Fatty Arbuckle

FATTY ARBUCKLE (34), the famous silent film star and literally the biggest comedian in the world, heads to San Francisco for a long Labor Day Weekend of rest and relaxation in San Francisco. As word gets around town that Fatty Arbuckle is hosting a party in his hotel room, many are eager to be a part of the scene, including model/actress VIRGINIA RAPPE (30) and her friend and known troublemaker MAUDE DELMONT (44). Partygoers hit the liquor with reckless abandon and, hours later, Virginia takes leave in another room, followed shortly by Arbuckle. Within minutes, Arbuckle is ordering his pal to call up the hotel doctor as Virginia has become extremely ill. Maude enters the room wondering what he did to Virginia and accusing him of hurting her. They move her to another room where she can rest and a doctor can examine her. The doctor concludes that she is suffering from alcohol poisoning and will need to sleep it off. Days later though, having never recovered, Virginia dies at a San Francisco hospital. Roscoe is summoned back to San Francisco to answer questions about the affair only to discover that the district attorney is arresting him for the attempted rape and murder of Virginia. The seriousness of the crime prevents Arbuckle from posting bail and he’s forced to spend weeks in jail until his trial date. Newspapers across the country spread the word of the trial and its characters – some true, some fake. Public opinion is turning against Arbuckle as his defense works to instill doubt and as the overzealous district attorney MATTHEW BRADY (46), who desires to take this high-profile case and leverage it to higher office, struggles to keep his case intact. Amid lack of evidence, few credible witnesses and a mountain of pressure is on Brady to ensure the world knows that the burgeoning entertainment industry and its people cannot peddle their sins on the innocent citizens of the United States, Arbuckle endures not one, but three trials before finally receiving a skeptical acquittal. Innocent and free to work again, he finds that he’s poison. The studios won’t work with him until the Hays Production Code, the infamous censorship organization, lifts their ban and until the moral majority back down from threats of protesting any theater showing an Arbuckle film. Having lost almost everything in life including his on-screen persona, Fatty Arbuckle is relegated to solely being behind the camera and, even then, with a pseudonym to prevent any serious backlash. So goes Hollywood’s first scandal filled with celebrity, controversy and gossip.