Bill Cosby and Roscoe Conkling (you don't know what you don't know)

Top: Fatty Arbuckle Bottom: Bill Cosby (both photos Wikimedia Commons)

A long time ago, there was a film actor named Roscoe Conkling who was among the most popular and highest paid actors in Hollywood. He worked with Harold Lloyd, mentored Chaplin, and discovered Buster Keaton and Bob Hope.

Conkling was accused of rape and murder and put on trial three times. Although he was eventually exonerated years later, his career was ruined, and he's only remembered, if at all, in light the false accusations.

Never heard of Roscoe Conkling? That was Fatty Arbuckle, and you've probably seen him while flipping through channels at 2am.

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Many of you likely think of Bill Cosby as an aging showbiz legend. References to him usually include something like "America's dad" from his years as Dr Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

I remember him as the voice of Fat Albert and from comedy routines on vinyl. My parents would remember him from I Spy.

The accusations against Cosby are based on memories, some 40 years old now. Without exception, all of them (that I've heard)  have involved surreptitious drugging and some awareness afterward of molestation. But the victims don't claim to have witnessed being assaulted, and no one I know has come forward and said "I saw Cosby do this."

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Cosby may very well be guilty (of one or more), but here's the thing: we don't know.

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Fatty Arbuckle  on Wikipedia >

Arbuckle was salaried at $1,000,000 in 1921. Accounting for inflation, that's would be well over $13,000,000 today. That's a lot of money, even by Hollywood standards.

William Randolph Hearst, whose newspapers profited from every scandalous detail, said Arbuckle "sold more newspapers than any event since the sinking of the RMS Lusitania."

We eat our own.

[2014-12-12]

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