Read Online Room 1219: Fatty Arbuckle, the Mysterious Death of Virginia Rappe, and the Scandal That Changed Hollywood by Greg Merritt - Free Book Online
Authors: Greg Merritt
again in early 1919, forming Henry Lehrman Productions and constructing his own $200,000 studio near Hollywood. His old friend Roscoe Arbuckle rented space there to film. * In a peculiar newspaper article from September 1919, the company announced the signing of Rappe, labeling her “one of the wealthiest and most beautiful young women of western America” and the “richest girl of stage or screen.” The announcementidentified her as both an “heiress” and “the owner of more than 800 acres of the richest oil lands of Texas,” with her “wealth computed in the millions.” The story was bunk, likely devised by Rappe or Lehrman to garner publicity, but the fiction points to Rappe’s high aspirations.
Henry Lehrman Productions’ first movie, 1920’s
A Twilight Baby,
again starred Lloyd Hamilton and featured Rappe in a supporting role. Publicizing it, Rappe returned to her advice formula, this time serving up old-fashioned moralizing delivered while she was living out of wedlock with her employer. This lengthy headline and subhead screamed from a newspaper on March 4, 1920:
B ACK TO Q UAKERLAND! “Nix O F L OUNGE L IZARDS AND J AZZ B ABIES,” S AYS V IRGINIA R APPE, P RAISING “LESS S OCIETY” M ANORS Communities Seeking To Put A Sensible Damper On Midnight Larks, “Seven-Dates-A-Week” And Other Health-Robbers Of Young Girls Have A Hearty Endorsement From Virginia Rappe, Plucked From Dazzling California Society By Henry Lehrman And Who Will Be Seen In “A Twilight Baby,” One Of The 3 Ring Jazzy Circus Features At The Dome Theater. She Has A Way Of Curtailing Mothers’ Fears.
The worldly Rappe offered cautions about Jazz Age partying and concluded, “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt any of us to be more Quakerfied.
”
Whether any Quakers attended
A Twilight Baby
is unknown. Rappe, though, certainly enjoyed Jazz Age dancing; she won prizes for such at a Santa Monica resort popular with the Hollywood crowd. Trial testimony later placed her at several Hollywood parties during this time.
Invoices drowned Henry Lehrman Productions before it was truly established, and Lloyd Hamilton fled the sinking ship. Rappe acted in two more Lehrman productions without him,
The Punch of the Irish
and the unfortunately titled
A Game Lady.
But by the time the latter film was released, less than two months before Labor Day 1921, Lehrman had lost his studio and his house. Debts would burden him for years. Perhaps coincidentally, his two-and-a-half-year relationship with Rappealso faltered. He signed on to direct four films in Fort Lee, New Jersey, moving, alone, to New York City in the spring of 1921.
Rappe moved back in with the Hardebecks, and she paid Kate Hardebeck twenty-five dollars weekly for housekeeping duties (or perhaps not, for Hardebeck later made a claim against Rappe’s estate for over $1,000 in unpaid labor). She probably hoped to rekindle the romance with Lehrman eventually. She seldom went out socializing. “Her chief delight was in tramping over the hills around Hollywood with her dog,” Hardebeck stated.
On July 7, 1921, Rappe turned thirty, a pivotal age, especially for a model/actress cognizant of the relentless march of time. * Billie Ritchie, who acted in at least sixty motion pictures, all of them for Lehrman, including
A Twilight Baby,
died the day before and was buried the day after, likely clouding Rappe’s birthday with a melancholy pall. †
She had other reasons for glum introspection. Her designing and modeling careers were stalled, and after a promising film debut in 1917, four years later she had failed to establish herself as a marketable movie star. Judging only by the scant evidence that survives, she was not a particularly gifted screen performer, and her acting reputation within the industry may have been harmed by her relationship with Lehrman and the resultant perception that she was not earning her plum roles via talent. After at least three engagements and one lengthy cohabiting
Henry Lehrman Productions’ first movie, 1920’s
A Twilight Baby,
again starred Lloyd Hamilton and featured Rappe in a supporting role. Publicizing it, Rappe returned to her advice formula, this time serving up old-fashioned moralizing delivered while she was living out of wedlock with her employer. This lengthy headline and subhead screamed from a newspaper on March 4, 1920:
B ACK TO Q UAKERLAND! “Nix O F L OUNGE L IZARDS AND J AZZ B ABIES,” S AYS V IRGINIA R APPE, P RAISING “LESS S OCIETY” M ANORS Communities Seeking To Put A Sensible Damper On Midnight Larks, “Seven-Dates-A-Week” And Other Health-Robbers Of Young Girls Have A Hearty Endorsement From Virginia Rappe, Plucked From Dazzling California Society By Henry Lehrman And Who Will Be Seen In “A Twilight Baby,” One Of The 3 Ring Jazzy Circus Features At The Dome Theater. She Has A Way Of Curtailing Mothers’ Fears.
The worldly Rappe offered cautions about Jazz Age partying and concluded, “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt any of us to be more Quakerfied.
”
Whether any Quakers attended
A Twilight Baby
is unknown. Rappe, though, certainly enjoyed Jazz Age dancing; she won prizes for such at a Santa Monica resort popular with the Hollywood crowd. Trial testimony later placed her at several Hollywood parties during this time.
Invoices drowned Henry Lehrman Productions before it was truly established, and Lloyd Hamilton fled the sinking ship. Rappe acted in two more Lehrman productions without him,
The Punch of the Irish
and the unfortunately titled
A Game Lady.
But by the time the latter film was released, less than two months before Labor Day 1921, Lehrman had lost his studio and his house. Debts would burden him for years. Perhaps coincidentally, his two-and-a-half-year relationship with Rappealso faltered. He signed on to direct four films in Fort Lee, New Jersey, moving, alone, to New York City in the spring of 1921.
Rappe moved back in with the Hardebecks, and she paid Kate Hardebeck twenty-five dollars weekly for housekeeping duties (or perhaps not, for Hardebeck later made a claim against Rappe’s estate for over $1,000 in unpaid labor). She probably hoped to rekindle the romance with Lehrman eventually. She seldom went out socializing. “Her chief delight was in tramping over the hills around Hollywood with her dog,” Hardebeck stated.
On July 7, 1921, Rappe turned thirty, a pivotal age, especially for a model/actress cognizant of the relentless march of time. * Billie Ritchie, who acted in at least sixty motion pictures, all of them for Lehrman, including
A Twilight Baby,
died the day before and was buried the day after, likely clouding Rappe’s birthday with a melancholy pall. †
She had other reasons for glum introspection. Her designing and modeling careers were stalled, and after a promising film debut in 1917, four years later she had failed to establish herself as a marketable movie star. Judging only by the scant evidence that survives, she was not a particularly gifted screen performer, and her acting reputation within the industry may have been harmed by her relationship with Lehrman and the resultant perception that she was not earning her plum roles via talent. After at least three engagements and one lengthy cohabiting
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