He was simple, direct, and unflustered in both direct and cross-examination. What happened at that party and why was the public so ready to believe "Fatty" was guilty? Virginia Caroline Rappe ( / rpe /; July 7, 1891 - September 9, 1921) [2] was an American model and silent film actress. It was like floating in the arms of a huge doughnutreally delightful. [47], On June 28, 1933, Arbuckle had finished filming the last of the two-reelers (four of which had already been released). Public feeling was so negative that Durfee was later shot at while entering the courthouse. [citation needed], 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 fateful party. Although Arbuckle was able to keep his leg, he was prescribed morphine against the pain; he would later be accused of being addicted to it. The restaurant was named after Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, one of the most successful silent film actors in the 1910s. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. [6] Arbuckle then joined the Morosco Burbank Stock vaudeville company and went on a tour of China and Japan, returning in early 1909. Virginia Caroline Rappe (/rpe/; July 7, 1891 September 9, 1921)[2] was an American model and silent film actress. Arbuckle later wrote a premise for a film parodying Hart as a thief, bully, and wife beater, which Keaton purchased from him. That evening, the three men, Arbuckle, Lowell Sherman and Fred Fischbach, had invited several women to the party. He was the first movie star in America to systematically direct his own films. Because the first trial ended with a hung jury, Arbuckle was tried again. After this news was released, the public went wild with rumors about how Arbuckle was involved. Virginia Rappe was born in Chicago in 1891 to Mabel Rapp, who died when Virginia was 11. 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. Fans also called Roscoe "The Prince of Whales" and "The Balloonatic". While Hubbard offered explanations on her vote whenever challenged, Kilkenny remained silent and quickly faded from the media spotlight after the trial ended. He had also requested that all showings and bookings of Arbuckle films be canceled, and exhibitors complied. 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. One of the films (How've You Bean?) A friend of Rappe accused Arbuckle of raping and accidentally killing her. During the party one of the guests, Virginia Rappe, an aspiring actress, was found seriously ill in room 1219, the room in which Arbuckle was to stay. Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (/rbkl/; March 24, 1887 June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Mack Sennett, when recounting his first meeting with Arbuckle, noted that he "skipped up the stairs as lightly as Fred Astaire" and that he "without warning went into a feather light step, clapped his hands and did a backward somersault as graceful as a girl tumbler". Rosenberg, Jennifer. Arbuckle, whose real name was Roscoe, had allegedly locked Rappe in a room and crushed her with his 19 stone body weight and raped her. Fatty Arbuckles night club in Coventry 3rd December 20011 of 4. 1977. In the summer of 1921, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was on top of the world. But the first two trials ended with hung juries and the third ended with an acquittal. Eventually, the hotel staff was contacted and Rappe was taken to another room to rest. 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. [49], Many of Arbuckle's films, including the feature Life of the Party (1920), survive only as worn prints with foreign-language inter-titles. [3], On September 17, 1921, Arbuckle was arrested and arraigned on charges of manslaughter. For this trial, the jury deliberated for only a couple of minutes and came back with a verdict of not guilty. [58] Like Farley, comedians John Belushi and John Candy also considered playing Arbuckle, but each of them died before a biopic was made. On Monday, September 5, the party started early. in the United Kingdom, the British Board of Film Censors cited the ten-year-old scandal and refused to grant an exhibition certificate. These six short films constitute the only recordings of Arbuckle's voice. The management are happy to show visitors the suite, if it's unoccupied, but they don't know exactly what happened in there on Labor Day in 1921 - no-one does. "Rappe was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time because she wound up dead. [19][20] Following his recovery, Arbuckle started his own film company, Comique, in partnership with Joseph Schenck. . Gina Dimuro is a New York-based writer and translator. In her case it wasn't due to the public censure brought on by American clubwomen and clergymen. 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. Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. His early influence on American slapstick comedy is widely recognised. But at the hospital, Delmont told police that Rappe had been raped by Arbuckle at the party and on September 11, 1921, the comedian was arrested. Some articles stated Arbuckle had crushed Rappe with his weight, while others said he had raped her with a foreign object (the papers went into graphic details). "[15] Nevertheless, Arbuckle's reputation and career were ruined because of the scandal. However, some jurors interpreted the refusal to let Arbuckle testify as a sign of guilt. [11], The exact events of the party remain unclear, with witnesses relating numerous versions of what happened. 