1 00:00:02,920 --> 00:00:06,920 Speaker 1: Hello hollywood Land listeners, and welcome to another edition of 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:11,080 Speaker 1: our Hollywood in True Crime podcast. Very excited to be 3 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:14,320 Speaker 1: bringing to you from our archive this week. One of 4 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: our very first episodes, this one on Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle. 5 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:23,960 Speaker 1: The story is horrific and it's filled with drama and 6 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: scandal and a Hollywood that thankfully no longer exists. Fatty 7 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: Arbuckle was one of the biggest stars on the planet 8 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:34,280 Speaker 1: at the time that this all went down. He was 9 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,320 Speaker 1: part of what was the very first trial of the century, 10 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:41,479 Speaker 1: way back before Sean Combs, way back before OJ Simpson, 11 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 1: all the way back to the beginning of the twentieth century, when, 12 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:48,519 Speaker 1: believe it or not, the media was more craven and 13 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:52,080 Speaker 1: corrupt than it is now. This is a wild story 14 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,960 Speaker 1: and one of our best, if I say so myself. 15 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: So I hope you enjoy listening to it as much 16 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 1: as we hear at Double Elvis enjoyed putting it together. So, 17 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:09,959 Speaker 1: without further ado, here's Fatty Arbuckle in Hollywood Land. This 18 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,160 Speaker 1: episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 19 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:17,280 Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Hollywood Land 20 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: is a production of Double Elvis recall dignified kin the 21 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,240 Speaker 1: black was saying, shall I call him for yer, mister 22 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:32,120 Speaker 1: w washing, mister walking, lady wants a fake Tayo. 23 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 2: She ain't liven with our husband? 24 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:39,560 Speaker 1: Yes, our marriage. What's happy? It was living together afterwards? 25 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 1: What caused a riot? The stories about silent film star 26 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 1: Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle are insane. A century ago, at the 27 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:51,480 Speaker 1: birth of movie superstardom, he was at the center of 28 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: a scandal that rocked Hollywood to its core. He was 29 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: the highest paid actor of his time, and he was 30 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 1: accused of a murderous sex crime so depray that it 31 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:04,280 Speaker 1: turned the nation not only against him, but against Hollywood itself. 32 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: And one hundred years ago, this sensational scandal played out 33 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:12,360 Speaker 1: much as you'd expect it to today. Then, as now, 34 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: the scandal was bigger than Hollywood. It led to the 35 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: trial of the century, in fact, three trials, and a 36 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:21,680 Speaker 1: test of whether America's elite veil of privilege could be 37 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:25,760 Speaker 1: pierced by the long arm of justice. The scandal also 38 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:29,079 Speaker 1: inspired a tabloid media circus that turned a tragedy into 39 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: a violent soap opera, and a defense that ruthlessly attacked 40 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:36,079 Speaker 1: the victim's credibility by digging up dirt from her past. 41 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:40,160 Speaker 1: Despite that defense, the tide of public opinion that believed 42 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:42,960 Speaker 1: the victim and toppled the star was so strong that 43 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,239 Speaker 1: it made Hollywood change the way that Hollywood did business, 44 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: at least on the surface, but still one hundred years ago, 45 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: there was a movie star named Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, and 46 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,800 Speaker 1: overnight he went from a box office hero as beloved 47 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,680 Speaker 1: as Tom Hanks to a villain as vile as Harvey Weinstein. 48 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:05,000 Speaker 1: When we think about our current moment, the reckoning we're 49 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:07,920 Speaker 1: going through now, is it possible it all happened a 50 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:11,200 Speaker 1: long time ago, in a Hollywood far far away. Has 51 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: anything really changed? To quote William Faulkner, the past is 52 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:19,040 Speaker 1: never dead, it's not even passed. And in the past, 53 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:23,839 Speaker 1: over one hundred years ago, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle made great films. 54 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:26,400 Speaker 1: Unlike that clip I played you at the top of 55 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:29,079 Speaker 1: the show. That wasn't a clip from a great film. 56 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,120 Speaker 1: That was a fair youse sample from the Library of 57 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:36,120 Speaker 1: Congress of Justine Roberts performing The Shop Girl in nineteen 58 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:40,040 Speaker 1: twenty two. I played you that clip because I can't 59 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: afford the rights to play you a clip from fred 60 00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 1: Nieblow's The Three Musketeers, And why would I play you 61 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: that specific slice of celluloid cheese? Could I afford it? 62 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 1: Because that was the number one movie in America on 63 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:57,680 Speaker 1: September fifth, nineteen twenty one, And that was the day 64 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:01,320 Speaker 1: that Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle hosted an infamous party at his 65 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 1: room at the Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco, a 66 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:09,120 Speaker 1: party that would leave one person ruined in another person dead. 67 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: On this episode sensational Scandals, tabloid media circuses, reckonings, and 68 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:30,800 Speaker 1: Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Hollywood Land. 69 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:55,479 Speaker 1: William Randolph Hurst leaned back in a large fireside chair 70 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,599 Speaker 1: in his San Simeon castle, the one hundred and sixty 71 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,320 Speaker 1: eight thousand acre caliph Fournia state he'd recently inherited from 72 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:06,800 Speaker 1: his dead mother. He closed his eyes and smiled. Smiling 73 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,479 Speaker 1: wasn't really his thing. Hurst was fifty eight, and the 74 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:14,400 Speaker 1: older he got, the LESSI had to smile about his wife, Millicent, 75 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:17,160 Speaker 1: twenty years his junior didn't really do it for him, 76 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:20,159 Speaker 1: if he was being completely honest. Neither did his live 77 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 1: in mistress, the actress Maryan Davies, who was three decades younger. 