Room 1219: Fatty Arbuckle, the Mysterious Death of Virginia Rappe, and the Scandal That Changed Hollywood (72 page)

On Monday morning…
Details of Rappe’s burial via “Virginia Rappe in Final Rest,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 20, 1921.

The count varies …
“Thousands See Body of Dead Girl”; “8000 See Rappe Girl’s Body.”

“I’m ready for the defense… “
“Wife Pleads for Arbuckle,”
Reading Eagle,
September 19, 1921.

she had admitted her testimony at the coroner’s inquest… Los Angeles Evening Herald,
September 16, 1921, quoted in Rob Leicester Wagner,
Red Ink, White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles Newspapers 1920—1962
(Upland, CA: Dragonflyer Press, 2000), 38.

Arbuckle embraced his wife …
“‘Hello Roscoe, Honey Dear!’: Wife’s Greeting, Strong Mutual Respect Revealed at Reunion,”
San Francisco Examiner,
September 20, 1921.

“Ada Gillifillian … “
“Cash Plot Charge in Arbuckle Case,”
Evening Public Ledger
(Philadelphia, PA), September 20, 1921.

“There is money in this Arbuckle case … “
“Police Here Asked to Watch Witness in Arbuckle Case,”
New York Tribune,
September 21, 1921.

”Tell the truth” …
Ibid.

“forcibly applied a piece of ice … “
“‘Confession’ in Arbuckle Death Case Questioned,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 22, 1921.

On the hysterical end…
“Declares Arbuckle Told of Using Foreign Substance in Attack on Miss Rappe,”
Lewistown Daily,
September 22, 1921.

in an automobile driven by a red-headed woman …
“Sleuths Waiting for Sherman Get Only Merry Laugh,”
New York Tribune,
September 22, 1921.

a deposition swearing that Arbuckle was never alone …
“Sherman Aids Arbuckle,”
New York Times,
November 2, 1921.

Universal became the first studio to institute a morality clause …
“Morality Clause for Films,”
New York Times,
September 22, 1921.

“The drunken orgy at the St. Francis …”
“Crime That of a Fiend,”
Ellensburg Daily Record,
September 22, 1921.

“Women began showing up at the Hall of Justice …”
“Women Throng First Hearing of Arbuckle Case,”
New York Tribune,
September 23, 1921.

“Men are being excluded everywhere … “
“Arbuckle Hit Hard,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 23, 1921.

“some force from outside”…
“With Puzzled Air, Arbuckle Hears Evidence,”
San Francisco Chronicle,
September 23, 1921.

Al Semnacher was the only witness …
Semnacher’s testimony via People v. Arbuckle, Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, preliminary hearing transcript, 165-68.

Red-faced Arbuckle …
“Testimony Is Vulgar,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 25, 1921.

fussing with a long stream …
Ibid.

The United Press correspondent described…
“Witness Testifies Arbuckle Confessed He Tortured Actress,”
Sunday Morning Star,
September 25, 1921.

Dominguez got Semnacher to admit …
“Testimony Is Vulgar.”

“under the influence of alcohol or morphine”…
“Blackmail Charged,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 27, 1921.

Semnacher was not Rappe’s manager …
Ibid.

“on” Rappe’s “snatch”…
People v. Arbuckle, preliminary hearing transcript, 264.

Dominguez explained the relevance …
“‘Blackmail’ to Be Arbuckle’s Defense Plea,”
New York Tribune,
September 27, 1921.

Judge Lazarus declared …
“Blackmail Charged.”

his original intent was “joshing” Rappe …
People v. Arbuckle, preliminary hearing transcript, 128.

by the time of the 1910 census …
US Census Bureau,
Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910,
population of New York City, NY, sup. dist. 1, enum. dist. 1301, April 27, 1910 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1912-14).

The groom was John C. Hopper …
“Mrs. Bambina Delmont Former Wife of Canadian Farmer and Ex-Soldier,”
Oakland Tribune,
September 14, 1921.

she lived for a time in Wichita, Kansas …
“Mrs. Delmont Known in Kansas,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 18, 1921.

authorities asked her to leave Catalina …
“Begin Inquiry Here on Life of Mrs. Delmont,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 18, 1921.

