Interesting Facts about
ROSCOE ARBUCKLE
While being a large man, Roscoe Arbuckle had
an average weight of only about 260 pounds.
All muscle - no fat!
Arbuckle was extremely shy regarding women, and was generally regarded by
many to be the most chaste man in Hollywood.
Roscoe had a superb singing voice. Enrico Caruso demanded to hear Arbuckle's
tenor voice, and was so impressed, he demanded Roscoe leave the movies to
begin an opera career!
Roscoe Arbuckle was the first American comedy star to direct his own
films, predating Charlie Chaplin by several months.
Arbuckle is the only person to have the honor of having the three greatest
silent film comedians, Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton, appear
in supporting roles in his films.
Chaplin assists Roscoe in "The Knockout," Lloyd is Roscoe's co-star
in "Miss Fatty's Seaside Lovers," and Keaton supported Roscoe
in at least fourteen shorts under Arbuckle's "Comique" banner.
According to Harold Lloyd, Roscoe Arbuckle was the first filmmaker to
use preview audiences to see how to improve his comedies.
Arbuckle is also the first male comedy star to make feature films on
a regular basis. He did it in 1920, over a year before Lloyd, the next comedian
to do so. However, Roscoe's famous co-star Mabel
Normand, was releasing them even before that, stating with "Mickey"
in 11918.
It was Roscoe Arbuckle who gave Bob Hope his big break in show business.
While in Cleveland in 1927, Arbuckle allowed Hope to be the opening act
in his comedy show. Roscoe then gave Hope names and numbers of friends in
Hollywood, and told Bob to go west. It time, Hope did just that.
Roscoe hated the nickname "Fatty." It was for professional
purposes only. Friends never used it, only strangers who didn't know better.
His response was quiet, "I've got a name, you know."
Fans also called Roscoe "The Prince of Whales," and "The
Balloonatic." In 1923, Keaton used the latter name for one of his comedies.
Alice Lake called him Arbie. To Mabel Normand he was Big Otto, after an
elephant in the Selig Studio Zoo near Keystone. Buster Keaton called him
Chief. Fred Mace called him Crab. And for some unexplained reason fellow
comic Charlie Murray referred to him as My Child the Fat. His three wives
always called him Roscoe. The name, Fatty, was hung on him in elementary
school. "It was inevitable," he said. He weighed 175-185 when
he was 12, not much less when he was ten.
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