Fatty Arbuckle

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was one of America's first silent movie stars.  He dominated the film industry from 1914-1920 often appearing with female co-star Mabel Normand.  Despite his prodigious weight, he was graceful and acrobatic doing somersaults and landing on his feet.  He was a purveyor of the pie-in-the-face slapstick routine that came to embody silent film.  He typically portrayed a country hayseed who struggles in the big city and he co-starred in several films with Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.

Arbuckle was born in 1887. He weighed 13 pounds at birth and his mother suffered injuries during his delivery that would later contribute to her death.  His father was convinced he was illegitimate and named him after the disgraced Senator Roscoe Conkling.  His father beat him throughout his childhood.  After Arbuckle's mother died when he was 12, his father kicked him out of the house.

Arbuckle had a beautiful singing voice.  He won a local talent show and joined a traveling vaudeville company.  In 1908 he married actress Minta Durfee.  A year later he appeared in his first movie Ben's Kid.  He soon joined the Mack Sennett Company as producer/director and became a performer in the Keystone Cop comedy films.

Arbuckle's weight was part of his comedic appeal but he refused to use it to get cheap laughs.  He would not allow himself to be stuck in a doorway or a chair.  He despised his screen nickname and when someone called him "Fatty" he would say, "I've got a name, you know."

Audiences loved Arbuckle and his films were smash hits.  By 1914, Paramount paid him $1,000 a day plus 25% of all profits.  They also gave him complete artistic control.  By 1918, he was signed to a three-year, $3 million contract.  He began living the high life, indulging in heavy food and drink.  His weight shot up to 350 pounds and he developed health problems including a severe infection in his leg that nearly led to amputation.  Arbuckle managed to shed 80 pounds but he became addicted to morphine in the process.

On September 5, 1921, needing a break from his hectic schedule, Arbuckle drove to San Francisco with two friends.  They rented three rooms at the swanky St. Francis Hotel.  Prohibition was in full swing, but the group obtained illegal hooch and invited some girls for a raucous hotel party.  At some point, Arbuckle found himself alone in a bedroom with a 30-year old model/actress named Virginia Rappe.  (She was one of Mack Sennett's "bathing beauties.")

The ensuing details have become the stuff of legend but a few facts are clear. Arbuckle was alone with Rappe.  Rappe became seriously ill.  The hotel doctor examined Rappe and determined she was simply drunk.  Two days later Rappe was rushed to the hospital where she died from peritonitis caused by a ruptured bladder.

The press immediately blamed Arbuckle for Rappe's death.  Bambina Delmont, a guest at the party, told police that Arbuckle raped Rappe.  Police concluded that Arbuckle's weight caused Rappe's bladder to rupture.  Rappe's Manager further suggested that Arbuckle used a piece of ice to simulate sex with Rappe.  By the time the story appeared in newspapers, the object had become a broken coke bottle instead of a piece of ice.  (Witnesses later testified that Arbuckle rubbed ice on Rappe's stomach to ease her pain.)

Arbuckle denied any wrongdoing but William Randolph Hearst's "yellow journalism" machine had a field day.  Hearst's newspapers began running nationwide stories portraying Arbuckle as "a gross lecher who used his weight to overpower innocent girls."  Hearst would later admit that the Arbuckle Scandal "sold more newspapers than any event since the sinking of the Lusitania."

There was no hard evidence that Arbuckle committed rape.  But one of the party guests claimed Rappe made a deathbed statement that "Roscoe hurt me." Arbuckle was subsequently arrested and charged with manslaughter.  He spent three weeks in jail before he was released on bail.

Morality groups called for Arbuckle to be sentenced to death.  Studio executives ordered their employees not to publicly support Arbuckle.  Charlie Chaplin never commented on the incident but Buster Keaton disobeyed studio demands and vocally defended Arbuckle.  Public outrage was so inflamed that during the first trial someone fired a gunshot at Arbuckle's wife Minta Durfee as she entered the San Francisco courthouse.

There would be three trials.  Key witness Bambina Delmont was not allowed to testify after it was learned she'd attempted to extort money from Arbuckle's lawyers.  She also had a long criminal record for extortion and fraud.  The first trial resulted in a hung jury.  Ten jurors voted "not guilty," two voted "guilty." One of the "guilty" jurors was a woman named Helen Hubbard whose husband did business with the D.A.'s office.  She told jurors she would "vote guilty until hell freezes over."