78 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,120 Speaker 1: What did make him smile was the promise of a 79 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 1: good story, a story with legs, one that could hit 80 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: a nerve with the public, even if it required editorial embellishment, 81 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:39,520 Speaker 1: like that nerve he hit in eighteen ninety eight when 82 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:42,800 Speaker 1: he lobbied against Spanish rule in Cuba and helped provoke 83 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:47,200 Speaker 1: the Spanish American War. For Hurst, newspapers needed to make 84 00:05:47,279 --> 00:05:51,480 Speaker 1: him money first and provide news second. You know, exactly 85 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:56,680 Speaker 1: as they do today. Nothing's changed. In September nineteen twenty one, 86 00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,720 Speaker 1: one in four Americans were reading a Hearst paper. The 87 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: San Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Examiner, the New York 88 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,480 Speaker 1: Evening Journal, the New York Morning Journal all told twenty 89 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:11,119 Speaker 1: dailies and eleven Sunday papers didn't matter that it often 90 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:14,919 Speaker 1: wasn't actually news. It was often muck raked up, nice 91 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,839 Speaker 1: and juicy. The more sensational, the better. The breaking story 92 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:21,200 Speaker 1: that Herst had just heard about, the one that was 93 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:28,480 Speaker 1: making him smile in his fireside chair, was capital s sensational, controversial, scandalous, controversy, 94 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:31,480 Speaker 1: and scandal made William Randolph Hurst smile because they both 95 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:33,520 Speaker 1: had the promise to make him even richer than he 96 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:38,600 Speaker 1: already was. The story involved everyone's favorite fall guy, silent 97 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:42,600 Speaker 1: film star Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle. But there was more. There 98 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:45,839 Speaker 1: was a party at a San Francisco hotel, bootlegged gin 99 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:48,919 Speaker 1: and scotch, a dead girl. The details were still a 100 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: little fuzzy. The facts weren't all there, But since when 101 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,640 Speaker 1: did Hurst care about actual details or facts. News is 102 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 1: what people don't want you to print, after all. Hearst 103 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:01,640 Speaker 1: just needed the gist, the ernal He could create, the rest. 104 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:04,360 Speaker 1: He could create the story, the kind of story that 105 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:07,880 Speaker 1: would sell a ton of newspapers. In the first two 106 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 1: decades of the twentieth century, Hollywood, California had gone from 107 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,280 Speaker 1: a small community of teetotaling Midwesterners seeking to build what 108 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:19,160 Speaker 1: they called a Christian utopia, to a bustling city that 109 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:22,800 Speaker 1: served as ground zero for the motion picture industry. The 110 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:26,000 Speaker 1: movie people were not the teetotaling type. They took the 111 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:30,000 Speaker 1: Lord's name in vain. They smoked, they drank, and during prohibition, 112 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:33,560 Speaker 1: they drank illegally. They bought drugs, They took drugs. They 113 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:37,440 Speaker 1: had sex, lots of sex, illicit sex in The reality 114 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,200 Speaker 1: of what was happening in Hollywood may have stayed under 115 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:42,880 Speaker 1: wraps for a little longer if it weren't for Roscoe 116 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:47,040 Speaker 1: Fatty Arbuckle in the death of Virginia Rapae. It was 117 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:49,840 Speaker 1: a powder cake of a story. At its center was 118 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,600 Speaker 1: a wild party that flew in the faces of America's 119 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:56,400 Speaker 1: social mores. It had drug addicts, bootlegged alcohol, and it 120 00:07:56,440 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: had sex. But it had more. It had rape, and 121 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: it had more murder. The gist was this, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, 122 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:08,040 Speaker 1: at the time, the most famous and richest actor in 123 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,320 Speaker 1: the country, had raped and murdered a lesser known actress 124 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:15,080 Speaker 1: named Virginia rape. It happened at the Saint Francis Hotel, 125 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 1: San Francisco Labor Day. From what the reporters who worked 126 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:22,080 Speaker 1: for hers could gather, it looked like Roscoe had dragged 127 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,520 Speaker 1: a drunk Virginia off to one of the bedrooms in 128 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:27,280 Speaker 1: the three connecting suites he had rented and then took 129 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:31,600 Speaker 1: advantage of her. Virginia had been vomiting. She was unconscious 130 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:35,160 Speaker 1: or at least half conscious. The attending doctor said that 131 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:38,280 Speaker 1: Virginia's bladder had been ruptured, and the cops guessed it 132 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:40,679 Speaker 1: was when Roscoe, who weighed at least two hundred and 133 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:43,840 Speaker 1: sixty pounds at the time, climbed on top of Virginia. 134 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:46,760 Speaker 1: She was monitored by doctors in the hotel room for 135 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:49,640 Speaker 1: a few days and then taken to a nearby sanitarium. 136 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:53,160 Speaker 1: A friend told the cops that Virginia, while writhing in pain, 137 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:57,040 Speaker 1: told her that Roscoe did it. Virginia died four days 138 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:01,080 Speaker 1: later from peritonitis, a bacterial infection along the inner wall 139 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:05,800 Speaker 1: of the abdomen, and there was a rumor. The rumor 140 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:10,280 Speaker 1: was this Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle raped Virginia with a glass bottle. 141 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:14,480 Speaker 1: The depravity of Hollywood's untouchable elite seemed to know no bounds, 142 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:16,520 Speaker 1: and the rumor would go on to have a life 143 00:09:16,520 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: of its own. But the Arbuckle scandal was about more 144 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:22,320 Speaker 1: than just that particular detail, about the rumored rape with 145 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:25,280 Speaker 1: the bottle. It was about whether or not one of 146 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:29,160 Speaker 1: the industry's most popular and powerful figures was potentially so 147 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:32,240 Speaker 1: popular and so powerful that he could get away with 148 00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:36,640 Speaker 1: something so heinous. The question was, could Hollywood's biggest star 149 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:40,959 Speaker 1: get away with murder? Scandal and Hollywood were like peanut 150 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:44,720 Speaker 1: butter and jelly media magnets like William Randolph. Hearst spread 151 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:47,520 Speaker 1: them out on two slices of bread, put the pieces together, 152 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:51,320 Speaker 1: and called America to the table to dig in. Hurst 153 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,360 Speaker 1: played the scandal perfectly. Paramount wanted the whole debacle to 154 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 1: go away, but the crime had happened in San Francisco, 155 00:09:58,679 --> 00:10:02,360 Speaker 1: not Los Angeles. In San Francisco, the DA wasn't in 156 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:05,160 Speaker 1: the pocket at the powerful studio executives as a DA 157 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:08,240 Speaker 1: in Los Angeles would be. And thus the San Francisco 158 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:11,760 Speaker 1: DA was not afraid to prosecute a popular and powerful 159 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:15,480 Speaker 1: Hollywood star. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The 160 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:19,000 Speaker 1: ambitious San Francisco DA saw an opportunity to put Hollywood 161 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:22,400 Speaker 1: itself on trial, and thus advanced his own political career 162 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:26,200 Speaker 1: under the bright lights said trial would garner. So, while 163 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 1: Roscoe's lawyers told him to clam up, Hearst twenty dailies 164 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:33,920 Speaker 1: in eleven Sunday papers sang a salacious chorus of shocking headlines. 