Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: [OT- STRACULT]

Nella mia breve pausa pranzo mi sto godendo la ricostruzione filmata,
anfitrione Paolo Limiti, del caso "Fatty Arbukle". Altro che Cotton Club!
MITO

 anfitrione Paolo Limiti, del caso "Fatty Arbukle". Altro che Cotton Club!
Per combinazione, anni fa avevo salvato questo post di Cinema-L
sull'argomento. E' in inglese ma magari ti interessa.
    Arbuckle was one of the stars at Mack Sennett's studio. His
 comedies with Mabel Normand were very successful. He also
 was instrumental in getting Buster Keaton started in movies.
    He held a party at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on Sept.
 5, 1921 - Labor Day. There was a good deal of drinking at this party.
 Among those present was a young actress named Virginia Rappe
 (pronounced Rap-pay). She became ill and died four days later.
 A woman named Maude Delmont, who brought Rappe to the
 party, went to the D.A. with a claim that Arbuckle had raped
 Rappe. Brady, the D.A., who was planning a run for Governor,
 was very excited by this story and arrested Arbuckle for rape
 and second-degree murder.
    San Francisco was the headquarters of William Randolph Hearst.
 Some have speculated that Hearst held a grudge against the movie
 business at the time because he had wanted it to be centered in
 northern California, and instead it had ended up in L.A. In any case,
 he had never shown any hesitation to make up stories in order to
 increase circulation.
    One of the rumors spread by the press was that Arbuckle had
 raped her with a champagne (not a Coke) bottle, and crushed
 her beneath his great weight. The tabloids portrayed him as a
 perverted monster. The public outcry was so great that his films
 were withdrawn from circulation.
   As it turned out, Delmont was an incoherent and unbalanced
 character. She testified at the inquest, but the grand jury reduced
 the charge to manslaughter. Apparently Delmont had a history
 of taking young girls to parties and then claiming rape later in
 order to extract hush money. Brady never used her as a witness
 in any of the three trials.
    The first trial had a circus atmosphere in which screaming mobs
 outside the courtroom demanded that Arbuckle be executed. His
 wife was shot at as she attempted to enter the courthouse. During
 the trial it became known that Rappe had perotonitis and a history of
 abortions. Some writers now think that she died of a botched
 abortion - she met her end at a maternity ward, not a hospital. The
 more common belief is that her bladder ruptured from excessive
 drinking. A doctor's report that Rappe had not been raped never
 reached the defense. Despite all this, the jury was deadlocked 10-2
 in favor of acquittal.
    At the second trial the defense made the mistake of not letting
 Arbuckle take the stand. The jury apparently was influenced by
 his negative image and didn't like him not testifying. This time it
 was deadlocked 8-4 for conviction.
    At the third trial Arbuckle testified. The defense was more
 assertive, calling him the "Dreyfus of America." It resulted in
 his acquittal, with the statement of apology from the jury which
 I previously quoted.
    Despite his acquittal, he was banned from the screen by Will
 Hays in 1922. What mattered to the studios was that the public
 believed in Arbuckle's guilt. They decided that they could not
 afford to continue employing him. He did direct a film here and
 there under a pseudonym, but his career was effectively over.
    We think that ours is the age of the tabloid, but if you look at
 the way newspapers behaved in the early part of the century,
 there is no comparison. There was much less attention to fact,
 more outright political motives, and more outright slander and
 lying in the press then than we would ever tolerate now. A similar
 pattern can be seen in the scandal surrounding the murder of
 William Desmond Taylor around the same time. The Catholic
 Church and other religious and reform groups often used Holly-
 wood as their target and scapegoat. But there was a wider trend
 than just Hollywood here - jingoism and anti-Red hysteria
 were rampant and advanced a lot of people's careers while
 destroying the reputations and lives of many others.
Sull'argomento, interessante e' anche il libro "Quel giorno smettemmo di
ridere" di David Yallop, edito da Tullio Pironti editore. Si trovava
anche ai Remainder's.
--------
rojking
http://www.hsx.com/join/?referrer=rojking

 sull'argomento. E' in inglese ma magari ti interessa.
Grazie per le dritte. Conoscevo a grandi linee la storia, (era uscito anche
un fumetto di qualcuno tipo Brolli Catacchio et similia, forse su Nova
Express il Grifo), che è sicuramente tra le più interessanti di Hollywood.
Ma, alle prese con l'argomento scabroso, la drammatizzazione di Limiti era
mitica, una specie di softcore con il coitus interruptus.  La versione di
Limiti era innocentista, e sosteneva che Fatty avesse tirato per sbaglio una
ginocchiata in pancia alla Rappe che, a causa delle sue condizioni si beccò
l'emorragia. Certo che alla fine uno si fa un'idea della vecchia Hollywood e
si diverte a guardare le sgangherate ricostruzioni. Il vero servizio
pubblico :)

 pubblico :)
Vero. Pero', almeno, il parruccato mi sembra sia qualcuno che conosce
-per grandi linee- cio' di cui parla. E' gia' qualcosina. :-)

 -per grandi linee- cio' di cui parla. E' gia' qualcosina. :-)
Approvo. Cultura e spazzatura. Il massimo. Mi ricordo che mi aveva fatto
morire la parodia, che avevano fatto a Mai Dire Gol, del vecchio attore
incartapecorito e allupato invitato alla trasmissione di Limiti :)


Per chi ha il volume "Hollywood Babylonia", credo il n°1, c'e' la
storia di Fatty corredata di fotografie e particolari non resi noti
(allora) all'opinione pubblica.