The 1920 census had found her …
US Census Bureau,
Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920,
population of Los Angeles, CA, precinct 40, sup. dist. 8, enum. dist. 262, January 3, 1920 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1921).

wedding Cassius Clay Woods …
“New Arbuckle Charge Looms,”
Los Angeles Times,
October 1, 1921.

both recalling, with minor variations …
“Use of Ice Mentioned,”
New York Tribune,
September 28, 1921.

“That’ll bring you to”…
People v. Arbuckle, preliminary hearing transcript, 336.

“No, no, oh my God!”…
Ibid., 341—42.

“Do you mean to say … “
Ibid., 346—48.

“You are traveling very close … “
Ibid., 350.

the judge was ready to deliver his decision …
“Arbuckle Out on Bail; Held for Manslaughter,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 29, 1921.

The courtroom of mostly female observers …
Courtroom reaction via “Arbuckle Out on Bail; Held for Manslaughter”; “Arbuckle Freed on Bail; Murder Charge Dropped,”
New York Tribune,
September 29, 1921.

“Roll a cigarette …”
“Arbuckle Freed on Bail; Murder Charge Dropped.”

if Arbuckle “were unknown …”
“Brady Attacks Decision,”
New York Times,
September 29, 1921.

he was stopped by women well-wishers …
“Arbuckle Due in City Today,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 30, 1921.

the conductor, porters, and many passengers …
Ibid.

a large crowd of friends and curious spectators …
“1500 at Train Station as Comedian Arrives; Kissed by Women,”
Los Angeles Herald,
September 30, 1921.

an editorial questioning it…
“Some Problems for the Psychologists,”
New York Times,
October 1, 1921.

“I’ve only seen him …”
“Blackmail Plot Against Arbuckle Charged at Trial,”
Atlanta Constitution,
September 27, 1921.

her “tense trip to Los Angeles … “
Minta Durfee, unpublished manuscript, 52, Minta Durfee Arbuckle Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.

There was a mild backlash …
“Feasting and Vigilance,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 27, 1921.

the guest of honor at a homecoming party …
“Arbuckle Celebrates in Los Angeles Home,”
New York Times,
October 1, 1921.

“He has seen fair-weather friends … “
Minta Durfee, “The True Story About My Husband,”
Movie Weekly,
December 24, 1921.

“Half the people there …”
Rudi Blesh,
Keaton
(New York: MacMillan, 1966), 80.

13. Bliss: 1919-20

“Dear Mr. Arbuckle …”
“Roscoe Arbuckle Visits Prison Birds,”
Detroit Free Press,
June 15, 1919.

“a certain little girl…”
Louella Parsons, In and Out of Focus,
New York Morning Telegraph,
March 3, 1919.

”Anyhow, you can see … “
“Fatty Arbuckle to Get Three Million,”
Los Angeles Times,
February 23, 1919.

screamed one front page …
“$1,000,000 a Year for Movie ‘Fatty,’”
Washington Times,
February 23, 1919.

“I have watched Doc…”
Parsons, In and Out of Focus, March 3, 1919.

“[A fat man] is regarded…”
“On the Advantages of Embonpoint,”
Photo-Play Journal,
February 1919, 52.

A tongue-in-cheek article in the Los Angeles Times …
“Is Fate Stacking Up the Refinement on ‘Fatty’?,”
Los Angeles Times,
June 16, 1919.

the PCL’s Vernon Tigers …
Team history via Dennis Purdy,
Kiss ‘Em Goodbye: An ESPN Treasury of Failed, Forgotten, and Departed Teams
(New York: ESPN, 2010), 338-39; “Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle’s Vernon Tigers,” Sports Hollywood,
www.sportshollywood.com/vernontigers.html
.

“the longest bar in the world”… Kiss ‘Em Goodbye,
336.

“I’m just going into it for the sport… “
“Arbuckle Is Now Magnate,”
Los Angeles Times,
May 6, 1919.

“just bought them to please Anger”…
Roscoe Arbuckle, interview by Ray Frohman,
Los Angeles Herald,
October 28, 1919.

“San Francisco won a ball game… “
“Pitchers Are Very Scarce,”
Los Angeles Times,
May 16, 1919.