165 00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:36,600 Speaker 1: Girl dead after a wild party, and I sat Bruis 166 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:40,000 Speaker 1: party kills you know the actress Roscoe's deathbed plea witness 167 00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:43,360 Speaker 1: testifies ourbucle confessed he tortured actress at teen our Buckle, 168 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,880 Speaker 1: Batty Arbuckle, Church with Actresses, or Batty's Death or charbucle 169 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:51,200 Speaker 1: Faces Gallows, Suss Gallows. The Court of Public Opinion was 170 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:53,680 Speaker 1: in session, and as it was called to order, the 171 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:57,559 Speaker 1: press began to dismantle the facade of Roscoe Arbuckle, fresh 172 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:02,120 Speaker 1: faced Hollywood homebody. William Randolph Hurst dug up Rosco's past 173 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:05,880 Speaker 1: problems with morphine. He printed a doctored photo of Roscoe 174 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:09,040 Speaker 1: holding a liquor bottle on top of Virginia's body. He 175 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:11,160 Speaker 1: ran a cartoon of Roscoe in the middle of a 176 00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:14,200 Speaker 1: giant spider's web, two bottles of liquor in his hands, 177 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:18,400 Speaker 1: surrounded by seven women caught up in that web. Rosco's weight, 178 00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:21,840 Speaker 1: once a source of comedy, was now used to bilify him. 179 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:25,080 Speaker 1: The San Francisco Bulletin described him as a mountain of 180 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:29,000 Speaker 1: lecherous flesh, a mad elephant in an avalanche of lard. 181 00:11:29,679 --> 00:11:33,080 Speaker 1: They couldn't print enough copies of the papers. Morning editions 182 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:36,679 Speaker 1: sold out, Evening editions sold out. Special editions printed just 183 00:11:36,679 --> 00:11:38,559 Speaker 1: to meet the demand for the readers who needed a 184 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:43,040 Speaker 1: daily fix of debauch. Hollywood Scandal sold out, and while 185 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:46,280 Speaker 1: William Randolph Hurst sat in his oversized chair next to 186 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:50,040 Speaker 1: his fireplace, smiling for the first time in a long time. 187 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:54,080 Speaker 1: Roscoe Arbuckle sat alone at a table inside Celled twelve 188 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:58,080 Speaker 1: along Felony Row of the San Francisco City Jail. It 189 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: was early morning. Roscoe finished his breakfast of eggs and toast. 190 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:06,480 Speaker 1: Perhaps he thought about Virginia Rabbe. Perhaps he thought about 191 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:09,000 Speaker 1: his own misfortune. He had just wanted to get out 192 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,760 Speaker 1: of town for the weekend, and now everything he'd built 193 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:15,320 Speaker 1: was gone, and there were rumblings that the recriminations might 194 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: not end with Roscoe Harbuckle, that a tide was turning 195 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:21,480 Speaker 1: and they weren't just coming for Roscoe, they were coming 196 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:24,760 Speaker 1: for the rest of Hollywood too. One of the guards 197 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 1: walked by his cell, scanned the area to make sure 198 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:30,920 Speaker 1: they were alone, and stopped. He asked Roscoe to do 199 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:33,319 Speaker 1: the cigarette trick, the one he did in his two 200 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 1: reeler The Bell Boy, where he pops a fully lit 201 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:38,600 Speaker 1: cigarette out from inside his mouth. How the hell did 202 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:42,160 Speaker 1: he do that? The guard was whispering. Another guard wandered over. 203 00:12:42,280 --> 00:12:46,359 Speaker 1: He started whispering too. For his money. Roscoe's best cigarette 204 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:48,679 Speaker 1: gag was the one in good Night Nurse, where he's 205 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:50,560 Speaker 1: trying to strike a match to light his smoke in 206 00:12:50,559 --> 00:12:53,920 Speaker 1: the pouring rain. The two guards began laughing at the thought. 207 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:56,880 Speaker 1: They put fists to mouths to muffle the noises they 208 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,959 Speaker 1: were making lest they were caught cavorting with America's leads 209 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:04,840 Speaker 1: wanted man because Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle was now the rotten 210 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:10,000 Speaker 1: core of the country's soul. Forget prohibition. Roscoe Fattier Buckle 211 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:14,359 Speaker 1: was prohibited, his films yanked from theaters, first San Francisco, 212 00:13:14,559 --> 00:13:17,960 Speaker 1: then Los Angeles, then the country. His films were banned. 213 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:21,560 Speaker 1: Paramount put a stop on his paychecks, and the guards 214 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:26,080 Speaker 1: were able to stifle their laughter. Straight faces returned. Hey, Faddy, 215 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:28,880 Speaker 1: one of them is said to Roscoe, tell us the truth. 216 00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:58,440 Speaker 1: You really kill that girl. March sixth, nineteen seventeen, Boston, 217 00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:02,880 Speaker 1: four years before the whole Roscoe Arbuckle Virginia Rapee mess 218 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:06,680 Speaker 1: out in San Francisco. Back in Boston, dinner at the 219 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:10,560 Speaker 1: Copley Plaza Hotel had been a swank affair. More than 220 00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:13,840 Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five esteemed guests, mostly movie theater 221 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:18,320 Speaker 1: men from New England, stuffed themselves on Bullian soup, roast beef, 222 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:22,840 Speaker 1: jellied veal, Charlotte rous for dessert, all on Paramount pictures 223 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:27,440 Speaker 1: dime above them. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling in 224 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:30,520 Speaker 1: front of them. No single piece of silverware was out 225 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:34,240 Speaker 1: of place. Cloth Napkins patted the corners of miles as 226 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:37,640 Speaker 1: the president and vice president of Paramount wax poetic about 227 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:42,240 Speaker 1: their Juggernaut Studios future in a post Nickelodeon world. The 228 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:46,120 Speaker 1: guests were really interested in the dinner's honoree, the silent 229 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:51,040 Speaker 1: film comedian Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle. Roscoe's latest two wheeler, The 230 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:53,800 Speaker 1: Butcher Boy, was set to debut in their theaters the 231 00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:58,560 Speaker 1: following month. It featured Roscoe's latest discovery, a then unknown 232 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:02,880 Speaker 1: comedian named Buster, heating it. As usual, Roscoe got the 233 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:05,920 Speaker 1: biggest laughs. He was Paramount's biggest catch and one of 234 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:10,560 Speaker 1: the biggest earners in Hollywood. Paramount wanted to flaunt their 235 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:14,080 Speaker 1: prize stars, so they put Roscoe on tour in nineteen seventeen. 236 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:17,960 Speaker 1: It ran coast to coast, and Paramount hosted receptions at 237 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:22,600 Speaker 1: each stopover city in Roscoe's name, banquets, luncheons, dinners, parades 238 00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:26,600 Speaker 1: from San Francisco to Chicago, Washington, d C. To Philadelphia. 239 00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:30,000 Speaker 1: Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle made the whole country laugh with his 240 00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:33,880 Speaker 1: quick wit, his huge smile, and his predilection for pratt falls. 241 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:38,360 Speaker 1: Tonight in Boston East Coast theater men were getting a 242 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:43,040 Speaker 1: first class taste of Hollywood's glitz, glamour and hospitality. But 243 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:45,840 Speaker 1: to get to the real party, the party that put 244 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:48,160 Speaker 1: a tiger in your tank and some hair on your chest, 245 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:51,280 Speaker 1: the party way down on the lowest rung of the dl, 246 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:55,040 Speaker 1: the party that you couldn't tell anyone about. For that party, 247 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,480 Speaker 1: you had to get out of the city. Eleven miles north, 248 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:04,400 Speaker 1: battery powered carbon headlamp bulbs on full blast, destination Wuber, Massachusetts. 