- Paperback: 1 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury US; Reprint edition (May 20 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1582345821
- ISBN-13: 978-1582345826
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.3 x 1.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #585,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Dedicated as ever to exploring life's dark and deviant sides, Stahl shows his heart in this sad, wild, uproarious faux memoir of silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Presented as if told to Fatty's butler—who wouldn't dispense his employer's heroin unless he coughed up the dirt—the book hews closely to the undisputed facts of Arbuckle's life. The forerunner of fat man comic actors ranging from Jackie Gleason to Horatio Sands, Arbuckle was most famous for being the center of one of the first celebrity trials: at the height of his film career, he was accused of raping an aspiring actress. The prosecution claimed that he crushed her with his weight during the act and she later died of the resulting internal injuries, while the papers suggested that when his "manly equipment" failed to function he reached for a Coca-Cola bottle. Arbuckle was acquitted at trial—but even the apology issued by the jury did him no good. Stahl's deep dedication to the whacked-out and marginalized helps him inhabit Arbuckle's character sharply and convincingly. Poor, huge, articulate Fatty realizes at one point, "Success and adulation turned out to be just a vacation from the jeers and ire I'd known before."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's life is the quintessential Hollywood rags-to-riches-to-rags story, following the silent-film actor from his youth in a one-room Kansas shack to wealth and international fame that rivaled that of Chaplin and Keaton (his proteges), from addictions to alcohol and heroin to his public disgrace in a rape-murder case of which he was ultimately found innocent. There is probably not much new material here--most of the author's sources are widely published--but in this "novel," told in Fatty's voice, Stahl gives Arbuckle a hard-earned humanity as well as explains the actor's incalculable contributions to film comedy. Along the way, Stahl also gives a good sketch of the early years of Mack Sennett's Keystone film studios, where Arbuckle got his biggest breaks: "Mack and the gang worked off a simple formula: create mayhem, and film it." And his account of the media hysteria over Arbuckle's criminal case, which led to the destruction of a man's career, not to mention the creation of reactionary and longstanding movie-censorship laws, finds harrowing resonance with our own modern-day obsessions with sex and celebrity. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Brings Arbuckle to life. A good laugh and a fast read. Enjoy,
By Mark "Technology, Music and Movies" (East Coast) - See all my reviews
This review is from: I; Fatty (Hardcover)
Jerry Stahl seems to be able to find the sarcastic and sardonic humor in even the most downtrodden lives. "I, Fatty" is a firsthand account of Fatty Arbuckle's tumultuous life. It's written very simply and helps us to imagine the inner turmoil of being an outsider in a judgemental society.Born to an abusive father in Kansas, Arbuckle turned to theatre as an escape from a bitter life. He rose to fame in the cinema and at one point was more popular than Chaplin. He was the first screen actor to make a million dollars a year. But in 1921 he was accused of the rape and murder of actress Virginia Rappe. He was slandered by the press and not even his acquittal could save his career. He eventually lost everything. Stahl emphasizes the mental anguish of being fat, impotent, and presumed guilty. He also shows the role that heroin played in Fatty Arbuckle's life. Heroin was readily available and legal at the time, and he became addicted using it as a pain killer after a botched medical procedure. Towards the end of his years, his servant used heroine as a tool to get Arbuckle to divulge all of his secrets. I had the pleasure of hearing Stahl read from the book and it was quite entertaining. He joked that it is obligatory for him to include heroin in every one of his novels. He emphasizes the public outcry against Fatty as being led by a conservative anti-Hollywood element. I would agree, but would also like to point out that in the 1920s journalists had more leeway to embelish the truth and print it as fact. Even today, the press chooses to emphasize some facts over others and often slanders people in the process. If you are interested in the life of one of Hollywood's first stars, and if you like dark humor, "I, Fatty" is for you. It's a good read that will make you think and give you a laugh or two.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews) 25 of 30 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Brings Arbuckle to life. A good laugh and a fast read. Enjoy,
By Mark "Technology, Music and Movies" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: I; Fatty (Hardcover)
