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At age fourteen Rappe began working as a commercial and art model in Chicago. In 1916 she relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in silent films. In early 1917 she was hired by Fred Balshofer and given a prominent role in Balshofer's Paradise Garden opposite popular screen star Harold Lockwood. (photo: Harold Lockwood (later a fatal victim of the Spanish flu) and Virginia Rappe in Paradise Garden (1917).
Balshofer hired her again the next year to co-star with early drag performer Julian Eltinge and newcomer Rudolph Valentino in Over the Rhine. This film was not released until 1920 when Balshofer recut it and released it under the title An Adventuress. (Photos: Julian Eltinge/Rudolph Valentino)
In 1919, she began a relationship with director/producer Henry Lehrman; the two eventually became engaged. She appeared in at least four films for Lehrman: His Musical Sneeze, A Twilight Baby, Punch of the Irish, and A Game Lady. Many of Lehrman's films are lost; it is possible she may have had additional roles with him but no supporting evidence survives.(Photo: Henry Lehrman)
The circumstances of Rappe's death in 1921 became a Hollywood scandal and were covered widely (and inaccurately) by the media of the time. During a party held on Labor Day, September 5, 1921 in Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's suite at the Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco, California, Rappe suffered a trauma. She died on September 9, 1921, from a ruptured bladder and secondary peritonitis.
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 Roscoe Arbuckle.
(Photo: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle)
Arbuckle's accuser, Maude Delmont, had accompanied Rappe to the party; she had first met Rappe only a few days earlier. Delmont was apparently not present for any of the events she described and was not called to testify at any of Arbuckle's three trials. According to some accounts, she had been linked to crimes such as extortion, fraud, and racketeering (she was arrested for bigamy following the Arbuckle trials). Other prosecution witnesses were allegedly intimidated by the office of San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady into making statements to support Delmont's story.
(Photo:Maude Delmont)
A rumor that Arbuckle had used a Coca-Cola or champagne bottle on Rappe in an attempt at unnatural penetration was not substantiated by any eyewitness and is of unknown origin. Al Semnacher, her manager, said that the damage had been caused by a large piece of ice from an ice bucket. Other rumors circulated that Rappe died of injuries resulting from an earlier botched illegal abortion or complications from gonorrhea.
(Photo:Saint Francis Hotel -1921)
After three manslaughter trials, Arbuckle was formally acquitted; his acquittal in the third trial was accompanied by an unprecedented statement of apology signed by all twelve members of the jury and both alternates, stating, in part, that "Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice has been done him... there was not the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime." Nonetheless, his reputation and career were destroyed; he became a pathetic figure, taking to the bottle and dying at the age of 46.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 made the case that Arbuckle was entirely innocent.
Virginia Rappe is buried at Hollywood Park Memorial Cemetery where sobbing has been heard in the area of her grave.