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In the days when the name Fatty Arbuckle meant happiness and laughter to millions. This was a scene in a film called "Love" made by Paramount. Before his arrest and trial— and subsequent acquittal. Before the American public had judged him— incorrectly, according to this author— guilty in spite of the legal acquittal.
By
EDWARD J. DOHERTY
FATTY ARBUCKLE is coming back to the screen ! Warners have signed him for a series of tworeelers. It is their hope that the American public will welcome Fatty's appearance — that the bitter ban which has been imposed on him for ten weary years will be lifted.
I say nothing of the fans forgiving. Fatty because it is my belief that there is nothing to be forgiven. I believe — and I have strong evidence to back up my beliefs — that Fatty was completely innocent of the crime which everybody condemned him for, even though he was acquitted by a court of the United States. It is my firm belief that if anyone should do any forgiving it is Fatty himself. For ten years he has been through a hell of suffering for something of which he was innocent. For ten years the American public has treated him as an outcast. It is he who should forgive them — not vice versa.
Yes, it was the solid, virtuous, movie-going public that
condemned Arbuckle. It was not the judge that heard the case against him so many times'. It was not the jurors who tried him. It was not Will Hays, the movie czar. It was the public who believed — and wrongly — that Arbuckle, though he was acquitted, was nevertheless guilty of the crime with which he was charged, and that even if he were innocent he was . still a loose character and no man to amuse children by his comic antics.
Fatty was innocent of the death of Virginia Rappe. I am not the only one who knows that. But I am one of the very few who have been back of the scenes.
No, I wasn't at the party. But I covered each and every one of the trials — a series of trials it was — that ended in his acquittal. And I came to know his lawyers intimately, and the witnesses at his trials, and everybody connected with the matter.
You remember the details of the case, of course. Fatty had gone to San Francisco with some friends. He engaged
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