Jerry Stahl seems to be able to find the sarcastic and sardonic humor in even the most downtrodden lives. "I, Fatty" is a firsthand account of Fatty Arbuckle's tumultuous life. It's written very simply and helps us to imagine the inner turmoil of being an outsider in a judgemental society.Born to an abusive father in Kansas, Arbuckle turned to theatre as an escape from a bitter life. He rose to fame in the cinema and at one point was more popular than Chaplin. He was the first screen actor to make a million dollars a year. But in 1921 he was accused of the rape and murder of actress Virginia Rappe. He was slandered by the press and not even his acquittal could save his career. He eventually lost everything. Stahl emphasizes the mental anguish of being fat, impotent, and presumed guilty. He also shows the role that heroin played in Fatty Arbuckle's life. Heroin was readily available and legal at the time, and he became addicted using it as a pain killer after a botched medical procedure. Towards the end of his years, his servant used heroine as a tool to get Arbuckle to divulge all of his secrets. I had the pleasure of hearing Stahl read from the book and it was quite entertaining. He joked that it is obligatory for him to include heroin in every one of his novels. He emphasizes the public outcry against Fatty as being led by a conservative anti-Hollywood element. I would agree, but would also like to point out that in the 1920s journalists had more leeway to embelish the truth and print it as fact. Even today, the press chooses to emphasize some facts over others and often slanders people in the process. If you are interested in the life of one of Hollywood's first stars, and if you like dark humor, "I, Fatty" is for you. It's a good read that will make you think and give you a laugh or two. 7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The real Hollywood,
By Lilly Marlene - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: I; Fatty (Hardcover)
'A little tramp stops being a tramp when the camerastops rolling. But a Fatty stays fat' Until I read Jerry Stahl's almost unbearably beautiful faux memoir on Fatty Arbuckle, all I knew about the silent movie star was what I'd read in 'Hollywood Babylon' many years earlier. The first Movie-star in history, ruined by the accusation that he raped and murdered a young starlet with the help of a Coca-Cola bottle. Stahl crawls into the mind of a battered, dirt-poor little boy, hated by his father. After ditching school to watch vaudeville shows, he soon stumbles on the stage himself. But he becomes famous for what he loathes himself most for: for being fat. He stuffs himself in baby-clothes and drag and soon matches Charlie Chaplin's and Buster Keaton's popularity and public adulation. But he becomes famous for what he loathes himself most for: for being fat. It is well known that he drank too much. But his Heroin-addiction was something that is not that well known. Even though he was acquitted after three trials, he never recovered. Stahl draws a brilliant parallel to the first victim of the media driven Hollywood scandal. No matter what's the truth; the public has decided that this fat and disgustingly funny troll did it. Stahl makes you feel the anguish and the self-hatred like nobody else, but he also makes us love Fatty Arbuckle. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
I, Fatty is the fictional autobiography of tragic silent film comedian Roscoe Arbuckle,
By C. M Mills "Michael Mills" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: I; Fatty (Paperback)
Roscoe Arbuckle was a fat man who lived a tragic life. He was born in Kansas to an abusive father and invalid mother. The father taunted him for his considerable girth while beating him with a strap. Roscoe ran away after a year or so of grammer school to hit the boards in vaudeville.Underneath the all too too sullied flesh there was a good brain and warm heart. Fatty became famous as a star comedian along with opium addicted Mabel Normand in the Keystone Cop flicks. Fatty knew them all-Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd. He was the first Hollywood star to make a million dollars a year and was loved by the vast American public who enjoyed a night at the flickers. Along the way he engaged in many bad habits such as heroin and opium usage, excessive eating and drinking enough to drown several grown men. He was known as "The Prince of Whales." Arbuckle was always well dressed, knew his lines and was eager to help newcomers in the business. Fatty's life went down the spout when he was accused of the rape and murder of the floozy Virginia Rappe in a St. Francis Hotel Room in San Francisco. Fatty endured three trials and terrible publicity. He was finally acquitted but his career was in shambles. He went on to direct a few movies under an assumed name and opened a nightclub but the damage had been done to his career. Fatty married three times, endured several physical afflictions and was the first big star whose scandal gave Hollywood a bad reputation in middle America. Jerry Stahl has done his research on the Arbuckle life and career. Arbuckle (1887-1933) was an important figure in early film comedy who deserves to be studied. |
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