's office,[31] and expressed surprise that she was not challenged when selected for the jury pool. [6], In 1916, Rappe moved to San Francisco to pursue her career as an artist's model. The poor man was completely framed for the murder of Vriginia Rappe. 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. Dear Mick: You state, regarding the Fatty Arbuckle alleged rape-murder incident, "That crime never happened." However, since you were not there, you can't truthfully say it "never happened." The first two trials ended in hung juries, indicating that the evidence was not open and shut. . Im a writer and a copy editor with experience in editing science and engineering articles. He also said: "The American nation prides itself upon its spirit of fair play. I'm not. Weekly quiz: Which house are Harry and Meghan vacating? Rudolph Nureyev Dances", "Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, acquitted for murder of Virginia Rappe in 1922, never recovered from all the bad press", "Rediscovering Roscoe: The Careers of "Fatty" Arbuckle", "Restoring Fatty Arbuckle's Tarnished Reputation at MoMa", Contemporary press articles pertaining to Arbuckle, Banned Film Resurfaces 90 Years After San Francisco Scandal, The Fatty Arbuckle Trial: The Injustice of the Century (2004), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roscoe_Arbuckle&oldid=1139315103, Arbuckle, Roscoe "Fatty," "What the Well-Dressed Man Will Wear,", This page was last edited on 14 February 2023, at 13:48. He discovered Buster Keaton and Bob Hope. 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. 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. [61] The 1963 novel Scandal in Eden by Garet Rogers[62] is a fictionalized version of the Arbuckle scandal. The three checked into three rooms at the St. Francis Hotel: 1219 for Arbuckle and Fishback to share, 1221 for Sherman, and 1220 designated as a party room. The 12th floor hotel suite at the Westin St Francis where Arbuckle and friends partied on Labor Day, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was born into poverty in Kansas, 'Trump or bust' - grassroots Republicans are still loyal. McNab took an aggressive defense, completely tearing apart the prosecution's case with long and aggressive examination and cross-examination of each witness. Rappe had fallen ill at a party hosted by Arbuckle at San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel in September 1921, and died four days later. Keaton attempted to help Arbuckle by giving him work on his films. Public safetyLast week a 34-year-old mother was killed in North Rhine-Westphalia when a German-born man with Serbian roots pushed her into the path of an oncoming train. The conflicting accounts, tabloid exaggerations, and general furor surrounding the crime that ended Arbuckles acting career make it difficult to determine what actually happened that fateful day. [42] Keaton himself told this story during a recorded interview with Kevin Brownlow in the 1960s.[43]. 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". [7] He first performed on stage with Frank Bacon's company at age 8 during their performance in Santa Ana. Arbuckle was one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s. The pun being too obvious, Arbuckle adopted the more formal pseudonym "William Goodrich". 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. [2] Hays lifted the ban within a year, but Arbuckle only worked sparingly through the 1920s. Additionally, the jury wrote an apology to Arbuckle: Being acquitted was not the end to Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's problems. Although Comique produced some of the best short pictures of the silent era, Arbuckle transferred his controlling interest in the company to Buster Keaton in 1918 and accepted Paramount's $3million offer to make up to 18 feature films over three years. [8] Rappe appeared in at least four films for Lehrman: His Musical Sneeze, A Twilight Baby, Punch of the Irish and A Game Lady. Newspapers went wild with the story: popular silent-screen comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle had killed Virginia Rappe with his weight while savagely raping her. "Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915," database, FamilySearch (, Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 02:12, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7WC-F8M, "The Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920", "Sausalito News 12 November 1921 California Digital Newspaper Collection", "Fatty Arbuckle and the Death of Virginia Rappe", Crime Library Article on the Rappe/Arbuckle case, Film researcher discusses the Fatty Arbuckle trial, Allan Ellenberger blog entry on Virginia Rappe, 'Fatty' Arbuckle and Hollywood's first scandal, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virginia_Rappe&oldid=1140848504, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 02:12. [44], In 1929, Doris Deane sued for divorce from Arbuckle in Los Angeles, charging desertion and cruelty. Arbuckle's accuser, Bambina Maude Delmont, had accompanied Rappe to the party; she had first met Rappe only a few days earlier. "The "Fatty" Arbuckle Scandal."