hollywoodland
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle: Underground Brothels, Hush Money, Bootlegged Booze, and the Making of Hollywood’s Greatest Scandal
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One of Hollywood’s greatest scandals involved underground brothels, studio hush money, bootlegged alcohol, a dead actress, and the most famous silent-era star you’ve never heard of: Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. In 1919, already a household name, Arbuckle became the first actor to earn a million dollars a year, eclipsing even his friend and competitor, Charlie Chaplin. Just two years later, he had a reversal of fortune of epic proportions. Over 100 years later, however, few people know anything about Arbuckle’s fame or his infamous downfall.
This episode contains themes that may be disturbing to some listeners, including sexual assault.
Sources
The Trial of Fatty Arbuckle: A Precedent of Injustice, by Brad Kronen
You Must Remember This: Oral Reminiscences of the Real Hollywood, by Walter Wagner
The Skinny on the Fatty Arbuckle Trial (Smithsonian Magazine)
The Fatty Arbuckle Trial: The Injustice of the Century (Wesleyan University)
Was Groucho Marx’s famous anthem ‘Hooray for Captain Spaulding’ Actually a Celebration of Cocaine? (Dangerous Minds)
Mackerels in the Moonlight: Four Corrupt American Mayors, by Gerald Leinwand
William Randolph Hearst (Biography.com)
The Fatty Arbuckle Scandal (Neatorama)
Hollywood’s First Major Harassment Case, 96 Years Before Weinstein (The Cut)
You Must Remember This podcast episode on Arbuckle and Rappe (July 2018)
Sacramento Daily Union, 7/12/1921
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Zeth Lundy, Carly Carioli, and Jake Brennan.
Copy edited by Pat Healy.
Scored and mixed by Matt Tahaney.
Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak