The Eureka High girls' baseball team was in contention to win the title in 1923, following . Between 1924 and 1932, Arbuckle directed a number of comedy shorts under the pseudonym for Educational Pictures, which featured lesser-known comics of the day. Arbuckle's rehabilitation was finally complete when Warner Bros offered him a feature-film contract in 1933. In spite of the acquittal and the apology, his reputation was not restored and the effects of the scandal continued. One of the rooms occupied by Arbuckle and his guests in the days after the infamous party. [12] Delmont had a police record for extortion, prostitution and blackmail. Her organs had been destroyed and it was now impossible to test for pregnancy. Newspapers went wild with the story: popular silent-screen comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle had killed Virginia Rappe with his weight while savagely raping her. To celebrate just having finished three pictures at the same time and to celebrate his new contract with Paramount, Arbuckle and a couple of friends drove up from Los Angeles to San Francisco on Saturday, September 3, 1921, for some Labor Day weekend revelry. But overnight, the roly-poly buffoon adored by children across America was public enemy number one, and people were spitting in his face outside court. It was to star Chris Kattan and Preston Lacy. That night he died of a heart attack in the arms of his third wife. [39], Arbuckle tried returning to filmmaking, but industry resistance to distributing his pictures continued to linger after his acquittal. We wish him success and hope that the American people will take the judgment of fourteen men and woman who have sat listening for thirty-one days to evidence, that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame. He then claimed Rappe told him she felt ill and asked to lie down, and that he carried her into the bedroom and asked a few of the party guests to help treat her. Delmont claims that Rappe managed to gasp Arbuckle did it before she was taken away into a different hotel room. 1977. Luckily for Arbuckle's lawyers, the case was riddled with holes. Dr. Beardslee admitted that Rappe had never mentioned being assaulted while he was treating her. [3], On November 28, Arbuckle testified as the defense's final witness. Louise Brooks, who played the ingenue in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1931), told Brownlow of her experiences in working with Arbuckle: He made no attempt to direct this picture. Few know he was eventually acquitted of his crimes (after three trials). Rappe suffered from chronic urinary tract infections,[23] a condition that liquor irritated dramatically. We feel that a great injustice has been done him. The star, thought to have weighed about 260lb (118kg), was portrayed as a fat brute who had pinned down his prey, rupturing her bladder. Throwback Thursday | No more 'Fatty' Arbuckle films, actor says after After this look at Fatty Arbuckle and the Virginia Rappe case, read up on other old Hollywood scandals including the murder of William Desmond Taylor and the tragic downfall of Frances Farmer. Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was born in Smith Center, Kansas, on March 24, 1887, weighing more than 13 pounds. Arbuckle discouraged anyone from addressing him as "Fatty" off-screen, and when they did so his usual response was, "I've got a name, you know. His first part was with the Webster-Brown stock company. The doctor examined Rappe but found no evidence of rape. "Rappe was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time because she wound up dead. The "Fatty" Arbuckle Scandal. Fatty Arbuckle got his first break while working at the hotel. [44], In 1929, Doris Deane sued for divorce from Arbuckle in Los Angeles, charging desertion and cruelty. Skully after being charged with the murder of Virginia Rappe, San Francisco, 1921.