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of him.
     
    F ILM BANNED
     
    To make matters worse, around this time there were several other Hollywood-related scandals that hit the headlines: that of Wallace Reid, an actor and director who overdosed on drugs; Olive Thomas, the wife of a matinee idol, Jack Pickford, who had died from mistakenly drinking his medicine; and William Taylor, a director whose murder cast suspicion on two Hollywood actresses, Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand. Coincidentally, Normand had co-starred with Arbuckle in several of his films.
    Because of all this, the authorities decided to censor the film industry, believing that the films being made, and the licentious behaviour of the Hollywood stars, were corrupting the nation’s morals. As a result, the Hays Code, which ruled on what could legally be shown on screen – in terms of sex, violence and any kind of behaviour considered ‘immoral’. This, of course, severely limited the films’ subject matter and a series of worthy and very unpopular movies ensued as directors racked their brains as to how to circumvent the rules and yet still make dramatic, action-packed pictures. In the meantime, all of Arbuckle’s movies were banned by the censors, which was another huge blow to his career.
     
    T HE FINAL TRAGEDY
     
    The result of the first two trials in the Arbuckle case resulted in a hung jury. At the third trial the jury finally acquitted Arbuckle and issued him with a written apology for the loss to his reputation – by now Arbuckle was unable to find work as an actor and was shunned by all the Hollywood studios. But it was too late; Arbuckle’s morale had collapsed under the strain of the scandal and his life was in ruins. He divorced his first wife and married again, to Doris Deane, but after failing to find any work, became an alcoholic. His new wife soon divorced him, unable to cope with his erratic behaviour.
    But although Arbuckle’s star had fallen, his career was not over yet. Little by little, with the help of his old friend Buster Keaton, he began to find work in the movie industry once more, this time as a writer and director rather than an actor. He used the name William Goodrich (his father’s name) as a pseudonym. Things began to look up: he cut down on his drinking and married again, eventually starting to make short films under his own name once more. On 28 June 1933, having completed two short films, Warner Brothers signed him up to make a feature film. At this point, it seemed that, finally, the terrible scandal that had brought him down was behind him, and that he could now resume his glittering Hollywood career. He is said to have exclaimed, on signing the contract ‘This is the best day of my life’.
    Sadly, this happiness was not to last. That night Arbuckle suffered a massive heart attack and died. He was aged only 46. Undoubtedly, the fact that he was overweight had contributed to his health problems; but it also seemed likely that the strain of the scandal had taken its toll in the long run.
    After his death, many critics cited his influence on comedy, but few prints of his films remained and today there are few examples of his work that still survive. Indeed, for many, the name of Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle name lives on solely as a reminder of the damage that an unfair scandal can inflict on an individual. It wrecked his career, his relationships, his health and his legacy, as well as bringing him to an untimely death.

Woody Allen

     
    Woody Allen was one of the best-loved comedians and directors in Hollywood until a scandal erupted in his personal life that shocked not only the United States but the rest of the world. He began a relationship with his partner Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. At the time, Allen was 57 and Soon-Yi was 22. Although Soon-Yi had never been formally adopted by Allen, and he therefore was not technically her stepfather, for many years he had been the partner of her adoptive mother and had obviously taken