Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle: The Tragic Story Behind Hollywood’s First Scandal

this video is brought to you by policy  genius if you have family members who depend   on your income you need life insurance and that's  where policy genius comes in more on them in a bit september the 5th 1921 it was labor  day and roscoe arbuckle was hosting a party   in a suite of the saint francis hotel in san  francisco he had every reason to be happy patty   arbuckle as he was known had been one of the most  successful movie stars of the 1910s and given that   he had just signed another big lucrative  contract with paramount studios all signs   pointed to the 1920s being just as profitable  for the portly performer but then one party   changed everything one woman mysteriously fell ill  and died another one laid the blame on the actor   and just like that arbuckle found himself charged  with causing her death for the tabloids this was   journalistic dynamite as they squeezed every  little juicy detail onto their front pages with   little regard for the truth meanwhile hollywood  was concerned with its own survival and completely   distanced itself from the once popular actor  that left fatty arbuckle fending for himself   as he became the target of  the biggest scandal in america   roscoe conkling arbuckle was born on march 24  1887 in the small town of smith center kansas   one of nine children to william goodrich arbuckle  and mary gordon the family moved to santa ana   california when he was an infant right off the  bat roscoe was a larger than life individual   his reported birth weight range from a sizeable  14 pounds to a gargantuan 16 pounds either way   he was a big boy and his birth may have caused  health problems for his mother which persisted   until her death his father resented him because  of this but also because he suspected that roscoe   might have been an illegitimate child  since both william and mary were small   slim people in fact you can tell the contempt  that william arbuckle had for his child from   his name alone he named his son roscoe conklin  after a prominent republican senator even though   william arbuckle was a democrat and absolutely  despised him as you might imagine childhood   was not a happy time for roscoe the future act we  mean not the politician at home he was shunned and   abused by his father at school he was bullied and  mocked by the other kids due to his weight already   he became known as fatty a nickname that followed  him for the rest of his life roscoe became a shy   introvert who often turned to food for comfort  which of course trapped him in a vicious cycle   the taunts and jeers of his schoolmates led to  overeating which made roscoe even bigger and led   to more mockery fortunately for him the young boy  soon discovered his calling the stage whenever he   found himself in front of the spotlight that  shy self-conscious boy turned into a dedicated   performer arbuckle made his theater debut when  he was only eight years old and from then on   he knew that showbiz was the life of him it didn't  matter if it involves singing dancing clowning or   acrobatics roscoe was surprisingly good at all  of them roscoe's mother died in 1898 when he   was 12 years old and his father wanted to have  nothing more to do with him out on the streets   the teenager traveled to san jose where he found  a job working in a hotel thanks to his habit of   singing while working a professional singer  overheard roscoe one day and suggested that   he try out on amateur night at a local theater  this was back when stage managers used giant hooks   to pull bad acts off the stage the kind that you  and i have only seen in old looney tunes cartoons   arbuckle greatly feared the humiliation of getting  the hook but it worked out well for him at night   during his turn nerves got the best of him and  arbuckle left the audience less than impressed   with the songs that he performed the dreaded hook  emerged from the left of the stage but arbuckle   tried to evade it by jumping out of the way he  ended up doing a summers hold and landing in   the orchestra pit to the raucous laughter of the  audience he won the contest and earned himself   some appearances at a few other theaters the  following year arbuckle became part of the pedages   theater and in 1906 he toured the country with the  vaudeville show as one of their main attractions in 1908 arbuckle met and married his first wife  a singer named mint duffy by that point he had   earned some renown in the theater world so a  move to the silver screen was only a matter   of time fatty arbuckle made his movie debut in  1909 appearing in a short titled ben's kid in the   following years he made a few shorts with the same  studio the selig poloscope company before he moved   to keystone studios where his career kicked off  in earnest the man who founded keystone studios   max sennett was known as the king of comedy  and he built his reputation around a series   of popular shorts featuring the side-splitting  and incompetent actics of the keystone cops   these movies proved to be the perfect vehicle for  arbuckle to display his talent at slapstick humor   and he starred in dozens of these shorts often  time alongside silent era actress mabel normand   who also gained fame due to a comedic chops in  one of their first projects together 1913's a   noise from the deep the duo might