The second trial also resulted in a hung jury.  This time the vote was 9-3 favoring "not guilty."  Two witnesses who previously testified against Arbuckle stated that District Attorney Matthew Brady forced them to lie or they would be prosecuted for libel.

During the trials, it was discovered that Virginia Rappe had a history of cystitis that flared up when she drank.  She'd also undergone several abortions including a recent botched abortion that nearly killed her.  She'd been complaining of severe stomach pains in the weeks before the St. Francis Hotel incident.  Doctors found no evidence of rape and no external cause for the ruptured bladder.

The third trial resulted in a unanimous Not Guilty verdict.  The jury debated for only six minutes before rendering their decision.  They issued a rare public apology writing "Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle.  We feel that a great injustice has been done to him as there was not the slightest proof to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime...Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame."

Although he was cleared of all charges, Roscoe was guilty in the court of public opinion.  The months of negative press destroyed his reputation.  Arbuckle owed more than $700,000 in attorney fees and he was forced to sell his house and his cars to pay for his legal defense.

During the time of the trial, the US Government had been threatening to regulate the film industry with new rules of censorship and guidelines for how stars could behave on and off screen.  Fearing government intrusion, the studios decided to self-regulate.  They created the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) and named former Postmaster General Will Hays as president. This led to the "Hays Code," the first official censor of American movies.

Within a week of Arbuckle's acquittal, Hays banned him from appearing in movies and demanded all his films be pulled from circulation.  Arbuckle, once the most powerful star in Hollywood, was Blacklisted.  The ban was ultimately rescinded, but Arbuckle's career was effectively over.  He'd become the poster boy for the dangers and excesses of Hollywood.  Studios began inserting morality clauses in star contracts and public relations firms arose to whitewash the rumored sins of Hollywood's A-List.

Buster Keaton was one of the few old friends who came to Arbuckle's aid.  He hired him to write and co-direct his movies including the film classic Sherlock, Jr..  (Arbuckle worked under the pseudonym "William Goodrich," a riff on Keaton's suggested name "Will B. Good.")  Though his career resumed, Arbuckle fell into a deep depression and returned to drinking.  Actress Louise Brooks said, "He made no attempt to direct.  He sat in his chair like a man dead."

In 1932, Arbuckle seemed on the verge of redemption.  He appeared in six two-reel comedies to great success.  Warner Brothers offered him a feature-length film.  On the day he signed the contract, an ebullient Arbuckle said, "This is the best day of my life." That night he suffered a severe heart attack and died in his sleep.  He was 46 years old.  (6" x 8", black ink print)

Chaplin

It was 1934 and Charlie Chaplin, the world's most beloved movie star, was in a quandary. "Talkies" were all the rage and everyone was waiting for his new movie so they could finally hear the "Tramp" speak. The thought of another silent film was anachronistic.  But Chaplin worried that the universal appeal of his alter ego would be lost if he spoke.

Chaplin was deeply troubled by the Great Depression. "Something is wrong when five million men are out of work in the richest country in the world." After a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi who lamented "machinery with only consideration of profit," an idea took hold in Chaplin's head. He would make a satire on modern industrial life.

The resulting film was Modern Times. The "Tramp" plays a factory worker literally gobbled up by the grinding gears of industry. He struggles to keep up with the ever-accelerating assembly line where he screws nuts onto pieces of machinery. (This scene is later copied in I Love Lucy in the famous chocolate factory episode.) The industrial work overwhelms the "Tramp" and he suffers a nervous breakdown. Chaplin does finally speak in Modern Times in the form of a hilarious song, a mishmash of French-Italian gibberish that pokes fun at "talkies" while still giving audiences a taste of Chaplin's voice.

Today, Modern Times is viewed as a classic but upon it's release it received only mixed reviews and average box office. People did not appreciate Chaplin's politicizing. He was a foreigner after all and the public felt he had no right to speak ill of America which had made him rich and famous. Chaplin couldn't help himself. He'd been raised in poverty in England and he felt a kinship with the poor, the hungry and the downtrodden. He truly believed that capitalism and modern technology was displacing the American worker. If he didn't speak out, who would?

During World War II, Chaplin supported various Soviet-American friendship groups. His social circle included German emigres like Bertolt Brecht who professed pro-Communist views. In 1947, the FBI launched an investigation into Chaplin viewing him as a potential threat to national security. The FBI also leaked stories to gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper who defamed Chaplin in her columns. Based on Modern Times, the House Un-American Activities Committee was convinced that Chaplin was a Communist. Chaplin denied the charges but the political atmosphere was toxic.

