Fatty Arbuckle: Raped By Negative Hollywood Press

Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd are often credited as the three big comic stars of early cinema, yet another famous slapstick comedian was also prominent during that time: Fatty Arbuckle. Were it not for a widely publicized rape and murder scandal that cast him out of show business, this mentor to both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton (and in fact, the person who granted Keaton his first role in a film) may have been recognized more prominently in that group of comics as found here. Alas, the court later declared Arbuckle not guilty, but the enormous outpouring of negative press had already obliterated his film career by that point, and the board of censorship had banned him from all U.S. film sets indefinitely. Ironically, the victim of the case was named Virginia Rappe.

Born Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle (YOW!!!), “Fatty” was not only an actor but a screenwriter and director as well – as a matter of fact, “Arbuckle was the first of the silent comedians to direct his own films, starting with "Barnyard Flirtations” (http://www.filmsite.org/20sintro2.html). He was particularly known for his slick and acrobatic physical capabilities, remarkable vocal talent, obesity (obviously), and prominent use of pie-in-the-face gags. During his popularity, Arbuckle got a $1,000,000 a year contract from Paramount, the first multimillion dollar deal in Hollywood history according to Wikipedia.

Like O.J. Simpson, Fatty never truly recovered his career after his fiasco with The Law. A dozen miserable flops and a case of dreadful alcoholism are all that resulted from his attempt at returning to filmmaking, his soiled reputation acting as the primary cause of failure. To stay afloat in the movie world, he sometimes directed short comedies under the name William Goodrich (after his father), though nothing truly noteworthy came out of this time, as seen here. Silent film actress Louise Brooks offered this gem on Fatty as a director:

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. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatty_Arbuckle)

The Huge Doughnut died only recently in 1933, succumbing to heart failure the night Warner Brothers officially received him back into the film community, signing him for a feature-length motion picture. His legacy survives in such places as college film classes, great-grandparents, and one obscure “Family Guy” reference that the majority of the show's target audience probably didn’t get. He is also #2 on Wikipedia’s “List of Obese Actors.”



[Pictured here: Fatty Arbuckle in one of his numerous drag masterpieces!]