249 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:08,360 Speaker 1: There was chicken and champagne in Uber. Now chicken and 250 00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:11,560 Speaker 1: champagne didn't just mean chicken and champagne, not at the 251 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:15,200 Speaker 1: michiwan Manor. It didn't. But then nothing at the Mischiewan 252 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:18,200 Speaker 1: Manor was what it seemed. The place was run by 253 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 1: a woman named Lillian Kingston, but everyone called her Brownie Kennedy. 254 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:25,200 Speaker 1: And though she called the place of Manor, most people 255 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 1: in the know knew it by another name. In the 256 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:30,960 Speaker 1: company of polite society, you call it a roadhouse. Otherwise 257 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:34,200 Speaker 1: you just call it what it was, a broth, a bordella, 258 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:39,160 Speaker 1: a whorehouse. And so when Brownie Kennedy asked the Paramount 259 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:41,760 Speaker 1: exec how many gentlemen he was expecting for his quote 260 00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:45,760 Speaker 1: unquote chicken and champagne after hours, what she really meant 261 00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:48,360 Speaker 1: was how many women will it take to satisfy every 262 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:51,680 Speaker 1: last depraved desire, every last horny studio man with pockets 263 00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:56,120 Speaker 1: deeper than the Mystic river. Brownie called her employees actresses, 264 00:16:56,200 --> 00:16:59,360 Speaker 1: but Zuker, Lasky, Abrams and the other paramount brass didn't 265 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:01,880 Speaker 1: even more act in their lives. They had plenty of 266 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:05,080 Speaker 1: those out west. They needed women who did more than act, 267 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:08,080 Speaker 1: and that's exactly what they wanted. When they arrived at Mischemont, 268 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:10,960 Speaker 1: knocked twice, waited a be knocked three more times, and 269 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 1: were quickly ushered in under the cover of darkness. Inside, 270 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:19,680 Speaker 1: the fried chicken was piping hot, the champagne bottles foamed over. 271 00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:23,560 Speaker 1: Brownie wheeled out the main course, hidden under a giant 272 00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:26,840 Speaker 1: stainless steel dome on top of a giant silver platter, 273 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:29,840 Speaker 1: and the men gathered around the dome like a pride 274 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:34,760 Speaker 1: of lions circling their doomed prey. Brownie dramatically lifted the 275 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:38,560 Speaker 1: dome to reveal not fried chicken, not roast beef, not 276 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:43,159 Speaker 1: jellied veal, but a woman no older than eighteen on 277 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:46,720 Speaker 1: her hands and knees, naked from head to toe, a 278 00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:50,359 Speaker 1: few sprigs of parsley between her teeth, from all sides 279 00:17:50,359 --> 00:17:53,280 Speaker 1: of the encircled pride of paramount e secs more women 280 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:56,040 Speaker 1: slowly walked into the room, a dozen, and then a 281 00:17:56,080 --> 00:18:02,920 Speaker 1: few more, and then the party really got started. At 282 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:06,040 Speaker 1: Brownie's place, the paramount men were as liberated as Brownie 283 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:09,400 Speaker 1: Kennedy's morals. At joints like Michewan manor hidden away from 284 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:11,760 Speaker 1: the prying eyes of the public, they were free from 285 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:15,920 Speaker 1: the teetotalers, the reformers, the goddamn Methodists. Anything goes, or 286 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:19,160 Speaker 1: so went the saying, And then anything went, but one 287 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:23,160 Speaker 1: thing was missing. One thing didn't go, one big thing. Hey, 288 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,720 Speaker 1: where's Fatty? A partygoer shouted around two in the morning, 289 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,080 Speaker 1: one hand wrapped around the naked flesh of Michewan paramour 290 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:34,400 Speaker 1: and the other clutching an empty champagne flew Where was Roscoe? 291 00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:38,200 Speaker 1: Fatty Arbuckle. According to the actor himself, he was still 292 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:42,520 Speaker 1: at the Copley Plaza Hotel, fast asleep. His wife, actress 293 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,959 Speaker 1: Minte der Fi, was his alibi. She was snuggled up 294 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:49,080 Speaker 1: next to him in bed all night long. Whorehouses weren't 295 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:51,480 Speaker 1: Roscoe's cup of noodle juice, and neither was being on 296 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,440 Speaker 1: the make with the locals. Roscoe Arbuckle was a very 297 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:57,879 Speaker 1: big star, and stars didn't do that sort of thing. Plus, 298 00:18:57,920 --> 00:18:59,639 Speaker 1: he didn't want to get caught up. And any scandal 299 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,840 Speaker 1: should chicken and champagne affair go pear shaped? What if 300 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:04,879 Speaker 1: word got out? What if a nark with a camera 301 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:06,399 Speaker 1: planned to catch the whole lot of them in a 302 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:09,199 Speaker 1: badger game? What if the joints piano player turned stool 303 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:12,359 Speaker 1: pitch in Scandals like that led the stacks of studio 304 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:15,600 Speaker 1: hush money in the movie bosses, they were more than 305 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,160 Speaker 1: happy to cough it up, just like that one time 306 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:21,280 Speaker 1: when the cops pinched Captain Spaulding for dealing cocaine on 307 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:24,239 Speaker 1: the studio lot, some gold bricks filled the beans. The 308 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:26,800 Speaker 1: dealers were all over Hollywood in the late nineteen tens 309 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:29,440 Speaker 1: on the Fox Lot. Ask for mister fix It at 310 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:33,480 Speaker 1: Paramount Captain Spalding was your habit's commanding officer. The studio 311 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:35,440 Speaker 1: chiefs had a pony up half a mil in hush 312 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:40,000 Speaker 1: money to make the clusterfuck go away. Sometimes cover ups 313 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:43,320 Speaker 1: didn't require money. They just required an airtight lid and 314 00:19:43,359 --> 00:19:47,919 Speaker 1: a little diversion. Case in point. Shortly after signing with Paramount, 315 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:51,240 Speaker 1: Roscoe Arbuckle went cold turkey to kick a morphine habit 316 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:54,600 Speaker 1: he developed while recovering from a staff infection on his knee. 317 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:58,520 Speaker 1: Kicking that junk made Roscoe's nose run. Kicking that junk 318 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:02,520 Speaker 1: made Roscoe pukes got Kicking that junk made Roscoe Fatty 319 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:06,120 Speaker 1: Arbuckle shit his brains out. When all was said and done, 320 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:09,560 Speaker 1: he had lost over eighty pounds. He was no longer 321 00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:11,920 Speaker 1: the funny fat man, the one who was pushing three 322 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,560 Speaker 1: hundred pounds. He was under two hundred pounds for the 323 00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:16,800 Speaker 1: first time since he was a kid, And what the 324 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,400 Speaker 1: fuck was funny about a fat man who wasn't fat? 325 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:23,359 Speaker 1: So Paramount told the public that Roscoe suffered a little 326 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:27,119 Speaker 1: mishap during a particularly dicey stunt on set, hence the 327 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,000 Speaker 1: cane and the limp, and there was no staff impection, 328 00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:33,200 Speaker 1: there was no morphine habit At least that's the story 329 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:36,600 Speaker 1: the public bought. The reality of Roscoe Arbuckle and his 330 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,199 Speaker 1: junk addiction was suppressed by the studio, just like the 331 00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:43,399 Speaker 1: reality of the party at the Michawan manner would be suppressed. 