In 1952, Chaplin traveled to London with his new wife Oona (the daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill) to promote his latest film Limelight. A day after his departure, the US Government revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit. Rather than fight the government, Chaplin cut his ties with the United States. He later wrote, "The sooner I was rid of that hate-beleaguered atmosphere the better." Chaplin and Oona moved into an 18th Century mansion in Switzerland overlooking Lake Geneva. They had eight children and spent the rest of their lives together.

In 1972, the Academy gave Chaplin an honorary award for his contribution to film. He returned to the US for the first time in 20 years and was given a 12-minute standing ovation at the Oscars. Chaplin was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975. He died in his sleep from a stroke in 1977 at age 88. A year after his death, Chaplin's coffin was dug up and stolen by two unemployed immigrants. Chaplin's body was held for ransom but Oona refused to be extorted. The immigrants were captured and Chaplin's coffin was found in a field in a nearby village. He was reburied in a cemetery in Vevey, Switzerland. (6" x 6", black ink print)

Hands Of Time

2013 marks the 90th Anniversary of the silent film masterpiece Safety Last.  The film offers arguably the most iconic image from the silent film era: Harold Lloyd clinging from a building clock over downtown Los Angeles.

Known as the "Third Genius" (behind Chaplin & Keaton), Harold Lloyd played a prototypical "everyman" character.  In Safety Last, Lloyd is a small-town country boy striving for success in the big city.  He finds a job as a department store clerk and comes up with the idea to climb the building edifice as a publicity stunt.  Lloyd was inspired a year earlier by seeing a stuntman climb a towering building in Downtown Los Angeles.

During production, a fake building structure was constructed over another building's rooftop.  The camera was positioned across the street at an angle to make it look as if Lloyd were hundreds of feet in the air.  In truth, he was only seven stories high.

When Lloyd first tested the safety precautions for the stunt, he dropped a dummy onto the mattress below the clock.  The dummy bounced off the mattress and plummeted to the downtown street.  When writer and producer Hal Roach saw this happen, he urged Lloyd to use a stuntman.  Like Chaplin and Keaton, Lloyd insisted on doing most of how own stunts.  What made the Clock Stunt more amazing was the fact that Lloyd only had 8 fingers.  He'd lost a thumb and a forefinger on the short film Haunted Spooks four years earlier when a prop bomb exploded in his hand.  Lloyd subsequently wore a light glove with prosthetic fingers and performed his stunt work with only one complete hand.

Lloyd called his special brand of films "thrill comedies."  Safety Last broke box office records upon it's release in 1923.  Years later, actor Jackie Chan acknowledged a creative debt to Harold Lloyd in his own action comedies which perfected the "thrill comedy" format.

Lloyd married his on-screen co-star Mildred Davis in 1923.  A year later he started his own production company at a location that now houses the Los Angeles Mormon Temple in Westwood.  Like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd's popularity waned with the advent of talkies.

In 1947, Lloyd tried to recreate his "thrill comedy" magic in the film The Sin Of Harold Diddleback. Directed by Preston Sturges and produced by Howard Hughes, the film includes a scene where Lloyd is stranded on a building ledge with a full-grown lion.  The film received negative reviews and did poorly at the box office.  This would be Harold Lloyd's last film.

After retiring, Lloyd became known for his nude photos of models & strippers. His subjects included Bettie Page and Marilyn Monroe. (6" x 7", black ink print)

Buster Keaton

Joseph "Buster" Keaton was one of the three great silent film comedians (along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd).  Born into a performing family, Keaton's father Joe owned a traveling vaudeville show with Harry Houdini called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company.  At the age of 18 months, Keaton fell down a flight of stairs without injury.  Houdini observed the event and said, "That was a real buster."  The nickname stuck.

Keaton began performing with his parents at age 3 in a comedy act called "The Three Keatons."  As part of the act, he was manhandled and tossed around stage by his father while his mother played saxophone on the side.  A suitcase handle was sewn into Keaton's clothing to make him easier to toss. Father Joe was arrested for child abuse on stage but after the boy showed authorities he had no bruises or broken bones, the elder Keaton was released. Keaton became known as "the little boy who can't be damaged."

Keaton learned early on how to take a pratfall.  "The secret is landing limp and breaking the fall with a foot or a hand.  Several times I'd have been killed if I hadn't been able to land like a cat."  Keaton also  learned that smiling on stage drew fewer laughs than a deadpan expression.  This is how he acquired his famous "stoneface" demeanor that became his signature.