The actors performed baseball sketches …
“Fatty Makes ‘Em Like Defeat,”
Los Angeles Times,
August 11, 1919.

He estimated ahead of time …
“Arbuckle Party Off for North,”
Los Angeles Times,
August 8, 1919.

Arbuckle and Keaton reveled in practical jokes…
Buster Keaton with Charles Samuels,
My Wonderful World of Slapstick
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1960), 113-22.

“Few of us in that whole Hollywood gang…”
Ibid., 155—56.

Arbuckle interacted with Virginia Rappe …
“Film Actor on Stand,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 29, 1921.

“I mean to have some real drama … “
“The Sad Tale of Arbuckle,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 16, 1919.

the Directors Ball…
West Coast News,
New York Telegraph,
December 7, 1919.

performing on a New York stage …
Theater and Arts,
New York Times,
December 21, 1919.

“Instead of passing from us …”
“John Barleycorn Died Peacefully at the Toll of 12,”
New York Times,
January 17, 1920.

“The reign of tears is over …”
Daniel Okrent,
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
(New York: Scribner, 2011), 2.

“Had to do it to save my cellar!”…
“Buys Home to Save Cellar,”
Los Angeles Times,
January 12, 1920.

According to the census …
US Census Bureau,
Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920,
population of Los Angeles, CA, precinct 188, sup. dist. 8, enum. dist. 443, January 2, 1920 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1921).

“He and the big St. Bernard… “
Minta Durfee, “The True Story About My Husband,”
Movie Weekly,
December 24, 1921.

He continued decorating the house …
West Adams house details via Minta Durfee, unpublished manuscript, 53, Minta Durfee Arbuckle Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.

the mammoth skeleton and innards of a Pierce-Arrow …
“Conspicuous Consumption: Fatty Arbuckle’s Fabulous Pierce-Arrow,”
Special Interest Auto,
February 1990, 44-46.

“a special squad of police”…
“Arbuckle’s Car Is a Genuine Knockout,”
Los Angeles Times,
May 2, 1920.

a dog wedding…
“Arbuckle Held Without Bail as Murderer,”
Chicago Tribune,
September 12, 1921.

“a ‘spirited’ program …”
“Mexican Halloween,”
Los Angeles Times,
October 30, 1920.

“It is evident that Fatty Arbuckle …”
Review of
The Round Up, Variety,
October 10, 1920.

Passport application of Roscoe Arbuckle …
Via National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

His bitter stepmother claimed…
“Film Comedian Forgets His Two Blind Sisters,”
Oakland Tribune,
September 12, 1921.

marrying a former Ziegfeld Follies showgirl…
“Arbuckle Marrying?,”
Variety,
November 19, 1920.

he literally missed the boat… Variety,
November 26, 1920.

Arbuckle joked that he might…
Ibid.

“Paris went wild…”
Plays and Players,
Photoplay,
March 1921, 89.

Four thousand Parisians crowded…
“Arbuckle Besieged,”
New York Times,
December 1, 1920.

he laid a bouquet on the spot…
“French Receive ‘Fatty’ Warmly,”
New York Herald,
Paris ed., December 1, 1920.

a dinner attended by 150 British notables … New York Herald,
Paris ed., December 6, 1920.

14. First Trial

“Now that the wave of insanity … “
“Plot Is Thinning,”
Los Angeles Times,
October 3, 1921.

“Enclosed in the following space… “
“The Arbuckle Case,”
Moving Picture World,
October 1, 1921, 513.

a screening in Sing Sing prison …
“Sing Sing Bars Arbuckle Film,”
New York Tribune,
October 7, 1921.

“I want you to have explicit faith … “
Roscoe Arbuckle, letter to Joseph Schenck, October 1, 1921, Adolph Zukor Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.

San Francisco detectives tailed Arbuckle …
“Brady Sleuths Dog Arbuckle,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 10, 1921.

“A palatial residence was to be our home …”
Minta Durfee, unpublished manuscript, 52, Minta Durfee Arbuckle Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.

”We slept in separate bedrooms …”
Minta Durfee, interview by Stuart Oderman, September 1969, in
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle: A Biography of the Silent Film Comedian, 1887-1933
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1994), 174.