0:02 [SPEAKER_00]: The ruined 20s was a time of glamour, gossip, and a scandal that rocked Hollywood. 0:09 [SPEAKER_00]: A scandal marked by its tragic, insensational nature, and not only reveals the shady side of Hollywood, but also made people think about the necessity of movie censorship. 0:31 [SPEAKER_00]: In today's episode, we will be exploring one of the most scandalous events in Hollywood history. 0:37 [SPEAKER_00]: The Fatty Arbuckle scandal of the 1920s, and we'll see how this scandal forever changed the rules of movie censorship. 0:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Now who was Fatty Arbuckle? 0:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Born on March 24th, 1887, and Smith-Center Kansas, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle had a tough start 1:02 [SPEAKER_00]: His dad named him after a politician, he didn't like much. 1:06 [SPEAKER_00]: But that didn't stop Roscoh from finding his way into the world of entertainment. 1:12 [SPEAKER_00]: Roscoh, or fatty as he was nicknamed, started performing on stage at just eight years old. 1:19 [SPEAKER_00]: He loved making people laugh and kept at it until his mom passed away when he was 11. 1:26 [SPEAKER_00]: After this, life only got harder than it already was for him. 1:31 [SPEAKER_00]: and his dad refused to support him any more. 1:35 [SPEAKER_00]: So Fatty found odd jobs that hotels trying to support himself and push through. 1:41 [SPEAKER_00]: But as a luck would have it, his singing and clowning around caught the attention of a talent scout who invited him to a talent show for beginners. 1:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Now the idea was that the audience decided who's good and who's not. 1:57 [SPEAKER_00]: They would express their thoughts by clapping or booing. 2:01 [SPEAKER_00]: And if an act wasn't up to par, a long stick, like a shepherd's crook, pulled them off the stage. 2:08 [SPEAKER_00]: So our buckle performed there, he sang, danced, and goofed around, but the audience wasn't too impressed. 2:17 [SPEAKER_00]: It looked like he missed his chance. 2:20 [SPEAKER_00]: But just as he spotted the Shepard's crook, creeping in, panic set in. 2:25 [SPEAKER_00]: In a moment of desperation, he's summer-salted right into the orchestra pad. 2:33 [SPEAKER_00]: And surprisingly, the audience loved it. 2:40 [SPEAKER_00]: with that in the blink of an eye. 2:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Faddy went from odd jobs to winning a talent show. 2:46 [SPEAKER_00]: The audience loved him, and this launched his career in Vodville. 2:53 [SPEAKER_00]: He even sang and said grommons unique theater in San Francisco, and toward the west coast with the pantages theater group. 3:03 [SPEAKER_00]: And his performances would change his luck further. 3:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Now he was a big guy, tipping the scales at around £300. 3:12 [SPEAKER_00]: But despite his size, he was agile and acrobatic. 3:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Max Senate, who was a big shot in Hollywood at the time, noticed him, and signed him up for Keystone Copp's comedies. 3:26 [SPEAKER_00]: This was the start of his journey as a star. 3:30 [SPEAKER_00]: His movies were full of chase scenes, yags, and of course, the famous pie in the face. 3:37 [SPEAKER_00]: And then, in 1914, Paramount Pictures saw his potential and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. 3:45 [SPEAKER_00]: A thousand dollars a day plus a share of the profits and artistic control. 3:50 [SPEAKER_00]: This is equivalent to around $30,000 today, with that fatty became a comedy sensation. 3:59 [SPEAKER_00]: It really was a rags to Rich's story for him, and he had worked his way to the riches. 4:12 [SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately for him, success didn't shield him from health problems, a severe infection nearly caused him his leg, and he ended up battling accusations of morphine addiction. 4:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Despite all of that, he started up his own film company, Kameek, producing some of the best silent era shorts. 4:35 [SPEAKER_00]: But in 1918, he handed over control to Buster Keaton, and took up Paramount's offer to make up to 18th feature films over three years. 4:47 [SPEAKER_00]: And with that, he had a whopping $3 million contract with Paramount, and that would be more than $60 million in today's money. 5:03 [SPEAKER_00]: But there were things he wasn't fond of. 5:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Despite his on-screen name, Fatti Arbuckle wasn't too fond of being called Fatti off-screen. 5:14 [SPEAKER_00]: He was more than just a funny guy. 5:16 [SPEAKER_00]: He had a name after all. 5:19 [SPEAKER_00]: But that was not even a fraction of the problems he was about to face. 5:23 [SPEAKER_00]: He had no idea that his laughter filled career would soon take a dark turn and change Hollywood, forever. 5:31 [SPEAKER_00]: On Labor Day, September 5, 1921. 5:34 [SPEAKER_00]: Arbuckle decided to take a break from his busy film schedule, and headed to San Francisco with his friends, Lowell Sherman, and Fred Fishback. 