have made movie  history when arbuckle became the first person to   get pied in the face on camera courtesy of normand  by 1914 fatty arbuckle was comedy royalty and he   even started directing some of his shorts he also  gave some up-and-coming actors their big breaks   including his own nephew also john and the future  comedy legend buster keaton his personal life   wasn't doing so hot though his relationship with  his wife had become strained due to arbuckle's   heavy drinking a habit he had picked up during  his days touring with the vaudeville shows in 1916   he had a serious health scare when he developed  an infection on his leg that could have required   amputation ultimately arbuckle's leg was  saved but the actor went on a crash course   to lose some weight as fast as possible  which caused a brief morphine addiction   the setbacks in his personal life did nothing to  dim arbuckle's ever-growing stardom however in   1917 he founded his own film company named kamik  to have some more creative control over his shorts   however just a year later he relinquished control  to buster keaton when paramount studios made him   an offer that he couldn't refuse an unparalleled  three-year contract of a million dollars per   year okay we'll get back to today's video in  just a minute but first here's a word from   today's sponsor policy genius look nobody likes  to think about life insurance but the reality   is that it's an important layer of protection  for many families especially for single-income   households fortunately there's policy genius and  their award-winning policy options ranked number   one by forbes 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best of all eligible applicants can   get covered in as little as a week so head to  policygenius.com to get started you'll be glad   you did because when it comes to insurance it's  nice to get it right and now back to today's video arbuckle may have been making big bugs but his  fat contract also came with an increased workload   as he almost always was working on multiple  movies at once roscoe was getting a little burnt   out so when the opportunity came for a little r  r he jumped at the opportunity it was labor day   1921 and arbuckle had planned a three-day trip  to san francisco alongside friend and director   fred fishbach right off the bat the trip had an  inauspicious start patty thought about canceling   the whole trip after suffering an injury to his  prodigious posterior there are several tales   of how this came about but the most popular one  claimed that arbuckle had brought his luxurious   piercero automobile to a garage to be serviced  and while waiting he accidentally sat down on   an acid-soaked drag and suffered second-degree  burns to his buns anyway the fish park eventually   persuaded arbuckle not to let a little mishap get  in the way of their fun so the two of them plus   actor lao sherman jumped in roscoe's pierce arrow  and headed to san francisco where they had booked   three lavish rooms at the saint francis hotel  even though prohibition had been in effect for   over a year and a half by that point booze was  still not hard to find especially when you were   one of the biggest movie stars in the world once  arrived at the hotel arbuckle and company received   a shipment of whiskey and gin in anticipation  of the party that they were planning to throw   on september 5th 1921 their little shindig was  in full swing room 1220 had been designated as   the party room while adjoining rooms 1219 and  1221 were the sleeping quarters for arbuckle   and his two companions among the various attendees  of the festivities were 26 year old small-time   actress virginia rapp who became accompanied by  her publicist alfred semnaker and another woman   called mordelman whether or not they were invited  is uncertain but with the booze flowing and the   music playing they soon made themselves at home  at one point rep needed to use the bathroom so   she went into room 1219 which belonged to arbuckle  and was soon followed by the actor himself the two   of them were alone in the room for an undetermined  length of time some people say 10 minutes others   said an hour eventually though the particles made  their way inside and found virginia rap on the bed   barely conscious and looking deathly ill the  young woman was writhing in agony complaining of   a sharp piercing pain in her abdomen though our  doctor was summoned but unbeknownst to everyone   he'd clearly just dented a worse doctor in the  world competition because he concluded that rap   had simply had too much to drink and burst out in  hysterics he gave us a morphine to shut her up and   moved her to another room to sleep it off the  following day arbuckle checked out of the hotel   and left san francisco for reasons we still can't  comprehend even though rap was still ill she was   not taken to hospital but rather she was kept in  the hotel for a few more days on a steady diet   of morphine when her condition kept getting worse  she was finally checked into hospital but by then   it was too late on september 9 virginia rap died  of peritonitis an acute infection that was caused   by a ruptured bladder but then a new question  arose what exactly caused her bladder to rupture   right off the bat arbuckle was suspected to have  been involved in the young actress's death mainly   this was due to rap's companion moore darmond who  