The (ficticious) Legend Of The Twisted Hollywood Star

I was thinking about the case of Fatty Arbuckle, a once much sought-after actor who would have been one of the greatest actors and film makers of his time had it not been for a sex scandal that surrounded him. You can read about it in his Wikipedia entry, but in essence it revolved around his alleged attempted rape and murder of a young actress called Virginia Rappe.

If you read accounts of the events that brought about Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s downfall you can see that it came about due to the actions of a notorious liar and blackmailer “Bambina” Maude Delmont. It’s even been reported that she even accused Arbuckle of attempting to penetrate the girl with an ice ‘dildo’.

Although a tragic case where an innocent man was accused of rape and murder my digging uncovered something that I had not been aware of. But not about Arbuckle, it started with Clark Gable.

I had heard rumours that Gable was bisexual and although I’m sure I’ll look into that at some later date I was diverted by something about Vivienne Leigh. I’m fascinated by the tensions set up in anyone when their true sexuality is denied by themselves, others or the society in which they live. However from some of the scathing reviews about the accounts of Gable’s alleged bisexuality in the biography which mentions it may be more about selling books than a tortured soul.

Anyway, I digress, back to Vivienne Leigh. Reading this story I was surprised to learn that Leigh was by all accounts complete nymphomaniac and very demanding on her partners and lovers. She saw Gable’s alleged advances as attempted rape but maybe she liked to be the one in control.

Vivienne Leigh as a dominatrix maybe? There’s a film you could make today.

You see truth is much stranger than a horrible malicious fiction.