(rewritten and revised from a few years back - for those who enjoy the trivia as well as the scholarly stuff)
Albert
Delmont Jones (now calling himself Albert Royal Delmont) married Bambina Maude
Scott on September 29, 1904. He was around 50 years old at the time and (if the
1920 census is to be believed) she was 21. A 1922 newspaper has a claim that her first husband was a Cincinnati millionaire. Cincinnati was certainly
one of ADJ’s past locations. (Interview question: “Tell me, Bambie, what was it
about this 50 year old millionaire that first attracted you to him?”) Bambina
liked the name Delmont and kept it through several subsequent marriages,
including John Hopper and Cassius Wood. In 1922 she was last heard of (under
the Delmont name) planning to marry a Lawrence Johnson.
In
the newspapers she is sometimes Bambina Maud Delmont and sometimes Maud Bambina
Delmont and Maud sometimes has an E on the end, and sometimes not. But the
“Delmont” is consistent.
Bambina
liked getting married, but didn’t always finish the paperwork for her divorces
and was subsequently charged with bigamy on one occasion.
In
the 1920 census returns she was running her own shop in Los Angeles selling and
fitting corsets.
Bambina’s
claim to fame (or infamy) is her part in the Roscoe Arbuckle scandal. Fatty
Arbuckle was a silent film comedian who was huge (in more than one way) in his
day. He is probably remembered in film circles today as the man who gave Buster
Keaton his start in the movies.
Arbuckle
was savaged by the media when he was suddenly arrested and accused of rape and
murder after a 1921 party in San Francisco. The victim was a small part actress
named Virginia Rappe. The charge was subsequently reduced to manslaughter.
Arbuckle went through two hung juries before being cleared at a third trial
where the jury were out for all of six minutes, using five of them to write a
statement making a formal apology to him for the injustice he had suffered.
There
was little doubt that Virginia Rappe’s death was preventable. Health problems
exacerbated by a series of abortions made her fragile, and she didn’t get
prompt or proper care when she was taken ill. But the lurid accusations against
Arbuckle all originated with Rappe’s companion who crashed the party, namely
Bambina Maud Delmont. While Wikipedia cannot be called the most accurate of
sources, it does quite a nice line in character assassination: “Delmont had a
long criminal record with multiple convictions for racketeering, bigamy, fraud and extortion, and allegedly was making a living by luring men into compromising positions and
capturing them in photographs, to be used as evidence in divorce
proceedings.” The Weekly World News in
1961 veered into alliteration by accusing her of being a “Tinseltown tart.” Her
unsubstantiated testimony at the original hearing got Arbuckle indicted, but
then the prosecution deliberately kept her far away from all the actual trials,
because her obvious inability to tell truth from fiction would have immediately
sunk their case.
So
this was the third Mrs ADJ.
When
you consider ADJ’s history after his “fall from grace,” it would appear that
some people just seem made for each other.
Albeit
briefly.
Addenda
For those who love trivia and conspiracy links,
Arbuckle’s own third wife was Addie Oakely Dukes McPhail, the former wife of
Lindsay Matthew McPhail, who was the son of Matthew Lindsay McPhail who had
helped lead the New Covenant breakaway from the Society in 1909. You really
couldn’t make this stuff up.
(With grateful thanks to Miquel for originally providing
the McPhail connection)
5 comments:
Please forward to me a link to the newspaper where Bambina claimed her first husband was a millionaire.
The Nebraska State Journal and the Lincoln Journal Star, both for February 3, 1922, have her "intended" Lawrence Johnson stating this. (I have sent you cuttings back-channel). He will have got this information from Bambina, but I will look further in case the words can actually be directly put in her mouth.
Thank you Jerome for these very detailed and interesting investigations into a little known portion of WT history. This helps fill in in some of the gaps in the early history and gives background to the recent Day Star issues that we have been able to uncover.
Russell must not have regretted Jones at all. Year after year, Jones became incomprehensible in theology and moral conduct. The people around him were disqualified. Thanks Jerome for the research
It seems strange that Bambina should disappear so well. For such a self-publicist this was uncharacteristic.
In Ancestry there are only two entries for her usual name Bambina Maud Delmont – a marriage in 1912 to John Hooper and her 1920 census return where she is running a shop. Trying to track the history of her 1922 intended husband, Lawrence Theodore Johnston, yields his history, but no mention of her. He was a “theatrical” who died in the 1940s. His photograph, complete with the most unconvicing hairpiece ever seen, is out there. But I suspect that Bambina didn’t become Mrs Johnston after all.
Bambina is in the 1900 census for Lincoln, Nebraska, under the name Maud Scott. She is 17. She has an older brother named Jay C Scott. He is 19. Jay’s draft registration card for World War 1 has Maude Hopper, sister, down as next of kin. Jay’s history can be traced down to a military grave marker in 1960, but there is no sign of his sister. And they sound the sort of family who maybe didn’t keep on touch.
She had other sisters, Helen, Ethel (reportedly married seven times) and Lucille, but their names disappear.
David Yallop wrote the definitive history of the Fatty Arbuckle case in The Day the Laughter Died, and over several decades managed to track down and interview each of his three wives. But even he loses sight of Bambina in 1922.
Post a Comment