WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.379 Picture a man who, for a brief moment in time, 00:00:03.500 --> 00:00:05.500 was arguably the most beloved human being on 00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:07.940 the planet. I am not exaggerating here. He was 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:11.519 the very first true king of Hollywood. He was 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:14.240 wealthy beyond comprehension, the guy absolutely 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.600 everyone wanted to be friends with, and a mentor 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:19.100 to legends like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. 00:00:19.500 --> 00:00:21.620 And yet, if you walk down the street today and 00:00:21.620 --> 00:00:23.780 ask someone about him, if they even know the 00:00:23.780 --> 00:00:26.600 name at all, they usually know exactly two things. 00:00:26.859 --> 00:00:29.160 They know a cruel nickname, and they know about 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:31.199 a scandal that didn't just ruin his career. It 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:34.039 completely erased him from history. Yeah, we 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:36.079 are talking about Roscoe Arbuckle today. Yeah. 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:39.259 And I know the moment I said Arbuckle, your brain 00:00:39.259 --> 00:00:42.100 probably autofilled the word fatty. Which is 00:00:42.100 --> 00:00:44.219 really the first tragedy we need to unpack. Fatty 00:00:44.219 --> 00:00:46.460 was just a screen character as a brand name, 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:48.439 you know, kind of like the tramp for Chaplin. 00:00:48.859 --> 00:00:52.240 Yeah. But the man himself, Roscoe Arbuckle, he 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:54.579 absolutely detested that nickname. He would even 00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:56.679 answer to it off camera. Never. He'd tell people, 00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:58.820 I have a name, you know. He was a sensitive, 00:00:59.219 --> 00:01:01.219 incredibly agile guy who just happened to be 00:01:01.219 --> 00:01:04.400 large. But that nickname and the whole caricature 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:06.739 attached to it became the weapon that was used 00:01:06.739 --> 00:01:09.420 to destroy him. For this deep dive, we're pulling 00:01:09.420 --> 00:01:12.200 from historical records, trial transcripts, and 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:14.280 biographical summaries to look at what is probably 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:17.819 the original case study of cancel culture. decades 00:01:17.819 --> 00:01:20.500 before the term even existed. It really is the 00:01:20.500 --> 00:01:22.799 prototype. It's the exact moment Hollywood lost 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:25.239 its innocence. But I feel like to really grasp 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:27.579 the weight of how hard he fell, we have to understand 00:01:27.579 --> 00:01:30.400 just how high up he was standing before the cliff 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:33.159 edge crumbled. Because this guy wasn't just famous, 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:35.680 he was an entire industry. He was the highest 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:37.780 paid actor in the world. But his start, I mean, 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:39.579 it couldn't have been further from the glamour 00:01:39.579 --> 00:01:42.439 of Hollywood. He was born in Kansas in 1887, 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:46.099 and the circumstances were... pretty traumatic. 00:01:46.299 --> 00:01:49.060 To put it mildly, he weighed over 13 pounds at 00:01:49.060 --> 00:01:52.000 birth. Which, in 1887, was life -threatening 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.819 for the mother. His mother, Mary, suffered chronic 00:01:54.819 --> 00:01:56.560 health issues because of the birth and ended 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:59.719 up dying when Roscoe was only 12. But the real 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:02.299 villain in his early life was his father, William. 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:04.159 Yeah, his dad sounds like a real piece of work. 00:02:04.299 --> 00:02:06.879 He was a slim man, and so was Roscoe's mother. 