Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle: A Biography of the Silent Film Comedian, 1887-1933
Fatty Arbuckle’s career came to a sudden halt amidst allegations that he raped and caused the death of a young starlet named Virginia Rappe. Though he was acquitted, the comedian, who was at one time second in popularity only to Charlie Chaplin, was ruined.\ Interviews with many of Arbuckle’s contemporaries (including Minta Durfee, his first wife) and extensive research inform this serious study of the once-fabled comedian. His early days in the Keystone comedies and his relationship with...
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He was bigger than life, on and off the silent screen, his popularity second only to Chaplin's. He could do whatever he liked, including order cases of liquor from hotel desk clerks during Prohibition. Many liked his act, which was largely behaving like an overgrown little boy, but many colleagues noted his temper when he didn't get his way. A million a year and full artistic control of his pictures did little to assuage that "little boy" reputation; neither did the rumors of his impotence spread by his erstwhile partners. These bits and pieces of his life came together in a San Francisco hotel, in the form of drink, a besotted and diseased starlet, and a few moments of uneasy silence at a party which led to Arbuckle's trial for murder. The next edition will no doubt be improved by photographs of better quality. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
