The Arbuckle scandal

This, in my opinion, was one of the biggest tragedies ever to strike Hollywood.

Things were going so well for Arbuckle in 1921. He was a famous comedian, he was the first in his field to make a million dollars a year (a fabulous sum now, and truly astronomical then). He had introduced to screen the incomparable Buster Keaton, and in 1921, Buster made his first feature film. The two were good friends, and Arbuckle needed all the friends he could get after all hell broke loose.

In Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, footage was included of Buster being interviewed about his friend Roscoe (who was NEVER called "Fatty" by his friends; he hated the nickname). Buster said indignantly, "Certainly he was wronged! He was no more guilty of that than I was!"

As for what really happened during the infamous Labor Day party, we may never know. A week later, a would-be starlet was dead, and Arbuckle was blamed for causing her death. The accounts vary wildly; either Arbuckle was a sex fiend who assaulted this poor, innocent young woman, which then led to her death of peritonitis due to a ruptured bladder, or this extremely active young woman, already infected with more than one sexually-transmitted disease, died of peritonitis from a ruptured bladder as the result of a botched abortion, one of several.

Certainly, Hearst was willing to put the blame squarely on Arbuckle. Buster stated that Hearst said - in front of Buster himself - that the Arbuckle affair sold more papers than the sinking of the Lusitania.

When I watch the movies Arbuckle and Buster made together, Buster's genius is obvious, even in his very first role. Arbuckle was no mean hand at physical comedy himself, and he had some pretty good little routines, but had it not been for the storm surrounding him, much of which continues to this day, what would have happened to him? He didn't have the staying power that Buster did, or Harold Lloyd. He did have talent, though, and his joy in making comedy still shines through.