00:02:07.530 --> 00:02:11.650 So when this massive 13 pound baby arrived, William 00:02:11.650 --> 00:02:14.569 flat out refused to believe the child was his. 00:02:15.009 --> 00:02:17.669 He was convinced Roscoe was illegitimate. He 00:02:17.669 --> 00:02:20.409 was so spiteful about it that he named the baby 00:02:20.409 --> 00:02:23.310 Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle. And just for context, 00:02:23.469 --> 00:02:25.449 that name was not a compliment. Not at all. It 00:02:25.449 --> 00:02:28.050 was an insult. Roscoe Conkling was a New York 00:02:28.050 --> 00:02:30.930 senator who was notorious for philandering and 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:34.469 corruption. He was a man William absolutely despised. 00:02:34.729 --> 00:02:37.090 So he literally branded his son with the name 00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:40.189 of a man he hated. That was the environment Roscoe 00:02:40.189 --> 00:02:42.710 grew up in. Neglected, resented, and eventually 00:02:42.710 --> 00:02:45.159 just abandoned. But that abandonment actually 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:47.400 led to one of the most mind -blowing origin stories 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:49.740 I've ever read. It's the Shepard's Crook Incident. 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:51.319 It sounds like something totally made up for 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:55.569 a movie, but it really happened. It is pure vaudeville. 00:02:55.969 --> 00:02:57.969 So he's essentially an orphan at this point, 00:02:58.210 --> 00:03:01.289 working odd jobs in a hotel, and he has this 00:03:01.289 --> 00:03:04.610 habit of singing while he works. A professional 00:03:04.610 --> 00:03:07.129 performer overhears him and invites him to sing 00:03:07.129 --> 00:03:09.449 at an amateur night. Now you have to picture 00:03:09.449 --> 00:03:11.550 what vaudeville amateur nights were like back 00:03:11.550 --> 00:03:13.389 then. This wasn't some polite talent show. It 00:03:13.389 --> 00:03:16.400 was brutal. If the audience didn't like you, 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:19.659 the stage manager would use a literal hook, a 00:03:19.659 --> 00:03:22.240 giant shepherd's crook, to reach out and yank 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:25.259 you off the stage by your neck. Imagine the sheer 00:03:25.259 --> 00:03:29.000 terror of an 11 -year -old boy facing that. So 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:31.060 Raskin gets up there, he's singing, he's doing 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:33.280 a little dance, but the crowd is dead silent. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:35.240 They just aren't buying it. He looks into the 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:37.580 wings and he sees the hook coming for him. So 00:03:37.580 --> 00:03:39.840 what does he do because he doesn't run? Panic 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:42.340 just takes over. But his body reacts with this 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:45.620 bizarre, innate agility. He performs a full back 00:03:45.620 --> 00:03:47.960 somersault right off the stage and into the orchestra 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:51.360 pit. Right into the pit, he crashes straight 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:54.599 into the drums and the audience. They explode. 00:03:54.819 --> 00:03:56.740 They thought it was all part of the act. They 00:03:56.740 --> 00:03:59.620 absolutely love the physical comedy of this large 00:03:59.620 --> 00:04:03.180 boy moving with such reckless grace. That moment 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.860 of panic didn't end his career. It launched it. 00:04:05.939 --> 00:04:08.659 He realized right then that his body was his 00:04:08.659 --> 00:04:10.020 instrument. And that's the thing that always 00:04:10.020 --> 00:04:12.759 gets lost in the fatty stereotype. The guy was 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:16.519 a serious athlete. A 300 pound athlete. Max Sennett, 00:04:16.660 --> 00:04:18.800 the comedy producer who basically invented film 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:21.500 slapstick, revered him. Sennett said, Arbuckle 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:23.720 skipped up the stairs as lightly as Fred Astaire. 00:04:24.100 --> 00:04:26.300 There are actual clips of him doing back flips 00:04:26.300 --> 00:04:28.779 on flat ground. And he refused to be the cheap 00:04:28.779 --> 00:04:30.939 fat guy joke. Right. He hated that. He didn't 00:04:30.939 --> 00:04:33.180 want to get stuck in door frames or break chairs 00:04:33.180 --> 00:04:35.519 when he sat down. He wanted the laugh to come 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:37.579 from the contradiction, the big man who moved 00:04:37.579 --> 00:04:40.160 like a ballerina. Although we do have to credit 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:43.379 him with one very specific, very messy invention. 