kept telling everyone who had listened that the   returned actor had sexually assaulted rap and then  caused her bladder to rupture under the weight of   his enormous girth later we'll go over the fact  that moore delmont had numerous charges of fraud   extortion and blackmail on her record and that she  was almost allergic to the truth but for now it   seems that her statement was enough to convince  the authorities just two days after rap's death   san francisco police arrested roscoe arbuckle  the story was as followed at around 3 pm on the   day of the party agbockel had agreed to drive a  friend of his into town he went into his room to   get changed and found virginia wrap on the floor  of his bathroom he picked her up and placed her   on the bed and brought her a glass of water since  arbuckle thought that the young woman was simply   drunk he went about his business but rabb soon  rolled out of bed onto the floor and began moaning   and writhing the actor put her to bed again and  brought her a bucket of ice her cries of anguish   attracted other party goers into the room who saw  arbuckle holding an ice cube on her stomach and   attempting to dull her pain like arbuckle their  instinct was to assume that rap was drunk but   then the actress allegedly screamed the words  that doomed his career he did this to me and we   should stress the word allegedly here in the days  that followed delmar brought in a doctor friend   of hers to look in on rap and specifically told  him to check for any signs of sexual assault but   he didn't find any despite this dormant  stuck to a story and police charged arbuckle   with first-degree murder the actor had two  important enemies working against him one was   san francisco district attorney matthew brady  who immediately understood that this could be   a career-making case for him and was determined to  obtain a guilty verdict truth apparently be damned   the other was the newspaper magnate and yellow  journalism pioneer who realized that his tabloids   could leech off this scandal for months no detail  was too divorced or too gruesome and the truth   once again was simply a third wheel that would not  get in the way of a juicy story it was in hearst's   newspapers that the most sensational parts of the  affair took life such as the rumor that rapp's   bladder had ruptured because she had been violated  with a champagne or a coke bottle even today this   is sometimes mentioned despite the fact that this  was never alleged during the trials for hearst   this strategy was an unmitigated success he later  bragged that the arbuckle case sold more copies of   his san francisco examiner than the sinking of  the lusitania which prompted the united states   to join world war one for roscoe arbuckle the  case and the publicity surrounding it led to an   immediate fall from grace his films were pulled  from theaters and he became a persona non-grata   in hollywood there was a genuine concern that the  scandal would bring down the entire movie industry during the indictment hearing district attorney  matthew brady realized that the case against   starbuckle might not be as rock solid as he hoped  but he certainly had no intention of backing down   now given how much publicity the case had already  garnered before the trial even started his star   witness was more delmont but you didn't need  to beat columbo to realize that her story was   as phony as a three dollar bill for starters  it changed every time she said it then during   the hearing she testified that arbuckle had  dragged rap into the room even though it had   already been established that he walked in  after her she kept insisting that the actor   sexually assaulted the victim even though this  had been proven false by the medical examination   at last but certainly not least some letters of  hers revealed that she was plotting to extort   arbuckle for money unsurprisingly gelman  was never called to testify during the   actual trials the whole thing should have ended  right then and there but the judge concluded that   arbuckle could still be tried for first degree  murder based on testimonies from a few other women   who attended the party who claimed that they heard  rap say he did this to me or something of that   effect at one point brady genuinely wanted to seek  the death penalty in the case but ultimately the   charge was lessened to manslaughter which could  still result in a 10-year sentence for the actor   if he was found guilty the first trial began on  november 14th 1921 most of the medical evidence   went along the same lines the injuries could  have been caused by arbuckles volnumana's body   but they could also have been caused by something  else such as stds cystitis or an abortion then   came the testimonies from the women who said they  heard virginia rapp accuse arbuckle of attacking   her they were betty campbell alice blake and zay  prevon all of them actresses models or showgirls   who attended the party during cross-examination  arbuckle's defence team showed that all three of   them had been intimidated by the prosecution to  testify against the accused if they didn't brady   would have them hit with a perjury charge this  little truth bomb resulted in a deadlocked jury   10 to 2 in favor of acquittal so in early december  the judge dismissed them and a second trial was   scheduled for mid-january the evidence during  this trial went even