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Editorial Review Product Description
The strange, compelling, and occasionally hysterical story of Hollywood's first celebrity scandal-as told by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, the star at its center.
Abandoned as a boy in Kansas, Fatty Arbuckle found adulation first onstage, and then in the new medium of the cinema. In his day, during the second decade of the 1900s, Fatty was more popular than Chaplin; he became the first screen actor to make a million dollars a year. But in 1921 he was accused of the rape and murder of actress Virginia Rappe, whom he encountered at a party in San Francisco and who died a few days later. Though he was eventually acquitted by a unanimous jury, the virulent speculation by the press ultimately destroyed Arbuckle's career for good. Framed for a crime he didn't commit, and demonized by conservative powers that hyped the case as emblematic of all the evils of show business, Fatty Arbuckle was the O.J. Simpson of early Hollywood, the first modern celebrity whose presumed guilt - and alleged innocence -galvanized a nation.
In I, Fatty, Jerry Stahl, the celebrated author of Permanent Midnight, tells the story from Fatty's own perspective. This is an incisive and sympathetic look into the life of a man whose astonishing rise and fall set the precedent for the scandals that still shake Hollywood today.
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Fascinating Fatty...
I really enjoyed this novel.Written as a quasi-memoir, Stahl gives us a sympathetic portrait of an early comic genius brought down by his own inner demons and perhaps the first media-circus celebrity scandal.Except for students of early film history, Arbuckle is all but gone and forgotten by most folks.I found it fascinating to read about the Wild West atmosphere of early Hollywood - I'd recent finished Budd Schulberg's "Moving Pictures," his autobiography about growing up in Los Angeles when Hollywood was literally a couple of barns and orange groves - which made "I, Fatty" that much more interesting.I'm not sure how accurate all of the information in here is, but I liked how Stahl peeled away the sheen and examined just how instant celebrity and fame warped not only Arbuckle but Mabel Normand and others as well.His prose is often very funny, in the 20's slangy vernacular, and it was a quick, enjoyable read.
"Life is a pie fight, and then you die."
An acerbic, harsh, funny and moving novel of silent comedic actor Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle. I have not read author Jerry Stahl before and was unfamiliar with his penchant for the degenerative dark side of humanity and the humour he can pull from that. This unique caustic wit allowed Stahl to raise Arbuckle up from the dusty past and let his voice finally be heard. Stahl did extensive research, as the bibliography shows, and places Arbuckle back up among the great comic pioneers where he belongs. But Stahl seems to get heavy handed with Abuckle's alleged drug addictions, to heroin (legal at the time and marketed by Bayer) and morphine, even using it as a device to force Fatty to tell his life story. There is no doubt he was an alcoholic and did use drugs to control pain after a horrifically botched job on a leg injury but no indication of this level of abuse. Since this is historical fiction, the author can take artistic license and include his required use of heroin that he jokes at his readings has to be included in all of his books. This never holds up the story just muddies it a bit.
Now that the questionable drug use issue is out of the way, I can get to the meat of this review. If you want a time capsule of the turn of the century and early Hollywood, then hold on for a wow of a ride. Starting with Roscoe's birth at a hefty 16 pounds, he is ostracized for his size from then on and suffers harsh abuse by his alcoholic father. Finding himself abandoned by his father as a boy, he finagles his way onto the vaudeville stage as boy singer of illustrated songs. Along the way from singer to comedian, he does an act with the pitcher Cy Young about the benefits of health, gets caught in the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 (the only time "he and the great John Barrymore played the same roll") and has a pie fight across the Rio Grande with Pancho Villa. His Mack Sennett years, where he helps in the fledgling careers of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, teams up with Mable Normand and introduces pie fights to the world are like being included into an exclusive club. These times are written with a captivating, naive innocence that I didn't want to end. How much fun is it learn while filming in New York Arbuckle meets and dines with Enrico Caruso who compliments him on his singing. All these tidbits from the times added to the realism and enjoyment for this history and old movie junkie.