00:04:43.370 --> 00:04:47.509 and the pie in the face. Yes, that was him. 1913 00:04:47.509 --> 00:04:50.389 in a film called A Noise from the Deep. It is 00:04:50.389 --> 00:04:52.790 the first recorded pie throw in cinema history. 00:04:53.129 --> 00:04:56.389 It's the ultimate cliche now. But Roscoe literally 00:04:56.389 --> 00:04:59.050 invented the grammar of screen comedy. So fast 00:04:59.050 --> 00:05:02.449 forward to 1920 and he is untouchable. Paramount 00:05:02.449 --> 00:05:04.490 signs him to a contract worth a million dollars 00:05:04.490 --> 00:05:06.550 a year. They'd even offered him a three million 00:05:06.550 --> 00:05:08.769 dollar contract a couple of years earlier in 00:05:08.769 --> 00:05:12.170 1918. And context is key here. A million dollars 00:05:12.170 --> 00:05:15.490 in 1920 with almost no income tax is wealth that 00:05:15.490 --> 00:05:18.589 is hard to even comprehend today. Adjusted for 00:05:18.589 --> 00:05:21.329 inflation, it's like signing a deal for 16 or 00:05:21.329 --> 00:05:23.529 maybe 20 million dollars a year, but keeping 00:05:23.529 --> 00:05:26.389 almost every single cent of it. He had a whole 00:05:26.389 --> 00:05:28.610 fleet of custom cars. He had complete artistic 00:05:28.610 --> 00:05:31.149 control. He was the Prince of Wales, which was 00:05:31.149 --> 00:05:33.209 a nickname his fans gave him with actual affection. 00:05:33.389 --> 00:05:35.389 He was also a total kingmaker behind the scenes. 00:05:35.410 --> 00:05:38.149 He discovered Buster Keaton, didn't he? He literally 00:05:38.149 --> 00:05:40.910 pulled Keaton off of Vaudeville stage and put 00:05:40.910 --> 00:05:43.910 him in front of a movie camera. Keaton absolutely 00:05:43.910 --> 00:05:46.569 worshiped him. Arbuckle taught him everything 00:05:46.569 --> 00:05:48.750 there was to know about filmmaking. He mentored 00:05:48.750 --> 00:05:51.649 Bob Hope. He mentored Chaplin. He was generous. 00:05:51.730 --> 00:05:55.170 He was kind. And by 1921, he was completely exhausted. 00:05:55.470 --> 00:05:57.810 And that exhaustion is exactly what leads us 00:05:57.810 --> 00:06:01.139 to Labor Day. 1921. He'd been churning out films 00:06:01.139 --> 00:06:04.000 nonstop for years. He actually had second degree 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:06.399 burns on his backside from an onset accident 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:09.100 involving a chemical fire. He was in physical 00:06:09.100 --> 00:06:11.540 pain and he desperately needed a break. So he 00:06:11.540 --> 00:06:13.779 grabs two friends and drives up to San Francisco 00:06:13.779 --> 00:06:16.259 for the long weekend. They check into the St. 00:06:16.420 --> 00:06:18.360 Francis Hotel. They get a suite of rooms. Yeah. 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:21.560 1219, 1220, and 1221. It sounds super grand, 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:24.000 but really it was just a place to hang out, drink 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.259 some gin, which was illegal. Remember, we are 00:06:26.259 --> 00:06:29.000 in the middle of prohibition and just relax. 00:06:29.180 --> 00:06:31.939 Exactly. It wasn't this wild bacchanalian orgy 00:06:31.939 --> 00:06:34.939 that the papers later described. It was a sophisticated, 00:06:35.019 --> 00:06:37.480 if pretty boozy, gathering. People were coming 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:39.399 and going all day. And one of those people was 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:42.420 Virginia Rappé. And this is where the story turns 00:06:42.420 --> 00:06:46.589 incredibly tragic. Virginia Rapp was a 30 year 00:06:46.589 --> 00:06:49.670 old aspiring actress. She comes to the party 00:06:49.670 --> 00:06:52.910 and at some point during the day she falls violently 00:06:52.910 --> 00:06:56.290 ill. She's found in Roscoe's room vomiting and 00:06:56.290 --> 00:06:59.060 tearing at her clothes in sheer pain. Now, the 00:06:59.060 --> 00:07:01.480 people at the party, including Roscoe, assume 00:07:01.480 --> 00:07:04.000 she was just incredibly drunk. Which, to be fair, 00:07:04.060 --> 00:07:05.800 seems like a pretty reasonable assumption at 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:07.899 a prohibition party. It really was. They tried 00:07:07.899 --> 00:07:10.500 to revive her. They used pieces of ice to try 00:07:10.500 --> 00:07:13.439 and cool her down. The hotel doctor was eventually 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:15.779 called. And even he thought it was just severe 00:07:15.779 --> 00:07:18.339 intoxication. He gave her some morphine and told 00:07:18.339 --> 00:07:20.500 them to let her sleep it off. But