There’s a fascinating report on the Alternative Film Guide blog on the Fatty Arbuckle manslaughter case.

Film researcher Joan Myers has been re-investigating the notorious case of 1921, when the hugely popular film comedian Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle was accused first of the rape and then of the manslaughter of minor actress and model Virginia Rappe, after an archetypal Hollywood ‘wild party’. Arbuckle was eventually acquitted, after a lurid trial, but his reputation was left in ruins, and his career as a star comedian was over. The case has been pored over for decades, and one might think that little remains to be discovered, but Joan Myers has found much new material, simply by looking more at the Virginia Rappe side of the story. She is still researching and writing, so the interview with her doesn’t give too much away, but there’s more than enough there to realise that we have not heard the last of Arbuckle trial.

There’s an attractive and interesting new site on the American film actress of the 1920s, Colleen Moore, which has just started up. www.colleenmoore.org has been created by Jeff Codori, and it’s an interesting mixture of fan site and research project, with the author aiming to produce a biography, to help in the process of which he is publishing his findings on the site and calling on readers to supply information (especially local history research). It all has a work-in-progress feel and it’s interesting to see the ideas in development and where they might go. There’s fascinating stuff there already, particularly on her family history, and some beautiful images.  Bits of the site are still under construction, and a filmography would be welcome. Take a look.