5:45 [SPEAKER_00]: They checked into three rooms at the San Francis Hotel, 1219 for Arbuckle and Fishback, 1221 for Sherman, and 1220, they designated the party room, all on the top floor, 6:01 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a pretty fancy European style hotel with its own orchestra and Turkish baths. 6:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Now even though it was 20 months into prohibition, getting booze wasn't tough, especially for a star like our buckle. 6:17 [SPEAKER_00]: So that night, a shipment of gin and scotch arrived from Goobie's grill. 6:23 [SPEAKER_00]: On the morning of September 5th, a guy named Ira Fort Louis, a gown salesman, was leaving the nearby palace hotel, to meet one of our buckles friends. 6:34 [SPEAKER_00]: He spotted a group from Los Angeles in the palace lobby, and asked a bellboy about a cheeky young woman with dark hair. 6:43 [SPEAKER_00]: The bellboy said, Virginia rap, the movie actress, apparently our buckles crew knew rap, 6:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Wrap showed up around noon, wearing a stylus-jade skirt and gloves with a Panama hat. 7:02 [SPEAKER_00]: She had told her companions, Alfred Simnatcher, and Maud Delmont, that she'd be back in 20 minutes if the party was a dud. 7:11 [SPEAKER_00]: In room 1220, our buckle, in pajamas and a purple bath robe, was with a crowd of friends and show girls, dancing to eight-week-out fun. 7:25 [SPEAKER_00]: and so wrapped during the party had orange blossoms, and chatted with Arbuckle for a while. 7:32 [SPEAKER_00]: At some point, she tried to use the bathroom in room 1221, but Delmont was in there, with Arbuckle's actor friend, Lowell Sherman. 7:42 [SPEAKER_00]: So she decided to use the bathroom in Arbuckle's room, 1219, and then, just before 3 o'clock, 7:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Now what happened behind those closed doors was dissected by three juries, a scandal hungry public, in a century of amateur detectives. 8:10 [SPEAKER_00]: In one version, our buckle threw rap onto the bed, and accidentally flushed her under his weight. 8:19 [SPEAKER_00]: In another, he found her sick and took care of her. 8:23 [SPEAKER_00]: They were alone together for 10 minutes, or an hour, depending on who you believe. 8:30 [SPEAKER_00]: Delmont got worried and kicked the door down, calling Rapp's name. 8:35 [SPEAKER_00]: But Arbuckle said he opened it on his own. 8:39 [SPEAKER_00]: There is no way to know who to trust. 8:42 [SPEAKER_00]: But either way, when the other Scott into room 1219, Rap was barely conscious, tearing at her clothes and pain, complaining of a horrible stomach ache. 8:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Things were already looking like they had spiraled out of control, but the hotel manager tried to take charge. 9:04 [SPEAKER_00]: They put her in a cold bath and moved her to another room, where a hotel doctor said she had too much to drink, and it was a case of intoxication. 9:16 [SPEAKER_00]: While the doctors took care of that, the party continued in room 1220. 9:21 [SPEAKER_00]: and no one in that room could even imagine what was about to go down. 9:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Rapp spent three days in the hotel room and was being given morphine for her pain, before finally being moved to a hospital. 9:37 [SPEAKER_00]: At the hospital, Rapp's friend, Bambina Mod Delmond, claimed that our 9:46 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a serious allegation altogether, but the doctor found no evidence of sexual assault. 9:54 [SPEAKER_00]: But other complications that she had led to her death on September 9th, four days after she went to the hotel room. 10:02 [SPEAKER_00]: The reason I identified as the cause of death was paratonitis. 10:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Caused by a ruptured bladder aggravated by chronic urinary tract infections, 10:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Now her death made things difficult for Arbuckle. 10:19 [SPEAKER_00]: As the tabloid sensationalized the incident, accusing Arbuckle of causing her death. 10:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Arbuckle's career took a no-stive as he faced negative media coverage in a public scandal. 10:33 [SPEAKER_00]: Rap's companion, Maude Delmont, spread allegations of sexual assault, and Arbuckle found himself charged 10:44 [SPEAKER_00]: The tabloids only exploded the situation, fabricating details for sensational headlines. 10:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Arbuckle's trial was obviously a huge deal, and the media played a big part in it. 10:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Newspapers, driven by sensationalism, painted Arbuckle as a creepy guy, who used his position to overpower innocent girls. 11:09 [SPEAKER_00]: William Randolph Hearst's newspaper chain took advantage of the situation with exaggerated stories, and he was pretty happy about the profits he made, reportedly saying it sold more papers than when the loose attenia sank. 11:26 [SPEAKER_00]: People from moreality groups even called for our buckle to get the death penalty, so he was already losing his case in the public's mind. 11:36 [SPEAKER_00]: The first trial started on November 14, 1921, in San Francisco. 11:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Arbarchal got Gavin McNabb, a local lawyer, as his lead defense counsel. 11:49 [SPEAKER_00]: With respect to his family, at the start of the trial, Arbarchal told his estranged wife, Minta Dorfie, that he didn't hurt rap. 11:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Dorfie believed him, and showed up regularly to support him 12:05 [SPEAKER_00]: But that didn't exactly work in her favor. 12:09 [SPEAKER_00]: Shots were fired or her, as she entered the court, because the public was considering Arbuckle guilty, thanks to the media's exaggerated reports. 12:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Now the prosecution's witnesses included model Betty Campbell, who said that Arbuckle seemed 12:31 [SPEAKER_00]: and Nurse Grace Holston, who thought Arbuckle was definitely guilty. 12:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Besides that, criminologist Dr. Howard Heinrich said fingerprints on the door proved rap fried to run away, and that Arbuckle stopped her. 12:49 [SPEAKER_00]: but not everything was against our buckle, and the defense pointed that out. 12:55 [SPEAKER_00]: During cross-examination, Campbell later revealed she was threatened to testify by the prosecution, which obviously put a question mark on her statement. 13:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Even Heinrich fingerprint claim was challenged when hotel made testified that the room was cleaned before the investigation. 13:14 [SPEAKER_00]: Even in his cross-examination with the hospital nurse, about the medical reports. 13:20 [SPEAKER_00]: He was able to get her to agree to cancer, as the reason for the ruptured bladder, and the possibility that wraps heavy jewelry caused the bruises. 13:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Even Dr. Arthur Beardsley, agreed that rap did not mention any assault or attack during the three days she was at the hotel under his care. 13:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Finally, 14 days after the trial started. 13:50 [SPEAKER_00]: According to him, he had known rap for about five to six years. 13:56 [SPEAKER_00]: He said she joined the party in Room 1220, around noon. 14:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Later, our buckle went to his room, which was Room 1219, to change clothes, because may top needed a ride to town. 14:12 [SPEAKER_00]: When he got to his room, he found Rap in the bathroom, vomiting, he claimed that Rap said she felt sick and asked to lie down. 14:21 [SPEAKER_00]: He carried her to the bedroom and asked for help from other party guests. 14:26 [SPEAKER_00]: But when the others returned to the room, Rap was on the floor, tearing at her clothes and having violent convulsions. 14:34 [SPEAKER_00]: To suath her, they put her in her cool bath. 14:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Arbuckle, and fish back then moved her to room 1227, and called the hotel manager and doctor. 14:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone thought rap was just very drunk at that point, including the hotel doctors, believing she would get better, if she just slept. 14:57 [SPEAKER_00]: Arbuckle drove top into town, as he originally planned to. 15:04 [SPEAKER_00]: After all the testimonies in our buckle statement, the jury came back deadlocked on December 4th, 1921, with a 10-2 not guilty verdict leading to a mistrial. 15:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Now our buckle's defense focused on was Jörer Helen Hubbard, who seemed to have a strong bias against him. 15:28 [SPEAKER_00]: Some jurors revealed they believed our buckle was guilty, but not beyond reasonable 15:35 [SPEAKER_00]: The defense claimed Hubbard was a villain, partly due to the media's attention on women serving on juries. 15:43 [SPEAKER_00]: So Arbuckle was released on bail after nearly three weeks in jail, and another trial would follow. 15:52 [SPEAKER_00]: The second trial started on January 11, 1922, with the new jury with the same legal teams and judge. 16:02 [SPEAKER_00]: The same evidence was presented. 16:04 [SPEAKER_00]: But this time, another witness, Zay Pravan, claimed to the prosecution forced her to lie during the first trial. 16:13 [SPEAKER_00]: This was the second time of witness that claimed that, and it was now being speculated to the prosecutor, Matthew Brady, was fueling the scandal for his political ambitions. 16:26 [SPEAKER_00]: And this did hurt his case. 16:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Another witness from the first trial, Jesse Norgard, said Arbuckle once tried to bribe him for the key to rap stressing room, but the thing was that Norgard was an ex-convict under the indictment for assaulting a child. 16:50 [SPEAKER_00]: So the credibility was naturally questioned. 16:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Nonetheless, the trial continued, but again, the jury was deadlocked on February 3rd, with 17:05 [SPEAKER_00]: But this time, the majority was in favor of conviction, and indication that things were now going against our buckle. 17:17 [SPEAKER_00]: A third trial would now follow, but obviously, the media sensationalization was going on simultaneously with the trials. 