332 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:48,680 Speaker 1: Two months after Paramount Suits got their debauched yahyas out 333 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:52,479 Speaker 1: at the Michewan, Brownie Kennedy's piano players squealed and Brownie 334 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:54,960 Speaker 1: was sentenced to six months for running a dead of sin. 335 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:59,399 Speaker 1: The studio executor's names hit the Boston papers, and Paramount 336 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:02,320 Speaker 1: acted fast, and the studio greased the palm of the 337 00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:05,480 Speaker 1: Middlesex County District Attorney with one hundred thousand dollars, and 338 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 1: this story was dead or a few years. That is, 339 00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:11,840 Speaker 1: four years later, in the summer of nineteen twenty one, 340 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:14,560 Speaker 1: the story reared its ugly, hushed uphead when the same 341 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,840 Speaker 1: da was called out for taking bribes. Didn't matter that 342 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,320 Speaker 1: Paramount insisted Roscoe hadn't been there and the after party 343 00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:24,840 Speaker 1: was in celebration of Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle's official party at 344 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:27,919 Speaker 1: the Copley Plaza, wasn't it? According to the papers? It 345 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:31,240 Speaker 1: was so in the press The papers called it Fatty's Orgy, 346 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,639 Speaker 1: for the studios, for the star, for Hollywood. The timing 347 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:38,840 Speaker 1: couldn't have been worse. Roscoe had recently signed an unprecedented 348 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:41,720 Speaker 1: deal with Paramount, making him the first movie star in 349 00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:44,679 Speaker 1: history to pull down a million dollars a year. The 350 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:47,199 Speaker 1: world was supposed to be his oyster, and now the 351 00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:51,320 Speaker 1: entire country associated the name Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, not with 352 00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:54,720 Speaker 1: the words comedy or movie star, but with the word orgy. 353 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:59,200 Speaker 1: As it turned out, that was just the beginning. Bad 354 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:07,080 Speaker 1: was about to get worse. We'll be right back after 355 00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 1: this word. We're were Roscoe Arbuckle needed a break. Nineteen 356 00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:17,320 Speaker 1: twenty one had been a long year, and it was 357 00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:22,600 Speaker 1: only September. Roscoe was busy working his ass off, busy 358 00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:25,639 Speaker 1: wondering if and when he and his wife Minta would 359 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,960 Speaker 1: cut the separation bullshit and just get a divorce. Already, 360 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:34,080 Speaker 1: labor day was fast approaching. The long holiday weekend provided 361 00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:38,120 Speaker 1: an opportunity and an excuse. A few days out of La, 362 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,359 Speaker 1: the wind in his hair, the road wide open, a party, 363 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:45,000 Speaker 1: footloose and fancy free San Francisco would do the trick. 364 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:48,680 Speaker 1: Did he need another reason to split if he did, 365 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,800 Speaker 1: he could blame the heat. The summer of nineteen twenty 366 00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:55,320 Speaker 1: one had been hot, so hot that the mercury hit 367 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:59,080 Speaker 1: historic highs in LA. At his mansion in the fashionable 368 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:02,280 Speaker 1: West Adams neighbor the house with the gold leaf bathtub, 369 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:06,360 Speaker 1: crystal chandelier, and fine art and imported furniture, Roscoe spent 370 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:08,680 Speaker 1: a lot of time down in the basement, where the 371 00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,960 Speaker 1: temperature was much cooler and thus more in step with 372 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:15,760 Speaker 1: the constitution of a man his size. But it wasn't 373 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:18,439 Speaker 1: just better. Whether Roscoe was looking for a down cellar. 374 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:22,320 Speaker 1: His basement was where he kept. The hooch Prohibition was 375 00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:24,960 Speaker 1: in its second year of enforcement, and per the dreaded 376 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:28,680 Speaker 1: Volstead Act, anyone caught him bibing in possessing, transporting, and 377 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:32,760 Speaker 1: manufacturing booze found themselves in a world of hurt. The 378 00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,359 Speaker 1: hurt would come either courtesy of Johnny Law, who would 379 00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 1: haul your law breaking ass off to the slammer, or 380 00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:40,600 Speaker 1: via a less subtle, more holy fuck, I'm gonna die 381 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:43,080 Speaker 1: kind of pain, typically brought on by a swig of 382 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,199 Speaker 1: questionable white lightning from a dirty bottle you procured through 383 00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:51,240 Speaker 1: the less than advisable channels for the rich. Like Roscoe Arbuckle, 384 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,120 Speaker 1: the Volstead Act was a non issue. Money changes everything, 385 00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,879 Speaker 1: they say, and that includes the ability to procure decent 386 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:01,200 Speaker 1: booze and even the darkest of times, all it took 387 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:03,840 Speaker 1: was an appropriate amount of green bag smushed into the 388 00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:07,560 Speaker 1: meat hooks of the right person. Waiters, hotel detectives, judges, 389 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:10,600 Speaker 1: and you were strolling down Easy Street while everyone else 390 00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:13,840 Speaker 1: looked the other way. Roscoe even at a secret cocktail 391 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:17,080 Speaker 1: bar built into his custom made Pierce Arrow Model sixty six, 392 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:21,239 Speaker 1: the piece they resistance of his extravagant car collection. That 393 00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:24,480 Speaker 1: collection included a caddy of rolls, a renom, but the 394 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 1: Pierce Arrow really set him apart from everyone else, and 395 00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,520 Speaker 1: it also set him back thirty four grand, one hundred 396 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,359 Speaker 1: times what Joe Q Public could afford to plunk down 397 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:36,919 Speaker 1: for a Ford fresh off the assembly line. The Pierce 398 00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:40,000 Speaker 1: Arrow was the car he decided to drive that weekend 399 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,840 Speaker 1: labor day en route to the City by the Bay 400 00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,520 Speaker 1: in the Saint Francis Hotel, a real posh place known 401 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,080 Speaker 1: for a stacked guest list of Hollywood who's who and 402 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:54,920 Speaker 1: US presidents. Imagine that Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle justed a poor 403 00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:59,000 Speaker 1: Schelb from Nowhere, Kansas, renting out three connected rooms on 404 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,200 Speaker 1: the top floor of a lavish hotel on a holiday weekend. 