more in arbuckle's favor   day private testified that she never heard rap  say anything and that she was pressured to give   false testimony the defense presented medical  evidence that rap suffered from a chronic bladder   infection called cystitis which was aggravated by  alcohol things were looking good for arbuckle but   his defense team royally screwed the pooch when  they decided to keep their client off the stand   and not make any closing arguments in their  minds this strategy was supposed to show   confidence in how strong their case was but it  had the opposite effect on the jury during the   first trial roscoe's affable and sincere testimony  swayed some of the jurors but now they found his   absence indicative of guilt they deadlocked 10  to 2 again but this time in favor of conviction   the third and final trial began on march 13 1922  this time arbuckle's attorneys took no chances   point by point they took every shred of evidence  against their client and showed to the jury   how it was either inconclusive or outright false  their biggest gamble here was going after virginia   rapp's character as they presented her as a  promiscuous party girl whom they accused of   having several back alley abortions that caused  her health problems this could have backfired   badly if the jury took exception to them bad  mouthing a dead woman but it didn't on april   12th the third jury went into deliberation for  just five minutes before returning with a verdict   not guilty that was not all though as  they'd prepared a statement which said   acquittal is not enough for roscoe arbuckle we  feel that a great injustice has been done to him   there was not the slightest proof adduced to  connect him in any way with the commission   of a crime he was manly throughout the case and  told a straightforward story which we all believe   we wish him success and hope that the american  people will take the judgment to 14 men and women   that roscoe arbuckle is entirely  innocent and free from all blame   in the eyes of the law fatty arbuckle was an  innocent man but that was not good enough for   hollywood his case was one of several scandals  that hit the movie industry in the early 1920s   and studio execs were worried that all the  lurid publicity would remove the shine from   its biggest stars who were usually seen by the  general public as larger than life figures above   the problems and temptations of us puny mortals  therefore hollywood would need to police itself   and thus the motion pictures producers and  distributors of america was born today known   simply as the motion picture association  or mpa the head honcho was will hayes a   former politician and postmaster general a decade  later he would become notorious for adopting the   motion picture production code aka the hayes  code which acted as the de facto rule book on   what american movies were and were not allowed  to show all the way up until the mid-1960s but   in the early 1920s his main concern was to  rehabilitate hollywood's image by getting   rid of some of its most undesirable and immoral  figures fatty arbuckle was at the top of the list   even though he had just been found innocent just  his association with such a big scandal was enough   to get him blacklisted from the movie industry  officially hayes lifted the band 8 months later   but unofficially everybody in hollywood knew that  they couldn't touch the actor with a 10-foot pole   arbuckle's personal life suffered as well the  trials had left him heavily in debt he became   bitter and depressed and turned into an even  bigger drinker his first wife stood by him during   the scandal believing in his innocence but she  finally divorced him in 1925 and although roscoe   remarried that same year to actress doris dean  his second marriage lasted only four years but his   biggest problem was finding a way to make a living  eventually arbuckle found some acceptance in   hollywood behind the camera directing a few shorts  each year under the alias william goodrich but   these all saw limited releases and mainly featured  unknown up and coming actors so none of them were   big box office hits it wasn't until 1932 a whole  decade after the scandal the fatty arbuckle was   welcomed back to hollywood's bosom when warner  brothers hired him to star under his own name   in several comedy shorts that same year arbuckle  married his third wife addie macphail on june 29   1933 with the shorts finished warner's offered him  a contract for a feature film it was everything   that arbuckle wanted so he eagerly signed his name  on the dotted line as it happened it was also his   wedding anniversary so that night he and daddy  and some friends went out and painted the town red   things were looking up once more for fatty  arbuckle but abruptly the end came just like the   end of this video the 46 year old actor suffered  a heart attack in bed that night and the king of   comedy died in his sleep so i hope you enjoyed  today's video if you enjoyed this one about a   hollywood star why not check out our video on hedy  lamarr who was a hollywood star but also kind of   invented wi-fi there's a link on the screen right  now so check that out and thanks for watching you

Channel: Biographics

Views: 317,744

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: EdBtmBum8Tg

Length: 19min 56sec (1196 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 21 2022