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Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle (March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film comedian. He was given the nickname "Fatty" (a name he detested and used only professionally) because of his rotund figure. Arbuckle was one of the most popular actors of his era, but is best known today for his central role in the so-called "Fatty Arbuckle scandal." Image File history File links Arbuckle-Roscoe. ...
Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (465x640, 40 KB) Summary source: http://lcweb2. ...
March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (84th in Leap years). ...
1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ...
Smith Center is a city located in Smith County, Kansas. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Topeka Largest city Wichita Area Ranked 15th - Total 82,277 sq. ...
June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 185 days remaining. ...
1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Flag Seal Nickname: Big Apple Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,214. ...
Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area Ranked 27th - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²) - Width 285 miles (455 km) - Length 330 miles (530 km) - % water 13. ...
March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (84th in Leap years). ...
1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ...
June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 185 days remaining. ...
1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ...
A comedian, or comic, is an entertainer who amuses an audience by making them laugh. ...
Biography
Birth and Early Career Born in the small town of Smith Center, Kansas, to Mollie and William Goodrich Arbuckle, he had several years of Vaudeville experience, including work at Idora Park in Oakland, California, under his belt when he began his film career with the Selig Polyscope Company in July 1909. Smith Center is a city located in Smith County, Kansas. ...
Vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatre which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ...
Idora Park was a victorian era trolley park in North Oakland, California from the 1890s until the late 1920s. ...
Oakland, founded in 1852, is a major American city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. ...
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 in Chicago, Illinois by William Selig. ...
He appeared sporadically in Selig one-reelers until 1913, moving briefly to Universal Pictures before becoming a star in the Keystone Kops comedies for producer-director Mack Sennett. On August 6, 1908, he married Araminta Estelle Durfee (1889-1975), the daughter of Charles Warren Durfee and Flora Adkins. Durfee played leading lady in numerous early comedy films under the name "Minta Durfee," often with Arbuckle. Universal Studios Theme Parks. ...
The Keystone Kops in a typical pose. ...
Mack Sennett (1880 - 1960) Mack Sennett (January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was an innovator of slapstick comedy in film. ...
August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining. ...
1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Size and skill Despite his size, Arbuckle was physically adept and surprisingly agile. His comedies are known for being rollicking, fast-paced, full of chase scenes and having many sight gags. Arbuckle was particularly fond of the famous "pie in the face," a cliché that has come to signify silent film comedy in general. In fact, the earliest known use of the "pie in the face" in a Hollywood movie was in the June 1913 Keystone one-reeler A Noise from the Deep, starring Arbuckle and frequent screen partner Mabel Normand. In comedy, a Sight Gag is anything which conveys its humour visually, often without words being used at all. ...
Mabel Normand Mabel Normand (November 10, 1892 - February 23, 1930) was a US film actress, who was a popular comedienne in silent films. ...
A legend has Arbuckle creating the gag after a chance encounter with Pancho Villa's army on the Rio Grande during a Vaudeville appearance in El Paso, Texas. The story claims the Arbuckles, picnicking on the river, and the Villa men playfully threw fruit at each other across the river, with Roscoe knocking one of Villa's men off his horse with a bunch of bananas, to Villa's own extreme amusement. José Doroteo Arango Arámbula (June 5, 1878 (date disputed) – July 20, 1923) — better known by his nom de guerre Francisco Villa or, in its diminutive form, Pancho Villa — was one of the foremost leaders and best known generals of the Mexican Revolution, between 1911 and 1920, and provisional governor...
Buster Keaton Arbuckle gave Buster Keaton his first experience of film-making in his 1917 short, The Butcher Boy. The two men also became close friends off the set. The friendship between Arbuckle and Keaton never wavered, even when Arbuckle was beset by tragedy at the zenith of his career, and through the period of 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. Joseph Frank Keaton Jr. ...
See also: 1916 in film 1917 1918 in film years in film film Events Technicolor is introduced Top grossing films Cleopatra Movies released Movies released in 1917 include: The Adventurer, a Charlie Chaplin short. ...
The Butcher Boy is a 1917 short comedy film starring Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. ...
Scandal
 Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle (1887-1933) At the height of his career, Arbuckle was under contract to Paramount Studios for $1 million a year, the first such official salary paid by a Hollywood studio. On September 3, 1921, Arbuckle took a break from his hectic film schedule, driving to San Francisco with two friends, Lowell Sherman and Fred Fischbach. The three checked into the St. Francis Hotel, decided to have a party, and invited several women to their suite. During the carousing, one of the women, a 26-year-old aspiring actress named Virginia Rappe, became seriously ill and was examined by the hotel doctor, who concluded that she was probably mostly just intoxicated. Signed Roscoe Arbuckle Fan Card This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ...
Signed Roscoe Arbuckle Fan Card This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ...
The Paramount Pictures logo used from 1988 to 1989. ...
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September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years). ...
1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...
This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...
Lowell Sherman (October 11, 1885 San Francisco - December 28, 1934 Hollywood, California) was an American actor and director. ...
Virginia Rappe Virginia Rappe (pronounced []) (September 19, 1895 - September 9, 1921) was an American silent film actress. ...