405 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,719 Speaker 1: Roscoe couldn't be more surprised if Warren g Harding himself 406 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:07,840 Speaker 1: jumped out of the Joints elevator and got him point 407 00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:11,920 Speaker 1: blank and the kisser with a blueberry pie. In nineteen 408 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,919 Speaker 1: twenty one, after years of singing, dancing, falling down, tripping up, 409 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,040 Speaker 1: getting hurt for a laugh, and being fat for a 410 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:21,440 Speaker 1: living on Vaudeville stages and Nickelodeon screens for the likes 411 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:25,080 Speaker 1: of everyone in showbiz, from Alexander Pantags to Max Sennett, 412 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:29,080 Speaker 1: the man known to audiences as Fatty had arrived. He 413 00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:31,960 Speaker 1: was thirty four years old, he'd been working since he 414 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,879 Speaker 1: was five. He'd acted in one hundred and fifty films 415 00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:39,240 Speaker 1: in the last thirteen years. They all called him Fatty. Well, 416 00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:41,439 Speaker 1: not his dead mother, God rest her soul, but definitely 417 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:45,119 Speaker 1: everyone else felt free to, including his father, that abuse 418 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:49,240 Speaker 1: of self hating absentee pariah, as did the popcorn goblin public, 419 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:52,080 Speaker 1: who nearly pissed themselves while they watched him backhand Buster 420 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,520 Speaker 1: Keaton while dressed in track or slip and land square 421 00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:57,720 Speaker 1: on his ass in the middle of the street. The 422 00:25:57,760 --> 00:25:59,960 Speaker 1: lower the brow, the better if they wanted a high 423 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,560 Speaker 1: brow too realer Charlie Chaplin had a few of those 424 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,879 Speaker 1: people called Roscoe fatty. Even before he began to perform. 425 00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:10,480 Speaker 1: They called him fatty as a child. Roscoe hated the name. 426 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 1: He was beneath low brow. He was demeaning fatty, but 427 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:17,920 Speaker 1: he could never outrun it. He was larger than most 428 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 1: at every stage in his life, allegedly sixteen pounds at birth, 429 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,479 Speaker 1: plump as a preteen, and overweighted as an adult. In fact, 430 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:28,040 Speaker 1: the more he found his calling as a comedic performer, 431 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:30,280 Speaker 1: the more it was obvious that his weight in the 432 00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:33,680 Speaker 1: happy go lucky persona of the chair of faced fatty character, 433 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,359 Speaker 1: the undersized bowler hat and oversized pants hiked up with 434 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:42,040 Speaker 1: suspenders was what put money in his pocket. And Paramount 435 00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:44,800 Speaker 1: wasted no time putting Roscoe to work. When they signed 436 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,200 Speaker 1: him to that now legendary deal in February of nineteen nineteen. 437 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:51,119 Speaker 1: It was a coup for Paramount. Word on the street 438 00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:53,920 Speaker 1: was that Roscoe was planning to join his friend Charlie Chaplin, 439 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,760 Speaker 1: along with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford at the newly 440 00:26:56,800 --> 00:27:01,240 Speaker 1: formed United Artists. Before Paramount made their move over Labor 441 00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:04,840 Speaker 1: Day weekend, Paramount was expecting its million dollar funny man 442 00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,439 Speaker 1: to make an appearance at a screening of his latest picture, 443 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:12,320 Speaker 1: Gasoline Guss in downtown LA. He'd drive his fancy car around, 444 00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:15,440 Speaker 1: press the flesh, smile for the cameras, do the whole 445 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:18,359 Speaker 1: happy go lucky fat man song and dance. It was 446 00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,040 Speaker 1: all part of the highly publicized event Paramount week in 447 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:25,719 Speaker 1: annual pr blitz that helped maintain the studio's image as 448 00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:32,520 Speaker 1: king Shit in Tinseltown. But instead Roscoe bailed for a 449 00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:35,040 Speaker 1: few days. He wasn't going to be Paramount's fat man, 450 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:37,399 Speaker 1: so he grabbed two dozen bottles of the good stuff 451 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,160 Speaker 1: from his basement, stashed them in the Pierce Arrow's cocktail compartment, 452 00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:43,879 Speaker 1: hopped in the driver's seat, picked up Lil Sherman, a 453 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,159 Speaker 1: thirty two year old dramatic actor with a less dramatic mustache, 454 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 1: and Fred Fishback, Roscoe's assistant director, and began the nearly 455 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:57,639 Speaker 1: four hundred mile drive up the California coast, and the 456 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:01,920 Speaker 1: head of Paramount was pissed. This is number two. Everything 457 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:05,680 Speaker 1: Roscoe had was because of these two Paramount executives, Adolph 458 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,720 Speaker 1: Zuker and Jesse Laski, the house, the cars, the clothes, 459 00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:12,240 Speaker 1: the bootleg alcohol. Zuker picked up his telephone receiver and 460 00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:16,200 Speaker 1: asked the operator for a West Adams exchange Roscoe's house. 461 00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,560 Speaker 1: Roscoe's Japanese servant answered, but he didn't know his boss 462 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:23,800 Speaker 1: his whereabouts. Laski called Roscoe's estranged wife, Minta, but she 463 00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,120 Speaker 1: hadn't seen him on account of the estrangement, and all 464 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:30,040 Speaker 1: Lasky slammed the receiver on the phone's cradle. Zuker was 465 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:32,240 Speaker 1: able to track down Buster Keaton, who was on his 466 00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:35,320 Speaker 1: way to Catalina Island with his bride. Buster was as 467 00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:38,240 Speaker 1: close to Roscoe as anyone. Buster broke the news that 468 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:41,000 Speaker 1: Roscoe was headed north for some R and R, and 469 00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:44,760 Speaker 1: the paramount bosses fumed in tandem in their well appointed offices. 470 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:47,720 Speaker 1: They'd spent the summer trying to get the resurrected michewan 471 00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:50,560 Speaker 1: mannor story he killed, and now the man on top 472 00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:52,920 Speaker 1: of their payroll had the balls to blow them off, 473 00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:57,840 Speaker 1: big fucket balls. Suker muttered, in disgusted the biggest. Laski responded, 474 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:02,960 Speaker 1: and Laski were the last people on Roscoe's mind when 475 00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,760 Speaker 1: he checked into his three connected rooms one two one 476 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:08,480 Speaker 1: nine one two two two and one two two one 477 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,680 Speaker 1: at the Saint Francis with Lowell and Fred on Saturday, 478 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,040 Speaker 1: September third, nineteen twenty one. He made a point to 479 00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,600 Speaker 1: not think about anything else but a good time, and 480 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:21,000 Speaker 1: that was easy. The trio died, took in some shows, 481 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,280 Speaker 1: saw the sites. They accepted deliveries of contraband boos from 482 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:28,320 Speaker 1: the hotel's basement speakeasy, and the first day warranted four 483 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:33,120 Speaker 1: bottles of gin and scotch. By Monday, September fifth, Labor Day, 484 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:36,640 Speaker 1: they needed another dozen bottles from the Saint Francis Blind Tiger, 485 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:40,280 Speaker 1: because at that point word had spread about the spontaneous 486 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,480 Speaker 1: hooton any happening on the twelfth floor. The people just 487 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 1: started showing up. A chorus girl from a nearby cafe, 488 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,240 Speaker 1: a guy who said he sold women's underwear, a movie publicist, 489 00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,400 Speaker 1: and that publicist brought two women with him. One called 490 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,200 Speaker 1: herself Maude Delmont and the other, Virginia Rape, was a 491 00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,680 Speaker 1: little known actress in Hollywood. Roscoe just up into knowwher 492 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:05,360 Speaker 1: small world. The party kept swinging more people, some tipped 493 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,680 Speaker 1: off by the guests who were already there, others who 494 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:10,520 Speaker 1: heard rumor of Roscoe Arbuckle holding court with the best 495 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:13,840 Speaker 1: liquor that only money like his goodbye. The front desk 496 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:17,440 Speaker 1: set up a Victrola seventy eight, spun and crackled. More 497 00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:22,000 Speaker 1: bottles open, more glasses, filled shirt collars, lucid cigarette smoke. 