Looking for Mabel Normand

 

The police were called to quell a near riot as Roscoe tried to perform as part of his Comeback Tour.  The story was on the United Press Wire dated Paris, March 24, 1928.  It was reported that Roscoe failed so emphatically to charm a France audience at his second appearance that a riot call was made to the police by Roscoe’s manager.

 “The hostile reception of the onetime world popular comedian seemed likely to end abruptly his Paris comeback.  To Arbuckle’s surprise, the riot was seemingly based wholly on his artistry – or lack of it – and not upon his personal misadventures.

 For the second night in succession, the audience at the Empire Music Hall hooted the comedian.  The stage manager turned out the lights for eight minutes, hoping the audience would cool off.

 The audience failed to understand the opening, wherein Arbuckle mumbled, “thanks for the opportunity to live down an accusation framed by enemies.”

 The plump man then gave an imitation of Racquel Meller selling violets”. No one made fun of Racquel, with her charismatic beauty, she had created an art form of the ‘cuple genre’, Sarah Bernhardt called her a genius, her song “La Violetera” had become a standard, Charles Chaplin was also an admirer of Racquel and used the score of "La Violetera" in his classic "City Lights" (1931). She was said to be “imperious, ruthless (especially with the competition), lovable, funny, temperamental, witty and totally egomaniac” She was not someone that Roscoe could make fun of without giving offense. The article stated that, “It was frowned upon. Arbuckle then tried to get a laugh by falling heavily.  Silence followed.  The storm broke when his partner, Miss Frankie Ames, sang an un-translated American song in strong nasal accents.

 Fatty returned to the footlights accompanied by a violinist.  He worked hard, but such stunts as reaching in the air for high notes were considered by the audience as too timeworn for their endurance.

 The audience stated whistling in the midst of his song and began shouting, “Get out – get out.”

So perhaps the reports of his comeback tours success didn’t include Paris.

  

Roscoe Arbuckle is very much a part of Mabel Normand’s life and although both Roscoe and Mabel were long dead by the time I was born, my childhood was full of stories of these doomed genius.  As most of you know, I grew up in the home of Julia Benson.  She had been Mabel’s companion during the last ten years of Mabel’s life and Julia thought of herself as the guardian of Mabel’s memory.

 

One of Julia’s close friends when I was a child was Minta Durfee, who had been Mrs. Roscoe Arbuckle for 17 years, but in reality, Roscoe and Minta were together only about 9 of those years the big fabulous years but she was always Mrs. Arbuckle in the stories she told me and she was the guardian of Roscoe’s memory. 

 

It was only as a teenager that I heard whispers of the scandal of a Labor Day Party that Roscoe had hosted at some San Francisco hotel serving large quantities of illegal liquor to a wild party where a girl had become ill or injured.  He had been arrested and trialed for manslaughter 3 times before finally being acquitted.  You all know the story.    

 

But the sad story didn’t end when he walked out of the court a free man.  The aftermath is usually told of the enemies that banned him and the friends that supported him. 

 

After his divorce from Minta and marriage to Doris, he opened the Plantation Club in Culver City, Mabel Normand sent him a rather grand flora arrangement as a congratulation at its opening, so yes they were still friends, other friends entertained for free (Chaplin, Keaton, his nephew, Al St. John).  The club closed, Roscoe is said to have taken solace in a bottle and then this comeback tour in March of 1928. The Paris article gave a date of March 28, 1928, Roscoe was on a ship home on April 11.

 

Roscoe didn’t stop his comeback, he went on. By 1932, he had been directing a little, writing a little, and there was a signed contract with Jack Warner, which would have been the inevitable return to the screen. He had married Addie McPhail in June of 1932; Addie was the third Mrs. Arbuckle for about a year.  Sadly, she never shared any of his triumphs; the end came in 1933 in a New York hotel when Roscoe had a massive heart attack.