Rappe died three days later of peritonitis caused by a ruptured bladder. Rappe's companion to the party, Maude Delmont, implicated Arbuckle over his involvement in the matter, claiming that he'd crushed Rappe's innards while raping her. Arbuckle, confident he had nothing to be ashamed of, refused to be intimidated. Delmont then made a statement to the police in an attempt to get money from Arbuckle's attorneys, but the matter soon got out of her hands. Newspapers, particularly those controlled by William Randolph Hearst, made a fortune endlessly crucifying Arbuckle in spurious and surreally vicious articles and editorials (the New York Times stated that Rappe was lucky to be crushed to death during the rape before having to consciously endure "a fat man's foulness"). William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper magnate, born in San Francisco, California. ...
The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...
Roscoe Arbuckle's career is seen by many film historians as one of the great tragedies of Hollywood. The Arbuckle trial was a major media event, and stories in Hearst's newspaper empire made Arbuckle appear guilty. After two trials resulted in hung juries, the third resulted in an acquittal and a written apology from the jury—a gesture unprecedented in American justice. ...
Although Arbuckle was completely cleared of the allegations involving Rappe, the resulting infamy destroyed his career and his personal life. During the trial, morality groups nationwide called for Arbuckle to be sentenced to death, and studio moguls ordered Arbuckle's friends in the industry not to come to his public defense. Charlie Chaplin was out of the country at the time, on a triumphant return to England. But Buster Keaton did, however, make a public statement in support of Arbuckle, calling Roscoe one of the kindest souls he had known.
The Arbuckle case was one of four major Paramount-related scandals of the period, the other three being the drug-related suicide, in Paris in 1920, of actress Olive Thomas, wife of matinee idol Jack Pickford; the still-unsolved 1922 murder of director William Desmond Taylor, which effectively ended the careers of actresses Mary Miles Minter and former Arbuckle screen partner Mabel Normand; and the drug-related death of actor/director Wallace Reid in 1923. Those four occurrences rocked Hollywood and led to calls for reform of the "indecency" being promoted by motion pictures and resulted in the creation of the Production Code, which set standards for decency in Hollywood films. Olive Thomas (Charleroi, Pennsylvania, United States, October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) was an American actress. ...
John Charles Smith (August 18, 1896 - January 3, 1933) was a Canadian-born American actor. ...
William Desmond Taylor William Desmond Taylor (born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner April 26, 1872 in Carlow, Ireland – February 1, 1922 in Los Angeles) was a successful US film director and a popular figure in the growing Hollywood film colony of the 1910s and early 20s. ...
Mary Miles Minter (April 1, 1902 - August 4, 1984) was a U.S. film actor in silent films. ...
Mabel Normand Mabel Normand (November 10, 1892 - February 23, 1930) was a US film actress, who was a popular comedienne in silent films. ...
Wallace Reid Wallace Reid, born April 15, 1891 in St. ...
The Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of industry guidelines governing the production of American motion pictures. ...
The Hays Office banned all of Arbuckle's films, although Will H. Hays later issued a statement that Arbuckle should be allowed to work in Hollywood. Ironically, one of the very few of Arbuckle's feature-length films known to survive, Leap Year, had been one of two finished films Paramount held back from release at the time the scandal broke; while it was eventually released in Europe after the acquittal, it was never theatrically released in the United States nor in Britain. The Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of guidelines governing the production of motion pictures. ...
Cover of Time Magazine (September 13, 1926) William Harrison Hays (November 5, 1879–March 7, 1954) was the namesake of the Hays Code, chairman of Republican National Committee and U.S. Postmaster General. ...
Many of Arbuckle's films, including the feature Life of the Party, survive only as a print with foreign-language inter-titles; Life of the Party was released before the scandal, but no effort was made to preserve the original English-language prints.
In recent years, some of his early short subjects (particularly ones which co-starred Chaplin or Keaton) have been restored, released on DVD, and even screened theatrically. DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ...
Second marriage On January 27, 1925, he divorced Araminta Estelle Durfee in Paris. She had charged desertion. He then married Doris Deane on May 16, 1925. January 27 is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...
May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ...
1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Late career Arbuckle tried to return to moviemaking, but the ban on his pictures came too soon after his acquittal to allow for that, and he retreated into alcoholism—in the words of his first wife, "Roscoe only seemed to find solace and comfort in a bottle." Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinkers normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. ...
Buster Keaton attempted to help Arbuckle by letting him work on Keaton's films. Arbuckle wrote the story of the Keaton short "Day Dreams." Arbuckle allegedly co-directed scenes in Keaton's Sherlock, Jr., but it is unclear how much of this footage made it through to the final film. Arbuckle also directed a number of comedy shorts for Educational Pictures featuring lesser-known comics of the day under the pseudonym William Goodrich. Joseph Frank Keaton Jr. ...
Day Dreams was the title of a Doris Day album released by Columbia Records on June 13, 1955. ...
Sherlock, Jr. ...
Educational Pictures (or Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. ...