498 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:26,080 Speaker 1: Another knock on the door, laughter, dancing glasses, rattling shirtsleeves, 499 00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,440 Speaker 1: rolled up, more people, clouds of cigarette smoke getting thicker, 500 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 1: the sound of another cork popping off a bottleneck. It 501 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:34,920 Speaker 1: was all a little more than Roscoe had planned for, 502 00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:37,680 Speaker 1: to be honest, but it was good, clean. Now they 503 00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:42,120 Speaker 1: had bootlegged fun. It was all good, all good, until 504 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:46,280 Speaker 1: it wasn't. And the moment it wasn't all good was 505 00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:50,080 Speaker 1: when that actress that Roscoe knew, Virginia Rapee, screamed out 506 00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:53,280 Speaker 1: loud and ran to the bathroom to empty the contents 507 00:30:53,480 --> 00:31:12,600 Speaker 1: of her stomach. In the fall of nineteen twenty one, 508 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:16,320 Speaker 1: the American public couldn't get enough of Roscoe Arbuckle's trial 509 00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:20,160 Speaker 1: for manslaughter in the death of Virginia Rapee. The papers 510 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:23,440 Speaker 1: called it the crime of the century. In the press, 511 00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:27,800 Speaker 1: Hollywood America's new culture factory, churning out fast fortunes and 512 00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: celluloid dreams, was also on trial, and in the courtroom, 513 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:34,760 Speaker 1: the strategy for getting Hollywood out of trouble was the 514 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,760 Speaker 1: same as it is now attacked the victim, Virginia Rapae, 515 00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:43,080 Speaker 1: was dead, Roscoe's lawyers killed her again. Virginia wasn't a 516 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,800 Speaker 1: well known actress, but she had her own career at 517 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:48,480 Speaker 1: a time when the idea of modern liberated women was 518 00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,240 Speaker 1: still brand new. At the time of her death, the 519 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:54,040 Speaker 1: Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was 520 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:56,840 Speaker 1: less than a year old. Virginia was a model and 521 00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:00,200 Speaker 1: fashion designer who gave her first interview at age seventeen. 522 00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:03,800 Speaker 1: She had her own life, but the defense called witnesses 523 00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,640 Speaker 1: who painted Virginia as a drunk, people who said they'd 524 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:09,600 Speaker 1: seen her ripper close from her body numerous times, and 525 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:13,800 Speaker 1: that she'd complained of frequent abdominal pain. Doctors testified that 526 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:15,840 Speaker 1: some of the bruises on her body may have happened 527 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:18,880 Speaker 1: after she had died. They even found one doctor who 528 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:22,080 Speaker 1: testified that he had treated Virginia in the past for cistidis, 529 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:26,120 Speaker 1: a chronic inflammation of the bladder, and the defense also 530 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:30,120 Speaker 1: duck up dirt on Maud Delmont, the prosecution's star eye witness. 531 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,360 Speaker 1: Maud was Virginia's friend who was with her at Roscoe's 532 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:35,720 Speaker 1: hotel party and was the one who gave the initial 533 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:39,760 Speaker 1: statement accusing Roscoe of assault. The press referred to Maud 534 00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:42,600 Speaker 1: as the Avenger because she was the one who would 535 00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,280 Speaker 1: ensure that Virginia's death was not in vain and that 536 00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:48,440 Speaker 1: her attacker would be brought to justice. And here's where 537 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:54,160 Speaker 1: things get complicated, because Maud was complicated. In Greg Merritt's 538 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,520 Speaker 1: book about the case, he describes how Roscoe's defense team 539 00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:01,960 Speaker 1: uncovered Maud's arrest record. Record included an incident where she 540 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,560 Speaker 1: had attempted to extort money from one of her lover's 541 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,600 Speaker 1: fathers in order to keep their relationship in her pregnancy 542 00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:10,800 Speaker 1: a secret. The defense planned to use this history to 543 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:13,520 Speaker 1: suggest a motive for Maud to frame the movie star. 544 00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:16,560 Speaker 1: They would tell the jury her plan was to extort 545 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,760 Speaker 1: money from Roscoe Arbuckle by making him think that she 546 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,640 Speaker 1: possessed evidence that would lead directly to his guilt, but 547 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:27,120 Speaker 1: the defense never got that chance. According to Merritt's book, 548 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,800 Speaker 1: Maud's version of events often changed, and the state decided 549 00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:34,040 Speaker 1: not to have her testify at all, and then Maud 550 00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: was arrested in San Francisco just days before the trial 551 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:44,440 Speaker 1: began the charge bigamy. The defense's strategy worked. The trial 552 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:46,840 Speaker 1: ended in a hung jury, with ten of the twelve 553 00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:50,400 Speaker 1: jurors voting to acquit. The second trial got underway in 554 00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:54,440 Speaker 1: January of nineteen twenty two. That trial also resulted in 555 00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,080 Speaker 1: a hung jury, but this time ten of the twelve 556 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:02,640 Speaker 1: jurors thought Roscoe was guilty of manslaughter. Over the years, 557 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,320 Speaker 1: the stories about Roscoe Arbuckle changed. In his time, he 558 00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:09,320 Speaker 1: was seen as a villain, but by the nineteen nineties 559 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,600 Speaker 1: history began to take a different view. Books like Jerry 560 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:17,359 Speaker 1: Stall's lightly fictionalized biography I Fatty turned Roscoe into a 561 00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:21,160 Speaker 1: sort of anti hero, and Greg Merritt's twenty thirteen book 562 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:23,640 Speaker 1: Room one two one nine began to chip away at 563 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:25,600 Speaker 1: the story of the crime that had lodged in the 564 00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:30,600 Speaker 1: public imagination. Merritt dug into initial reports about Roscoe violating 565 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,520 Speaker 1: Virginia with a glass bottle and found that the story 566 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:37,800 Speaker 1: had evolved over time it was likely an exaggeration. Merrett's 567 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:41,640 Speaker 1: opinion after a long investigation was at Prosecutors at the 568 00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:44,840 Speaker 1: time didn't have enough evidence to charge Arbuckle with a crime, 569 00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:48,120 Speaker 1: but he also thought that evidence pointed to Roscoe following 570 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:50,239 Speaker 1: Virginia into the room at the party that night and 571 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,759 Speaker 1: locking the door behind him. He believed Virginia's injuries were 572 00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:57,279 Speaker 1: likely suffered at Roscoe's hands, and he believed Roscoe had 573 00:34:57,320 --> 00:34:59,880 Speaker 1: lied under oath at trial to cover up what he 574 00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:07,640 Speaker 1: really happened. One hundred years later, it's impossible to reconstruct 575 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,840 Speaker 1: exactly what happened in that hotel room. What we'd know 576 00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:15,000 Speaker 1: is that Virginia Rape's friend Maud Delmont's initial affat David 577 00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:17,640 Speaker 1: states that while Roscoe is in the room with her 578 00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:21,400 Speaker 1: in Virginia, Virginia writhed in pain and said he did it. 579 00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:24,560 Speaker 1: I know he did it. I've been hurt and I'm dying. 