Keaton served in France with the 40th Infantry during World War I.  He suffered an ear infection that permanently damaged his hearing.  After the war, he began working at the Talmadge Studios in New York.  He befriended Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle who hired Keaton as a co-star and gag writer. Keaton's first film appearance came in The Butcher Boy in 1917.  Soon, Keaton was directing Arbuckle's films.  (When Arbuckle was falsely accused of raping actress Virginia Rappe in 1921, Keaton was one of the few people to defend Arbuckle's character.)

Keaton's golden period of two-reel comedies and full length features was 1920-29. The films included the classics The General, The Navigator and The Cameraman. He became known for creating brilliant gags and dangerous stunts.  In Sherlock, Jr., Keaton broke his neck when a torrent of water from a railroad water tank fell on his head.  During Steamboat Bill, Jr., Keaton stood motionless as the facade of a two-story building toppled onto him.  He emerged unscathed thanks to a single open window.  The house weighed two tons and provided just a few inches of clearance around his body.  Throughout the stunts, Keaton maintained a stoic, emotionless expression.

Keaton appealed to audiences as an everyman who refused to succumb to life's difficulties.  He became known for his large eyes, solemn stare and his ever-present porkpie hat.  He made the hats himself.  "I knew straw was too fragile for my kind of antics so I took a good Stetson and cut it down, then I stiffened the brim with sugar water."

When movies turned to sound in 1927, Keaton signed with MGM, a decision he later called the worst of his life.  MGM limited Keaton's creative input and cast him in dialogue-heavy scripts with few gags. They forced him to use a stunt double despite Keaton's concern that "stuntmen don't get laughs."  The studio teamed the quiet Keaton with the obnoxious Jimmy Durante, a decision that yielded box office success but less than memorable films.  Keaton complained so much that MGM fired him after production of the 1933 film What! No Beer?

Keaton was demoralized by the state of his career.  He was also stuck in a loveless marriage to Natalie Talmadge, sister-in-law of studio head Joseph Schenck.  They had two children but Talmadge sued Keaton for divorce in 1932 and took his entire fortune.  She also refused her sons any contact with their father.  Keaton turned to alcohol.  At one point, he was briefly institutionalized.  He escaped his straitjacket with tricks he learned from his vaudeville days.

In 1933, Keaton married his nurse during an alcoholic binge.  He later claimed no memory of the event calling those years his "alcoholic blackout" period. They divorced in 1936, again at great financial cost to Keaton.

After making a few films in Europe, Keaton became a gag writer for the Marx Brothers and Red Skelton.  He also mentored Lucille Ball advising her to eschew dramatic films for comedy.  In 1939, Keaton made ten short films for Jules White (who later directed the Three Stooges).  Audiences enjoyed the films but Keaton was simply rehashing his early silent work.  He swore he would never "make another crummy two-reeler."

In 1940, Keaton married Eleanor Norris, a woman 23 years his junior.  They would remain married the rest of his life.  She was credited for saving Keaton's life by stopping his heavy drinking.  Keaton's last starring role came in the 1946 Mexican science fiction film Boom In The Moon.  He appeared in cameos in big budget studio films like Sunset Boulevard, Around the World in 80 Days and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  He also appeared with Charlie Chaplin in the vaudeville tribute film Limelight.  This was the only time Chaplin and Keaton appeared together on film.

Keaton turned to television in the 1950's.  He hosted the Buster Keaton Show and appeared often on the Ed Wynn Variety Show.  During one appearance with Wynn, the 55-year old Keaton recreated a stunt from his youth where he propped a foot on a table then swung up the other foot only to crash to the ground.  Wynn asked Keaton how he did his falls.  Keaton opened his shirt and revealed bruises all over his body.

In 1954, Keaton sold his beloved Beverly Hills home to actor James Mason. Mason found several cans of Keaton's silent films including the lost 1921 classic The Boat. Keaton continued his television work into the 60's including appearances on The Lucy Show, Candid Camera and The Twilight Zone.  He also appeared in the teen beach movies Pajama Party and Beach Blanket Bingo.  His last film role came in 1966 in A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum.  Despite ill health, he insisted on doing his own stunts. Keaton died of lung cancer in 1966 at age 71.  He had no idea he was terminally ill.  He thought he was recovering from bronchitis. He died shortly after playing cards with his wife Eleanor.  (5" x 6", black ink print)