Virginia Rappe
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Image:Virginiarappe.jpg Virginia Rappe (pronounced [[[Template:IPA]]]) (September 19, 1895 - September 9, 1921) was an American silent film actress. She was allegedly raped by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, dying days after the rape, although the details of the event are unclear, due to conflicting eyewitness accounts.
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Early Life
Virginia Caroline Rappe was born in either Chicago, Illinois or New York City depending on the source. Her birthdate has not been verified with a birth certificate.
Her unmarried mother, Mabel Rapp, was a chorus line girl from Chicago who moved to New York City, mainly to hide from her family the fact that she was pregnant. Her father was from Virginia. Rappe's mother died when she was eleven and she was taken in by relatives.
Her childhood was unstable and lonely and the lack of a father figure in her early years caused her to pursue many sexual relationships with men. In those days when contraception was anything but reliable or available, she suffered the consequences.
It is believed that she had had at least five abortions by the age of 16. She had also suffered bouts of venereal disease. At the age of 17, she gave birth to an out-of-wedlock child, which she put into foster care, wisely reasoning that she was not equipped to raise the child herself.
Career
At age sixteen, she worked as an artist's model. This led, in 1916, to her pursuit of a career in silent film with a small role in a production for the Clara Kimball Young Picture Company run by Lewis J. Selznick. The following year she had a small part in "His Wedding Night", a comedy directed by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle.
In 1920, she began working for the production company run by director/producer Henry Lehrman and the two began a relationship that led to their engagement. Never a major star, Virginia Rappe appeared in only eleven films before her life was cut short at the age of twenty-six.
She was best known in her lifetime as the girl pictured on the sheet music cover of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," a popular song of the era.
Controversial Death
The circumstances of Rappe's death in 1921 became a Hollywood scandal and were published widely by the media of the time. The official cause of her death was listed as peritonitis caused by a ruptured bladder a few days after attending a September 5th party at a hotel in San Francisco, California hosted by Arbuckle.
The exact events of that infamous party are still unclear, with witnesses relating numerous versions of what happened. It was alleged that she died as a result of a violent sexual assault by Fatty Arbuckle. Other rumors circulated that Rappe died of injuries resulting from an earlier botched abortion or complications from gonorrhea.
After three murder trials, Arbuckle was formally acquitted of any charges, although his reputation and career were permanently ruined.
Arbuckle's case has been examined by scholars and historians over the years and is still speculated about today, although a number of detailed books about this case such as David Yallop's The Day the Laughter Stopped: The True Story Of Fatty Arbuckle (1976) and Andy Edmonds' Frame Up! The Untold Story Of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (1993) have concluded that Arbuckle was innocent.
Burial
Virginia Rappe was buried in the Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery.
Timeline
- 1895 Birth in Illinois
- 1920 US Census with her renting a room in Los Angeles
- 1921 Death on September 9th