The touch of harshness and foreboding that Stahl layered in during Fatty's rise, added to the pull of the narrative although I admit I found myself not ever wanting to get to the night of the infamous party and his inevitable fall. Stahl does not shy away from explicit descriptions on what Arbuckle did try to do to revive Virginia Rappe. From here the reader is then pulled through the ensuing three trials in a horrified daze, shaking their head at the injustice of it all. Instances like Arbuckle walking up the steps of the court house for the second trial, where around 50 members of the Women's Vigilante Commission encircle him and, upon a signal and in unison, they all spit on him are dizzying yet mesmerizing. William Randolph Hearst's paper, which leads the relentless libelous pursuit against him, reported "Fatty made a most impressive centerpiece in the fountain." All of this culminates with the acquittal, along with the accompanying statement, after the third trial but sadly Arbuckle knows it doesn't matter. He valiantly tries to put his life back together, with support and help from Charlie Chaplin, Joe Schenck and his true friend Buster Keaton, but as a New York Times editorial said the day after his acquittal; "Arbuckle was a scapegoat, and the only thing to do... is to chase him off..." and they did. His response, "What do you do when the world thinks your a monster, and you know it's the world that's monstrous?", he did the best he could with the slices of pie he was given.
It is the ending that fell flat and prevented this from being five stars. It just felt rushed and a bit confused. Despite that, it is a powerful read that will have you looking up other players involved in Fatty's story or wanting to rent one or more of his movies to see this giant (no pun intended) of the silver screen. In other words you won't be ready to shut this book and forget Roscoe Arbuckle anytime soon!
I, Fatty is the fictional autobiography of tragic silent film comedian Roscoe Arbuckle
Roscoe Arbuckle was a fat man who lived a tragic life. He was born in Kansas to an abusive father and invalid mother. The father taunted him for his considerable girth while beating him with a strap. Roscoe ran away after a year or so of grammer school to hit the boards in vaudeville.
Underneath the all too too sullied flesh there was a good brain and warm heart. Fatty became famous as a star comedian along with opium addicted Mabel Normand in the Keystone Cop flicks. Fatty knew them all-Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd. He was the first Hollywood star to make a million dollars a year and was loved by the vast American public who enjoyed a night at the flickers.
Along the way he engaged in many bad habits such as heroin and opium usage, excessive eating and drinking enough to drown several grown men. He was known as "The Prince of Whales." Arbuckle was always well dressed, knew his lines and was eager to help newcomers in the business.
Fatty's life went down the spout when he was accused of the rape and murder of the floozy Virginia Rappe in a St. Francis Hotel Room in San Francisco. Fatty endured three trials and terrible publicity. He was finally acquitted but his career was in shambles. He went on to direct a few movies under an assumed name and opened a nightclub but the damage had been done to his career. Fatty married three times, endured several physical afflictions and was the first big star whose scandal gave Hollywood a bad reputation in middle America.
Jerry Stahl has done his research on the Arbuckle life and career. Arbuckle (1887-1933) was an important figure in early film comedy who deserves to be studied.
A quality read
I just finished this engaging book.Actually, I had trouble putting it down and doing other things.
I had just read Ace Atkins, "Devil's Garden" (which I highly recommend to anyone) and found this book to be a great addition to learning about Roscoe as young boy who finds his way to true financial and Hollywood success only to be "hounded" by inner demons of child hood memories.
But put the demons aside, the book really develops the character into a full blown man with little education and a fine mind.He never loses touch his "inner child" and finds fun and amusement along the way.
Totally enjoyable.
Engaging, fun, quick read
It's a fictional autobiography (although apparently exhaustingly researched - there's a lengthy list of source material in the back) of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, one of the silent film era's biggest stars.He was also one of the era's most infamous men, having been falsely accused of the rape of a woman which lead to her death.Honestly, I got the book more because I have read Stahl's other books and loved them.I didn't know much about Arbuckle other than that Chris Farley wanted to play Arbuckle in a movie around the time that Farley died.In any case, this was a great book, and a little out of character for Stahl.His other books are somewhere in between James Ellroy and Chuck Palahniuk, which is to say completely debauched and thoroughly offensive.In this one, the debauchery remains, but there's a kind of sweetness and naivety to Arbuckle's voice that I didn't at all expect.Even if, like me, you don't know much about Arbuckle, like me, you might find it to be an engaging and quick read.
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