charles Chaplin and Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life (1915) with Mabel Normand.

Arbuckle is the subject of a novel entitled I, Fatty by author Jerry Stahl.

Filmography

Director

Vitaphone shorts

Media

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See also

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Noe, Denise. "Fatty Arbuckle and the Death of Virginia Rappe". Crime Library at truTV. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  2. ^ a b "Dies in His Sleep. Film Comedian, Central Figure in Coast Tragedy in 1921, Long Barred From Screen. On Eve of his Comeback. Succumbs at 46 After He and Wife Had Celebrated Their First Wedding Anniversary". New York Times. June 30 1933. Retrieved 2008-07-03. Roscoe C. (Fatty) Arbuckle, film comedian, died of a heart attack at 3 o'clock ... Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was born at Smith Centre, Kansas, on March 24, 1887. ... ((cite news)): Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ "Minta Durfee, Actress, 85, Dies; Former Wife of Fatty Arbuckle". New York Times. September 12, 1975. Retrieved 2008-07-03. Minta Durfee, the actress who was married to Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle and became Charlie Chaplin's first motionpicture leading lady, died Tuesday in Woodland Hills, a Los Angeles suburb. ((cite news)): Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ "Fatty Arbuckle's First Wife Dies". Los Angeles Times. September 12, 1975. Retrieved 2008-07-03. Former motion picture actress Minta Durfee Arbuckle, first wife of movie comic Roscoe (Fatty Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin's first leading lady, has died at 85. ((cite news)): Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ "When the Five O'Clock Whistle Blows in Hollywood". Vanity Fair. September 1922. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  6. ^ "Fatty Arbuckle Scandal". About.com. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Fatty Arbuckle and the Death of Virginia Rappe - Crime Library on truTV.com". Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "Fatty Arbuckle and the Death of Virginia Rappe - Crime Library on truTV.com". Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  9. ^ "Milestones 11-12-23". Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  10. ^ "Milestones 01-07-24". Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  11. ^ "Excerpts of Interview with Minta Durfee Arbuckle by Don Schneider and Stephen Normand". Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  12. ^ "Milestones12-08-24". Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  13. ^ Leider, Emily W., Dark Lover: The life and death of Rudolph Valentino, p. 198
  14. ^ "Milestones 09-08-29". Time (magazine). Retrieved 2008-07-03. Sued for Divorce. By Mrs. Doris Deane Arbuckle minor cinemactress, Roscoe Conkling ("Fatty") Arbuckle, onetime cinema funnyman; at Los Angeles; for the second time. Grounds: desertion, cruelty.

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