580 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,360 Speaker 1: But in nineteen twenty one, that simply wasn't enough. Despite 581 00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:32,400 Speaker 1: his history of morphine addiction, the orgy he was alleged 582 00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:36,320 Speaker 1: to have attended back in Boston, Roscoe fatty Arbuckle's reputation 583 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,440 Speaker 1: as a party boy. In the eyewitness testimony, there just 584 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:44,960 Speaker 1: wasn't any concrete evidence, and so with Virginia Rapaey, perhaps 585 00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:47,960 Speaker 1: spinning in her grave. When the final jury came back, 586 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:52,160 Speaker 1: they let Fatty go. It was clear even then that 587 00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:55,879 Speaker 1: just because Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle won in the courtroom didn't 588 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,560 Speaker 1: mean he'd won in the court of public opinion. In 589 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:02,000 Speaker 1: the public's mind, Hollywood had just gotten away with murder, 590 00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:05,200 Speaker 1: and that might explain one of the strangest elements of 591 00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:09,160 Speaker 1: Roscoe's acquittal. The jury didn't just give Roscoe a not 592 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:13,000 Speaker 1: guilty verdict. All twelve jurors and two alternates signed a 593 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:17,440 Speaker 1: written apology claiming that Roscoe was quote entirely innocent and 594 00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:21,440 Speaker 1: free from all blame. According to Merrit, that letter was 595 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:24,400 Speaker 1: likely not written by the jury. It was likely written 596 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,640 Speaker 1: by Roscoe's lawyers as a pr move, and they wanted 597 00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:30,080 Speaker 1: to launder the mess that had been made of Hollywood's 598 00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:33,640 Speaker 1: squeaky clean image. And the letter didn't help Roscoe in 599 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:37,360 Speaker 1: the slightest. After the trial, he was dead broke. He 600 00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:39,839 Speaker 1: sold his cars in his mansion in order to chip 601 00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:42,080 Speaker 1: away at the one hundred thousand dollars bill owe to 602 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:45,920 Speaker 1: his legal team. Meanwhile, Hollywood tried to wash off the 603 00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:49,000 Speaker 1: stink of the sordid crime It announced the creation of 604 00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:52,759 Speaker 1: a new self governing organization called the Motion Pictures Producers 605 00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:56,720 Speaker 1: and Directors of America, and hired former Postmaster General William 606 00:36:56,760 --> 00:37:00,799 Speaker 1: Hayes to run it. Hayes's directive was the sanitas Hollywood's 607 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:04,320 Speaker 1: image both on and off the screen, and he started 608 00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:08,800 Speaker 1: with banning Roscoe Arbuckle from working in the movies. Spoiler alert, 609 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:13,080 Speaker 1: it didn't last. This was Hollywood, after all, and whether 610 00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:15,920 Speaker 1: or not Roscoe was guilty of an awful crime, he 611 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:18,360 Speaker 1: could find a second chance in the land of fast 612 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:22,840 Speaker 1: fortunes and celluloid dreams. William Hayes thought so, and said 613 00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:25,480 Speaker 1: so in a statement to the press when in December 614 00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:29,239 Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty two he allowed Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle back 615 00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:33,080 Speaker 1: into the Hollywood machine after eight months in exile and 616 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:36,799 Speaker 1: then after years of uncredited cameos the only work he 617 00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,600 Speaker 1: could get. When he came back in nineteen twenty six, 618 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:43,640 Speaker 1: Roscoe got a bigger break. Roscoe received an offer to 619 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:47,520 Speaker 1: direct a romantic comedy called The Red Mill. The offer 620 00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:51,719 Speaker 1: came with two caveats. One, he couldn't use his real name. 621 00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:55,960 Speaker 1: That name was tainted. His new nondcinema would be William Goodrich. 622 00:37:56,640 --> 00:38:00,080 Speaker 1: The second caveat was that Marion Davies would play the lead, 623 00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:04,160 Speaker 1: as the film was funded by Cosmopolitan Productions, which was 624 00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:08,200 Speaker 1: owned by none other than Marian's lover and benefactor, the 625 00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:12,440 Speaker 1: man who made fortunes off Roscoe's very public misfortunes, the 626 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:21,160 Speaker 1: scandal Baron Supreme himself, William Randolph Hurst, And so as 627 00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:25,399 Speaker 1: Roscoe Arbuckle shouted action through his director's megaphone and looked 628 00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:28,239 Speaker 1: out on Marion Davies and at the largest cast and 629 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:32,279 Speaker 1: crew he'd ever overseen, he felt something lurking behind him, 630 00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:37,000 Speaker 1: was always there, staring at him, watching him. It tapped 631 00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:39,880 Speaker 1: on his shoulder. He didn't turn around, though, because he 632 00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:43,120 Speaker 1: knew what it was. The thing that caused his downfall 633 00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:46,120 Speaker 1: in the first place, and also the thing that gave 634 00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:49,359 Speaker 1: him a second chance. It was one and the same thing, 635 00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:52,680 Speaker 1: two sides of a coin, the muse of comedy and 636 00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:55,600 Speaker 1: the muse of tragedy, both on the same stage together, 637 00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,640 Speaker 1: sock and busk and ying and yang. He hated it, 638 00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,640 Speaker 1: and yet he was thankful for it. In each time 639 00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:04,840 Speaker 1: you felt to tap harder, Roscoe would think back to 640 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:09,200 Speaker 1: that first time, long ago, when someone said those faithful 641 00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:14,800 Speaker 1: words to him. Hey, Fatty, you ought to be in pictures. 642 00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:19,200 Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in this this hollywood Land. 643 00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:35,720 Speaker 2: Hollywood Land was created by Years Truly and is produced 644 00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:39,600 Speaker 2: in partnership with Double Elvis. Follow like, rate, and review 645 00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:41,920 Speaker 2: hollywood Land wherever you get your podcasts, and get in 646 00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:45,279 Speaker 2: touch with us on social media at double Elvis. If 647 00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,120 Speaker 2: you like hollywood Land, check out my other show, the 648 00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:50,200 Speaker 2: award winning Disgraceland, which looks at the world of music 649 00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:51,399 Speaker 2: through the lens of true crime. 650 00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:54,400 Speaker 1: Just search for Disgraceland or wherever you get your podcasts. 651 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:01,359 Speaker 1: That's there's a whe