A discredited but persistent legend gives an inaccurate explanation for the origin of Arbuckle's pseudonym. Allegedly, Keaton (an inveterate punster) suggested that Arbuckle should become a director under the alias "Will B. Good." Supposedly, Arbuckle agreed but—recognizing that the pun was too obvious—he expanded the name to "William B. Goodrich." This story is false. Arbuckle directed dozens of films in which his pseudonym is clearly listed in the opening credits as "William Goodrich" ... always lacking an initial B. Author David Yallop has established that Arbuckle's father's full name was William Goodrich Arbuckle; this is clearly the true source of the alias. The only grain of truth in the "Will B. Good" legend is that Keaton and Arbuckle were, indeed, both very fond of puns. David Anthony Yallop (born 1937 London) is a British author who writes chiefly about unsolved crimes. ...
Third marriage In 1929 Doris Deane sued for divorce in Los Angeles, charging desertion and cruelty. On June 21, 1931, Roscoe married Addie Oakley Dukes McPhail, later Addie Oakley Sheldon (1906-2003) in Erie, Pennsylvania. Shortly before that marriage, Arbuckle signed a contract with Jack Warner to star in six two-reel Vitaphone short comedies, using his own name. He finished filming the last of the two-reelers on June 28, 1933, and was signed by Warner Brothers to make a feature-length film just hours before he died. Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ...
June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ...
1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ...
Nickname: The Flagship City Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: County Erie County Founded 1795 Mayor Joseph Sinnott Area - City 72. ...
Jack Warner Jack Warner (J.L. for short) (August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978), born Jacob Leonard Warner in London, Ontario, Canada, was the president and driving force behind the highly successful development of Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. ...
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on several features and shorts produced by Warner Brothers in the late 1920s and early 1930s. ...
June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 186 days remaining. ...
1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Warner Bros. ...
Arbuckle's 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 each appeared with Arbuckle in one apiece of the six shorts. Sadly, when Warner Brothers attempted to release the first of these six shorts ("Hey, Pop!") in Britain, the British film board—citing the scandal of more than a decade earlier—refused to grant it an exhibition certificate. Alfred St. ...
Lionel Stander & Freeway Lionel Jay Stander (born January 11, 1908 in The Bronx, New York; died November 30, 1994 in Los Angeles, California) was an American character actor in movies and television. ...
Samuel Shemp Howard / (Horwitz) (March 17, 1895 – November 22, 1955) was part of the Three Stooges comedy team. ...
Death Roscoe Arbuckle died from heart failure on June 29, 1933, in Hollywood. He was only 46 years old. Buster Keaton stated repeatedly that Arbuckle died of a broken heart. The same day he died, he had just filmed two new comedy reels, and he was reported to say "This is the best day of my life." He was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean. (It is Macklin Arbuckle, an early screen actor reputed to be Roscoe Arbuckle's cousin, who is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.) June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 185 days remaining. ...
1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
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Located in The Bronx, Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City. ...
The Bronx is one of the five boroughs of United States. ...
Museum of Modern Art Retrospective In April and May of 2006, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted a huge 56-film, month-long retrospective of most of Arbuckle's surviving work, taking the unprecedented step of running the entire series twice in a row for additional emphasis. Highlights included The Rounders (1914) with Charles Chaplin and Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life (1915) with Mabel Normand. View across garden, in new MoMA building by Yoshio Taniguchi. ...
Flag Seal Nickname: Big Apple Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,214. ...
For the Jamaican musician named Charlie Chaplin, see Charlie Chaplin (singer). ...
Mabel Normand Mabel Normand (November 10, 1892 - February 23, 1930) was a US film actress, who was a popular comedienne in silent films. ...
Media Fatty Arbuckle, The Butcher Boy, 1917. ...
Fatty Arbuckle, Life of the Party, 1920. ...
See also These are the film appearances as an actor of Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle: // Early years Bens Kid (1909) (1909) Making It Pleasant for Him (1909) The Sanitarium (1910) A Voice from the Deep (1912) 1913 Help! Help! Hydrophobia! Safe in Jail Alas! Poor Yorick! The Foreman of the Jury The...
This is a list of United States comedy films. ...
External links (Clockwise from upper left) Notable Time magazine covers from the dates May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...
April 16 is the 106th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (107th in leap years). ...
2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about actors, films, television shows, television stars, video games and production crew personnel. ...
Further reading - David A. Yallop: "The Day the Laughter Stopped" ISBN 0-340-16901-X
- Andy Edmonds: "Frame-Up!", William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, NY, 1991
Selected coverage in the New York Times - New York Times; September 12, 1921; pg. 1. "San Francisco, California; September 11, 1921. "Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle was arrested late last night on a charge of murder as a result of the death of Virginia Rappe, film actress, after a party in Arbuckle's rooms at the Hotel St. Francis. Arbuckle is still in jail tonight despite efforts by his lawyers to find some way to obtain his liberty."
- New York Times; September 13, 1921; pg. 1. "San Francisco, California; September 12, 1921. "The Grand Jury met tonight at 7:30 o'clock to hear the testimony of witnesses rounded up by Matthew Brady (District Attorney) of San Francisco to support his demand for the indictment of Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle for the murder of Miss Virginia Rappe.
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