Virginia Rappe on Film

The Danish Film Institute has posted filmographical details and the complete 1919 short His Musical Sneeze, featuring Lloyd Hamilton and Virginia Rappe, with a jaunty score by Ben Model. This is a rare glimpse of Virginia Rappe on film, since very few of the comedies in which she was featured survive. This film is also important as the producer was Rappe's fiance Henry “Pathe” Lehrman. The film is directed by Jack White.

You can view the film (and if you understand Danish, read the titles) here: scroll down, the filmviewer is on the lower right of the page. It can be viewed full screen.

Virginia Rappe is best remembered as the actress who died after Roscoe Arbuckle's 1921 Labor Day party in San Francisco. Joan Myers is currently working on a manuscript about the case and has researched Rappe extensively. See this post for example. Myers' forthcoming book is one I am most anxious to read, the bits I've been privy to have been relevatory, to say the least!

The Case of the Vanishing Juror - a New and Long Overdue Look at the Roscoe Arbuckle Trials

Joan Myers has been researching the Roscoe Arbuckle trials for the last 5 or so years. She's uncovered a wealth of information about the case, so much so, this puts serious question to the two previously penned tomes on the subject, David Yallop's The Day the Laughter Stopped and Andy Edmonds Frame Up. A new manuscript in the works and one hopes that after all this time the real truth about that infamous party and the aftermath will finally come out.

You can get a preview of what will be a fascinating book here in Joan's recent blog post at the excellent New Research in the Feminist Media as well as in a recent podcast. Updated here to add a link to another posting from Joan. Man, I can hardly wait for the entire book, this is going to be terrific reading!

Joan also did a Q&A interview with Andre Soares at his Alternative Film Guide and this is also a very interesting and appetite whetting piece.

When Joan's book is published, poor Virgina Rappe whose reputation has been sullied for lo these many decades, might have her day in the court of public opinion, at long last. Unfortunately, she's still dead and really won't care.

Viginia Rappe posing with her beloved puppy Jeff

David Pearson's excellent site on Roscoe Arbuckle can be found here. Everything you want to know, and more.