17:26 [SPEAKER_00]: By the time of our buckle's third trial, on March 13th, 1922, his films were banned. 17:34 [SPEAKER_00]: and the media was filled with stories of Hollywood scandals. 17:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Make nab, our buckles lawyer took a strong stance, attacking the prosecution's case. 17:46 [SPEAKER_00]: This time, private was out of the country, which ended up weakening the prosecution. 17:53 [SPEAKER_00]: So after six minutes of deliberation, on October 12th, the jury finally returned a unanimous not guilty verdict, offering a former apology to our buckle for the whole ordeal. 18:07 [SPEAKER_00]: The jury statement expressed that they believed Arbuckle was entirely innocent and free from all blame. 18:14 [SPEAKER_00]: Some experts later thought that rap's blotter might have ruptured during an earlier abortion procedure, but her organs were too damaged for any confirmation at that point. 18:28 [SPEAKER_00]: Things ended up in favor of him. 18:31 [SPEAKER_00]: But he did plead guilty to violating the Volstead Act for alcohol consumption at the party and paid a $500 fine. 18:41 [SPEAKER_00]: With that, our buckle tactically paid for his wrongdoing, but things were far from over. 18:48 [SPEAKER_00]: Despite his acquittal, our buckle faced financial struggles, owing over $700,000 in legal fees, forcing him to sell his house and cars. 19:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Even his return to Hollywood faced obstacles, and he struggled to reclaim his former glory. 19:09 [SPEAKER_00]: Although officially he was cleared of the murder charge, in the jury even apologized to him formally, the scandal continued to haunt him. 19:19 [SPEAKER_00]: It was undoubtedly unfair to a person who was found not guilty, to have to deal with the consequences of the media's attempt at earning 19:29 [SPEAKER_00]: But that was why he had to face, and both his personal and professional life were affected. 19:36 [SPEAKER_00]: He found limits and opportunities to make the art he wanted, and eventually started directing short films under the alias William Goodrich. 19:45 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1932, Warner Bros. offered him a chance to star in comedy shorts, marking his return to the screen under his own name. 19:59 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1933, a decade after this scandal, our book was suffered a fatal heart attack, the age of 46, ending a chaotic chapter in Hollywood history. 20:13 [SPEAKER_00]: But the influence of the scandal did not end at our buckle. 20:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Here comes the topic we started with. 20:20 [SPEAKER_00]: The influence on Hollywood itself. 20:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Hollywood executives led by the motion picture producers and distributors of America, or MPA, were concerned about the industry's tarnished image after the whole our buckle situation. 20:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Will Hayes, the head of the MPA, wanted to rehabilitate Hollywood's reputation, which is why he introduced measures to regulate content, leading to the later adoption of the motion picture production code. 20:55 [SPEAKER_00]: These measures were a form of self-sensorship by the industry, to avoid external intervention or government imposed censorship 21:05 [SPEAKER_00]: The production code set clear rules for what could be shown in movies, especially when it came to sensitive topics like sex and crime. 21:16 [SPEAKER_00]: It said no to nudity, suggestive dances, and making fun of religion. 21:23 [SPEAKER_00]: Illegal drug use, venereal disease, rape, childbirth, and mixed race relationships were 21:32 [SPEAKER_00]: In addition to that, the language rules banned several offensive words. 21:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Criminals couldn't be portrayed in a way that made viewers sympathize with them. 21:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Murder scenes had to be careful not to encourage imitation. 21:48 [SPEAKER_00]: And brutal killings couldn't be shown in too much detail. 21:53 [SPEAKER_00]: And movies had to uphold the importance of marriage and family life. 22:03 [SPEAKER_00]: They couldn't be too explicit or justified, and they shouldn't be portrayed as attractive choices. 22:10 [SPEAKER_00]: Basically, nobody, not the government, or the people, or the media, should ever get a chance to villainize Hollywood. 22:20 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, this could continue to influence the content of Hollywood films for several decades. 22:28 [SPEAKER_00]: We're presenting a form of internal censorship within the film industry. 22:36 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's a wrap on today's episode. 22:40 [SPEAKER_00]: This scandal reminds us of the power of public perception and the lasting effects you can have on an industry. 22:48 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to Home Town History. 22:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Be sure to follow along for more interesting stories from the past.
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