“If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?” - RuPaul - - - - - - - - - - - “if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.” - John F. Kennedy - - - - - - - - - - - - “Imagine finding someone you love more than anything in the world, who you would risk your life for but couldn’t marry. And you couldn’t have that special day the way your friends do – you know, wear the ring on your finger and have it mean the same thing as everybody else. Just put yourself in that person’s shoes. It makes me feel sick to my stomach …. When I shared a picture of my tattoo on my Twitter page and said, ‘ALL LOVE is equal,’ a lot of people mocked me – they said, ‘What happened to you? You used to be a Christian girl!’ And I said, ‘Well, if you were a true Christian, you would have your facts straight. Christianity is about love.’ The debate resulted in a lot of threats and hate mail to people who agreed and disagreed with me. At one point I had to say, ‘Dude, everyone lay off.’ Can’t people have friendly debates about sensitive topics without it turning into unnecessary threats?” - Pop star Miley Cyrus on her marriage equality tattoo - - - - - - - - - - -
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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Crimes of the Century - No. 4 - The Fatty Arbuckle Scandal


THE FATTY ARBUCKLE SCANDAL, 1920

When the world first read about the events of Sept. 3, 1920 in the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, the plotline appeared to be tabloid-headline loud and clear: during a wild party, an obese Hollywood comedy star takes advantage of a naive young actress, puncturing her bladder during forced sex (with a beer bottle!); she dies a painful death of peritonitis. The star was Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, perhaps the first film actor to be paid an annual salary of $1 million, an amazing sum in the silent film industry.

Insisting he had done nothing wrong, Arbuckle nevertheless went through three trials, hounded by newspapers and morality groups each time. His movies were banned in both America and Britain. Some people even called for him to be executed. But the woman who brought the charges -- a friend of the dead starlet -- never testified in court because of a past record of extortion, racketeering and bigamy. Neither was the woman an eyewitness to the alleged crime. Arbuckle's first two trials thus ended in hung juries. And the third acquitted him of all crimes. That jury even issued him an apology. But his career was over.

The media pall over his reputation was impossible to overcome. The public and much of Hollywood would never forgive him; all his comeback attempts failed. Indeed, as a result of the scandal, the White House established the Hays Office as the movie industry's moral arbiter and censor. Arbuckle died in 1933, after falling into alcoholism and a lurid obscurity.

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According to Wikipedia: After British actor Charlie Chaplin joined Keystone Studios in 1914, Arbuckle mentored him. Chaplin's most famous character, "the Tramp", was created after Chaplin adopted Arbuckle's trademark "balloon" baggy pants, boots and undersized hat.  Arbuckle also gave Buster Keaton his first film-making work in the 1917 short, The Butcher Boy. They soon became screen partners, with a deadpan Buster soberly assisting the wacky Roscoe during his adventures. And he also gave Bob Hope his break in show business. In 1927, Arbuckle allowed Hope to be the opening act in his comedy show in Cleveland. Roscoe then gave Hope the names and numbers of his friends in Hollywood, telling him to "go west".
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In the coming weeks, as you read through the 25 crimes Time Magazine has selected, you will wonder which of them will remain in the popular, perhaps even the artistic imagination in the years to come? How will they be retold and with what kinds of lessons and cautions in mind?  Visit my blog every Saturday as a new crime will be posted each week.

1 comment:

Ryan said...

It's even worse now with the internet and its' bloggers. Of course, modern science might have been able to exonerated him or convict him. Either way, he wouldn't be the last celeb to let scandal completely annihilate their career. Just ask Mel Gibson.

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- Blade 7184 aka Peter