she didn't 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:22.220 get better. She had to be hospitalized a few 00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:25.040 days later. And she died on September 9th. The 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:27.199 cause of death was peritonitis, which was caused 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:30.250 by a ruptured bladder. A horrible, incredibly 00:07:30.250 --> 00:07:33.589 painful way to die. Absolutely horrific. But 00:07:33.589 --> 00:07:36.629 here is where our deep dive gets critical, because 00:07:36.629 --> 00:07:39.149 the medical context at the time was completely 00:07:39.149 --> 00:07:42.050 ignored. Virginia Rappa had a chronic condition 00:07:42.050 --> 00:07:45.449 called cystitis. Her bladder was already severely 00:07:45.449 --> 00:07:48.589 inflamed and weak. Alcohol, especially the low 00:07:48.589 --> 00:07:51.370 -quality bootleg liquor available during Prohibition, 00:07:51.709 --> 00:07:53.949 would have aggravated that condition immensely. 00:07:54.670 --> 00:07:56.790 It is medically probable that her bladder ruptured 00:07:56.790 --> 00:07:59.730 spontaneously or even just from the violent strain 00:07:59.730 --> 00:08:02.199 of vomiting. But the police didn't look at medical 00:08:02.199 --> 00:08:04.399 probabilities. They had a witness who was telling 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:07.399 a very, very different story. Right. Maude Delmont. 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:10.579 She was a companion of a Pez, and she had a, 00:08:10.579 --> 00:08:12.860 well, let's say a colorful reputation. She was 00:08:12.860 --> 00:08:15.120 actually known to police for setting up wealthy 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:17.819 men in compromising situations to blackmail them. 00:08:18.300 --> 00:08:20.019 She goes to the police and says that Arbuckle 00:08:20.019 --> 00:08:22.500 had dragged Ripa into the bedroom, raped her, 00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:24.939 and that his massive weight had caused the rupture. 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:26.920 And the police just bought it. They did. But 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:29.100 the bigger problem wasn't even the police. It 00:08:29.100 --> 00:08:32.179 was the press. This brings us to William Randolph 00:08:32.179 --> 00:08:35.779 Hearst. The newspaper mogul. Hearst. He despised 00:08:35.779 --> 00:08:38.340 Hollywood. He viewed the whole movie colony as 00:08:38.340 --> 00:08:41.500 this den of immorality filled with liberals and 00:08:41.500 --> 00:08:43.980 libertines who were actively corrupting America. 00:08:44.379 --> 00:08:46.559 He needed a villain to prove his point to the 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:49.139 public. And Arbuckle was the perfect target. 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:51.919 He was huge. He was incredibly rich. And suddenly, 00:08:52.379 --> 00:08:54.519 he was vulnerable. This is where the whole bottle 00:08:54.519 --> 00:08:56.960 story comes from, right? I feel like I've heard 00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:59.279 this rumor my whole life that he assaulted her 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:01.559 with a champagne bottle or a Coca -Cola bottle. 00:09:01.940 --> 00:09:04.139 It is easily the most persistent myth in Hollywood 00:09:04.139 --> 00:09:07.480 history and it is a complete 100 % fabrication 00:09:07.480 --> 00:09:10.720 of the Hearst Press. The witnesses at the party 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:13.679 testified that Arbuckle used ice, literally a 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:16.080 physical chunk of ice, to try and soothe her 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:18.509 pain when she was writhing on the bed. But the 00:09:18.509 --> 00:09:20.929 tabloids took the word ice and twisted it into 00:09:20.929 --> 00:09:22.809 foreign object and then eventually into bottle. 00:09:23.210 --> 00:09:25.570 It was specifically designed to be grotesque. 00:09:25.730 --> 00:09:27.690 It was designed to make him look like a monster. 00:09:27.809 --> 00:09:30.029 And it worked. The public turned on him instantly. 00:09:30.490 --> 00:09:33.129 Morality groups were literally demanding the 00:09:33.129 --> 00:09:36.690 death penalty. Overnight. Hearst allegedly bragged 00:09:36.690 --> 00:09:39.610 later on that the Arbuckle scandal sold more 00:09:39.610 --> 00:09:42.330 newspapers for him than the sinking of the licitania. 00:09:42.509 --> 00:09:45.049 Just think about that for a second. A horrific 00:09:45.049 --> 00:09:47.330 maritime disaster that killed over a thousand 00:09:47.330 --> 00:09:50.129 people was somehow less interesting to the American 00:09:50.129 --> 00:09:53.009 public than a comedian in a hotel room. So the 00:09:53.009 --> 00:09:55.110 man is arrested. He's charged with murder, which 00:09:55.110 --> 00:09:57.769 is later reduced to manslaughter. His wife, Minta 00:09:57.769 --> 00:10:00.370 Durfee, who actually supported him through this 00:10:00.370 --> 00:10:03.610 whole ordeal, was literally shot at just trying 00:10:03.610 --> 00:10:06.120 to enter the courthouse. The hostility was insane. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:08.840 So go to trial. But this wasn't just one trial. 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:11.899 It was a whole legal roller coaster. Three separate 00:10:11.899 --> 00:10:14.919 trials. And the first one, in November 1921, 00:10:15.059 --> 00:10:17.379 really should have been the end of it. The prosecution's 00:10:17.379 --> 00:10:19.620 case fell apart almost immediately. Because their 00:10:19.620 --> 00:10:22.299 star witness, Ma Delmont, was so unreliable. 00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:25.200 She was so unreliable, the prosecution refused 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:27.500 to even put her on the stand. They knew she would 00:10:27.500 --> 00:10:30.179 perjure herself. So instead, they relied on other 00:10:30.179 --> 00:10:31.960 guests from the party, like a woman named Betty 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:34.679 Campbell. But under cross -examination, Campbell 00:10:34.679 --> 00:10:37.899 completely broke down. She admitted the district 00:10:37.899 --> 00:10:40.320 attorney had explicitly threatened her with perjury 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:42.799 charges if she didn't testify against Arbuckle. 00:10:43.529 --> 00:10:45.629 blatant witness tampering. Oh, it gets worse. 00:10:45.929 --> 00:10:48.970 The prosecution actually produced a hotel room 00:10:48.970 --> 00:10:51.529 door in court claiming our buckles fingerprints 00:10:51.529 --> 00:10:54.409 were found on it in a very specific way that 00:10:54.409 --> 00:10:57.509 proved he held the door shut to trap wrap inside. 00:10:57.769 --> 00:11:00.230 It was supposed to be their smoking gun and the 00:11:00.230 --> 00:11:02.610 defense completely crushed this in spectacular 00:11:02.610 --> 00:11:05.669 fashion. They called the hotel made to the stand. 00:11:05.870 --> 00:11:08.669 She testified under oath that she had thoroughly 00:11:08.669 --> 00:11:11.129 cleaned that room, wiped down every single door 00:11:11.129 --> 00:11:13.590 and surface after the party was over. but before 00:11:13.590 --> 00:11:15.789 the police investigators ever arrived. So the 00:11:15.789 --> 00:11:18.509 fingerprints? Were completely bogus. They were 00:11:18.509 --> 00:11:20.649 either faked by the police or they were from 00:11:20.649 --> 00:11:23.210 a completely different time. The jury saw right 00:11:23.210 --> 00:11:26.110 through it. The vote was 10 -2 for acquittal. 00:11:26.330 --> 00:11:29.309 10 -2. That's a landslide. But in the American 00:11:29.309 --> 00:11:31.769 legal system, if it's not unanimous, it's a hung 00:11:31.769 --> 00:11:33.490 jury. He had to go back and do it all again. 00:11:33.889 --> 00:11:36.840 And this brings us to trial two. And this is 00:11:36.840 --> 00:11:39.240 exactly where the defense made a catastrophic 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:42.200 psychological error. They got cocky. They looked 00:11:42.200 --> 00:11:44.460 at that 10 -2 vote and thought, the prosecution 00:11:44.460 --> 00:11:46.620 has absolutely no case. We don't even need to 00:11:46.620 --> 00:11:49.080 mount a defense. So they didn't put Arbuckle 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:51.559 on the stand. They arrested their case without 00:11:51.559 --> 00:11:54.460 calling a single witness. Not one. They just 00:11:54.460 --> 00:11:56.799 argued that the prosecution hadn't met the burden 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.840 of proof. Which, strictly legally speaking, might 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:02.659 have been true. But how on earth did the jury 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:05.610 read that silence? They read it as arrogance, 00:12:06.029 --> 00:12:08.669 or worse, as guilt. They sat there in the box 00:12:08.669 --> 00:12:10.850 thinking, if this man is really innocent and 00:12:10.850 --> 00:12:13.029 he's facing actual prison time, why won't he 00:12:13.029 --> 00:12:15.610 look us in the eye and say he didn't do it? That 00:12:15.610 --> 00:12:17.389 silence just hung over the entire courtroom. 00:12:17.990 --> 00:12:20.509 This time, the vote was 10 to 2 again, but for 00:12:20.509 --> 00:12:23.409 conviction. Wow. He came within two votes of 00:12:23.409 --> 00:12:25.269 going to prison for a crime he didn't commit. 00:12:25.690 --> 00:12:27.730 That must have terrified him. He was completely 00:12:27.730 --> 00:12:30.590 broke, he was physically exhausted, and he finally 00:12:30.590 --> 00:12:33.009 realized the legal system wasn't some kind of 00:12:33.009 --> 00:12:37.309 game. So for trial three, in March 1922, they 00:12:37.309 --> 00:12:40.070 brought in a new lead attorney, Gavin McNabb. 00:12:40.769 --> 00:12:44.090 And McNabb went to war. What did he do differently? 00:12:44.570 --> 00:12:47.309 He stopped playing nice. He aggressively exposed 00:12:47.309 --> 00:12:49.610 Rapp's medical history, specifically her long 00:12:49.610 --> 00:12:52.529 history of cystitis. He completely tore apart 00:12:52.529 --> 00:12:55.470 the prosecution's timeline of events. And most 00:12:55.470 --> 00:12:58.769 importantly, He finally put Roscoe Arbuckle on 00:12:58.769 --> 00:13:01.110 the stand. And Roscoe finally got to tell his 00:13:01.110 --> 00:13:03.549 story. He was simple, he was direct, and he was 00:13:03.549 --> 00:13:06.809 highly emotional. He explained finding her vomiting, 00:13:06.970 --> 00:13:08.809 assuming she was drunk like everyone else did, 00:13:09.210 --> 00:13:11.110 and just trying to help her be comfortable. He 00:13:11.110 --> 00:13:13.629 came across exactly as he was, a confused, gentle 00:13:13.629 --> 00:13:15.830 man who had tried to help a sick woman. So the 00:13:15.830 --> 00:13:17.789 jury goes out to deliberate. And this is the 00:13:17.789 --> 00:13:19.269 part of the story that absolutely blows my mind. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.639 How long were they out? Six minutes. Six minutes. 00:13:22.700 --> 00:13:24.580 You can't even order a cup of coffee in six minutes. 00:13:24.700 --> 00:13:26.820 And here is the real kicker. They weren't even 00:13:26.820 --> 00:13:29.059 debating the verdict during that time. They spent 00:13:29.059 --> 00:13:31.899 five of those six minutes drafting a formal apology 00:13:31.899 --> 00:13:34.200 letter to the defendant. That has to be totally 00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:37.639 unique in legal history. A jury writing an apology. 00:13:37.940 --> 00:13:40.799 It's basically unheard of. The jury foreman stood 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:43.320 up and read it to the court. They explicitly 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:45.799 said that a simple acquittal wasn't enough. They 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:48.779 wrote, we feel that a great injustice has been 00:13:48.779 --> 00:13:52.019 done him. There was not the slightest proof adduced 00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:53.980 to connect him in any way with the commission 00:13:53.980 --> 00:13:57.200 of a crime. They basically scolded the prosecution 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:59.820 for wasting the court's time and destroying an 00:13:59.820 --> 00:14:02.799 innocent man's life. Not the slightest proof. 00:14:03.379 --> 00:14:06.200 So legally, he is completely vindicated. He walks 00:14:06.200 --> 00:14:08.940 out of that courthouse, a free man. You'd think 00:14:08.940 --> 00:14:10.980 the newspaper headlines the next day would be 00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:13.139 our buckle innocent. Welcome back to Hollywood. 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:15.570 You really would think that. But the court of 00:14:15.570 --> 00:14:18.210 law and the court of public opinion are two entirely 00:14:18.210 --> 00:14:20.769 different jurisdictions, and Hearst had already 00:14:20.769 --> 00:14:22.830 won the public. This is the moment the industry 00:14:22.830 --> 00:14:25.330 totally turns its back on him. Enter Will H. 00:14:25.570 --> 00:14:28.309 Hayes. The studio heads were absolutely terrified 00:14:28.309 --> 00:14:30.830 that the ongoing scandal would bring down federal 00:14:30.830 --> 00:14:33.409 censorship on all their movies. They needed to 00:14:33.409 --> 00:14:35.129 show the government they could police themselves. