HOLLYWOOD TRAGEDIES

Virginia Rappe

A modeling photo of Virginia Rappe (courtesy Joan Myers) 

Today is the 117th birthday of Virginia Rappe, who is best known for her tragic and controversial death in 1921. Film researcher Joan Myers is presently working on a detailed account of the Arbuckle trial.

By Joan Myers 

Virginia Rappe was born in Chicago on July 7, 1891. In 1907 she began working as a artist’s model; she quickly segued into the new field of commercial fashion modeling. For the next few years she traveled throughout the northwest and eastern seaboard doing live modeling for fashion shows and posing for advertising and fashion photography. In 1914 she began designing and marketing her own line of clothing; later that year she moved to San Francisco to market her designs at the Pan Pacific International Exhibition. In the spring of 1916 she decided to try for a career in films and again relocated, this time to Hollywood. 

She continued her modeling career in Hollywood. In early 1917 she was hired by producer Fred Balshofer and given a prominent co-starring role in Balshofer’s Paradise Garden opposite screen idol Harold Lockwood. Balshofer hired her again the next year to co-star with popular cross-dresser 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.

In 1917, Rappe began a relationship with comedy actor/director/producer Henry Lehrman. She appeared in at least four films for Lehrman: His Musical Sneeze and A Twilight Baby (1920) with Lloyd Hamilton, Punch of the Irish (1921) with Frank Coleman and Lige Conley, and A Game Lady (1921) with Hamilton and Coleman. All but two of these films (A Twilight Baby and Punch of the Irish) are lost. It is possible Rappe may have had additional roles with Lehrman, but none have so far been identified.

On September 9, 1921, four days after attending a party thrown by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, actor Lowell Sherman, and director Fred Fischbach at the St. Francis Hotel, Rappe died of a ruptured bladder in San Francisco. Arbuckle was arrested for her murder the next day. The murder charge was eventually reduced to manslaughter, for which Arbuckle was tried three times. The first two trials ended in hung juries; Arbuckle was acquitted of the charge at the end of the third trial, but his career was ruined. 

Virginia Rappe’s grave at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

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HOLLYWOOD TRAGEDIES

Gladys Brockwell

Gladys Brockwell (1893-1929) 

By Allan R. Ellenberger

Today is the 79th anniversary of the tragic death of actress Gladys Brockwell. Though virtually unknown today, Brockwell was a popular actress in the teens and 1920s. The Brooklyn-born daughter of a struggling chorus girl, Brockwell entered show business on stage at the age of 3, with her screen debut for the Lubin Company in 1913.

Brockwell was one of the earliest stars at the Fox Studios. Some of her most important career roles included The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), Stella Maris (1925), Man, Woman and Sin (1927), Seventh Heaven (1927), The Woman Disputed (1928),  and The Home Towners (1928). Her last appearance in film was in The Drake Case (1929) for Universal, which she finished two weeks before her death.

Gladys Brockwell strangling Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven (1927) 

During the experimental days of sound at Warner Brothers, Brockwell appeared in short subjects then being made as tests. She had a lead role in the first feature-length, all-talking film, Lights of New York (1928).

On June 27, 1929, Brockwell and a friend, T. Stanley Brennan, were driving to Ventura in a new roadster. As they neared a curve near Calabasas – an area about 25 miles northwest of Hollywood – the car skidded to the edge of the road and plunged 75 feet down an embankment, turning over three times after hitting the bottom. Brockwell was pinned beneath the wreckage, with one of the car’s doors resting on her face. The couple was unconscious when removed from the wreckage by passing motorists.

They were taken to Osteopathic Hospital where doctors determined that Brockwell received fractures of both lower jaws, fracture of the left upper jaw, fractue of the left collar bone, fracture of a vertebra, a broken pelvis, and a rupture of the large intestine. In addition, the left side of her face was paralyzed, caused by a severed facial nerve. Both of Brennan’s shoulder blades were broken as well as several ribs.

Because of their serious condition, police could not obtain a coherent report of the accident. However it was determined that neither had been drinking. Once Brennan regained consciousness, he explained that the accident was probably caused as a result of a cinder that blew into his eye just as they reached the dangerous curve in the road.

Following a second blood transfusion, Brockwell appeared to improve until perotonis set in as a result of her internal injuries. After two more transfusions, Gladys Brockwell died at 7 p.m. on July 2, 1929 at Osteopathic Hospital. The immediate cause of death was peritonitis, due to the puncture of the large intestine. No negligence was placed on Brennan, who was still recovering in the hospital.

Brockwell’s body was taken to the Ivy H. Overholtzer Mortuary at 1719 South Flower Street. Funeral services were conducted at 2 p.m. on July 5 at the Hollywood Cemetery chapel. The service was in charge of the Christian Science Church in the presence of many prominent film actors, directors and producers. Brockwell was cremated and the ashes given to her mother, Billie Brockwell, who was also an actress.

NOTE: Brockwell’s companion, T. Stanley Brennan survived his injuries from the accident. Ironically, almost twenty years later, on February 11, 1949, Brennan was a passenger in a car driven by a friend. As they crossed the Aliso Street Bridge near downtown, the driver attempted to cut in front of another car when he lost control, swerved across the bridge, smashed through the concrete rail and plunged 35 feet to an alleyway below. The driver survived but Brennan was killed instantly.

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