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:38.820 So exactly six days after the acquittal, six 00:14:38.820 --> 00:14:41.279 days after a jury of his peers said he did nothing 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:44.019 wrong, Will Hayes, the new czar of Hollywood 00:14:44.019 --> 00:14:47.019 censorship, banned Roscoe Arbuckle from appearing 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:49.500 in any motion picture. It's a classic scapegoat 00:14:49.500 --> 00:14:52.279 situation. The studio head, Adolf Zuckor, just 00:14:52.279 --> 00:14:54.320 sacrificed him. Look, we killed the monster, 00:14:54.340 --> 00:14:57.139 we're all good now. Exactly. And it wasn't just 00:14:57.139 --> 00:15:00.019 a ban on his future work. Hayes asked exhibitors 00:15:00.019 --> 00:15:02.659 to stop showing all of his old movies. And the 00:15:02.659 --> 00:15:04.870 studios... This is the part that just hurts me 00:15:04.870 --> 00:15:07.409 as a film historian. The studios actually burned 00:15:07.409 --> 00:15:09.350 his negatives. They burned them like in a literal 00:15:09.350 --> 00:15:11.809 bonfire. In industrial incinerators. They wanted 00:15:11.809 --> 00:15:13.889 to completely erase the physical evidence of 00:15:13.889 --> 00:15:16.409 his existence. We lost a massive percentage of 00:15:16.409 --> 00:15:19.129 his entire filmography. Beautiful works of art. 00:15:19.470 --> 00:15:22.429 Crucial pieces of early cinema history just melted 00:15:22.429 --> 00:15:24.909 down to silver nitrate because executives were 00:15:24.909 --> 00:15:27.190 scared of a public boycott. That is just cultural 00:15:27.190 --> 00:15:31.080 vandalism. So Roscoe is banned. He's broke. I 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:33.679 think he owed something like $700 ,000 in legal 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:36.580 fees at that point, and his life's art is being 00:15:36.580 --> 00:15:39.320 literally set on fire. What does a man even do 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:42.120 in that situation? He tried to disappear, but 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:44.419 he had one thing keeping him going and keeping 00:15:44.419 --> 00:15:48.000 him alive. Buster Keaton. I really love that 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.120 about this story. Keaton didn't bail on him, 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:52.940 did he? Never. Keaton publicly supported him 00:15:52.940 --> 00:15:55.220 the whole time. He actually proposed a deal where 00:15:55.220 --> 00:15:58.440 he would give Arbuckle 35 % of the profits from 00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:00.960 his own production company just to keep Roscoe 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.259 fed and a roof over his head. And eventually, 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:05.299 Keaton and a few others convinced the studios 00:16:05.299 --> 00:16:08.419 to let Arbuckle direct again. But only if he 00:16:08.419 --> 00:16:10.919 stayed strictly in the shadows. Under the pseudonym, 00:16:11.139 --> 00:16:13.600 he directed as William Goodrich. Which is a pretty 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:15.639 heartbreaking pun. Buster Keaton later claimed 00:16:15.639 --> 00:16:17.700 he was the one who suggested it, William Goodrich. 00:16:18.220 --> 00:16:20.480 We'll be good. We'll be good. Like a scolded 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:22.659 child having to promise to behave just to get 00:16:22.659 --> 00:16:24.940 a job. And he was good. He was a very talented 00:16:24.940 --> 00:16:28.080 director. But the spark was just gone. Louise 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:30.440 Brooks, the famous flapper actress, worked with 00:16:30.440 --> 00:16:33.500 him during this dark period. She later said, 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:36.200 he made no attempt to direct. He just sat in 00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:38.659 his director's chair like a dead man. She called 00:16:38.659 --> 00:16:42.759 him sweetly dead. That image is haunting. A man 00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:45.139 sitting in the director's chair of the very industry 00:16:45.139 --> 00:16:48.899 he helped build, hiding behind a fake name, just 00:16:48.899 --> 00:16:52.309 staring at the floor. It's deeply tragic. But 00:16:52.309 --> 00:16:54.009 history does have a bit of a twist here. There 00:16:54.009 --> 00:16:56.190 was a redemption arc, wasn't there? It took 10 00:16:56.190 --> 00:16:59.629 long years. But in 1932, the public anger had 00:16:59.629 --> 00:17:02.169 finally faded enough. Warner Bros. decided to 00:17:02.169 --> 00:17:04.529 take a chance on him. They signed Arbuckle to 00:17:04.529 --> 00:17:07.549 star in six comedy shorts and under his own name, 00:17:07.829 --> 00:17:09.890 Roscoe Arbuckle was finally back on the marquee. 00:17:10.009 --> 00:17:12.630 And the crazy thing, the public totally loved 00:17:12.630 --> 00:17:14.670 him. The shorts were huge hits in the U .S. It 00:17:14.670 --> 00:17:16.430 turned out the audience had actually missed him. 00:17:16.670 --> 00:17:18.509 So a comeback is real. It's really happening. 00:17:18.710 --> 00:17:23.529 It was happening. On June 29, 1933, he finished 00:17:23.529 --> 00:17:27.109 filming The Last Short. The studio was so incredibly 00:17:27.109 --> 00:17:29.930 impressed with his work that they drew up a contract 00:17:29.930 --> 00:17:33.269 for a full feature length film. He was going 00:17:33.269 --> 00:17:35.369 to be a major movie star again. He signed the 00:17:35.369 --> 00:17:37.829 contract that very day, right? He did. That night, 00:17:37.829 --> 00:17:39.369 he went out to celebrate with his friends and 00:17:39.369 --> 00:17:41.470 his third wife, Addie. It was actually their 00:17:41.470 --> 00:17:44.210 first wedding anniversary, too. He was reportedly 00:17:44.210 --> 00:17:47.269 just beaming. He told his friends, This is the 00:17:47.269 --> 00:17:49.390 best day of my life. The best day of my life. 00:17:49.549 --> 00:17:51.670 He went home, went to bed, and passed away in 00:17:51.670 --> 00:17:53.789 his sleep. A massive heart attack. Just like 00:17:53.789 --> 00:17:56.630 that. Just like that. He was only 46 years old. 00:17:57.349 --> 00:17:59.569 The coroner said it was heart failure, but absolutely 00:17:59.569 --> 00:18:01.869 everyone who knew him said it was a broken heart. 00:18:02.750 --> 00:18:05.730 The sheer stress of the past decade, the crushing 00:18:05.730 --> 00:18:08.210 weight of the shame, his body just gave out the 00:18:08.210 --> 00:18:10.930 exact moment he finally crossed the finish line. 00:18:11.309 --> 00:18:13.509 It's almost too written. It feels like a movie 00:18:13.509 --> 00:18:15.529 script you'd reject for being way too on the 00:18:15.529 --> 00:18:17.710 nose. Yeah. But it really happened. It leaves 00:18:17.710 --> 00:18:20.599 us with a very complicated legacy. We have the 00:18:20.599 --> 00:18:22.920 films of his that survived the incinerators, 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:26.200 and they are brilliant. If you see a comedian 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:28.819 take a physical fall today or throw up high, 00:18:29.259 --> 00:18:31.700 you are quite literally watching Arbuckle's DNA 00:18:31.700 --> 00:18:33.640 at work. He even finally got a star on the Walk 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:36.680 of Fame in 1960. But we also have the warning. 00:18:36.859 --> 00:18:39.180 The warning of what happens when a false narrative 00:18:39.180 --> 00:18:42.339 completely overtakes the truth. Precisely. The 00:18:42.339 --> 00:18:45.559 fatty caricature, the greedy, gluttonous, giant 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:49.000 monster that Hearst created out of thin air overshadows 00:18:48.970 --> 00:18:52.529 actual man. The real Roscoe was shy, he was generous, 00:18:52.730 --> 00:18:55.039 and he was phenomenally talented. But the fake 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:57.259 Roscoe, the monster of the tabloids, is the one 00:18:57.259 --> 00:18:59.180 who ended up dominating the history books for 00:18:59.180 --> 00:19:01.059 so long. It really makes you think about how 00:19:01.059 --> 00:19:03.700 we operate today. We have Twitter, we have TikTok, 00:19:03.819 --> 00:19:06.480 we have 24 hour news cycles. Reputations are 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:08.900 incinerated in seconds now. That's the lingering 00:19:08.900 --> 00:19:11.119 question of this whole deep dive. Roscoe Arbuckle 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:14.119 had a jury of 12 peers who formally cleared him, 00:19:14.259 --> 00:19:16.559 apologized to him and scolded his accusers on 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:18.839 the record. And it didn't matter. The verdict 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:21.000 of the public was guilty and there was no appeal 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:22.940 process for that. It's a terrifying thought. 00:19:23.339 --> 00:19:25.799 Once Once the public decides you're a monster 00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:29.240 and the system actually cleared you, what happens 00:19:29.240 --> 00:19:32.400 to the apology? Who owes you your life back? 00:19:32.740 --> 00:19:35.039 It really makes you wonder if the digital age 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:38.480 just means we're all one bad out of context headline 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:40.740 away from a burning of our own negatives. It 00:19:40.740 --> 00:19:42.740 certainly didn't catch up in time for him. That 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:45.119 is a very heavy note to end on, but a necessary 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:47.619 one, I think. We wanted to look at the man behind 00:19:47.619 --> 00:19:49.500 the very first Hollywood scandal, and I think 00:19:49.500 --> 00:19:52.000 we found him. I think we did. Thanks for joining 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:54.259 us for this deep dive into the lost king of Hollywood. 00:19:54.759 --> 00:19:55.579 We'll catch you on the next one.