![]() Having left school somewhere around sixth grade, he'd worked with his father hawking fruits and vegetables, in addition to other jobs in a cigar store, a pool hall, a newsstand and a department store. More typically, Whitey could be found at one of Philly's several variety theaters, for he had taken a keen interest in juggling. Touring the circuits then were such notables as Charles T. Aldritch and O.K. Sato, Comedy Juggler, but one in particular seems to have inspired the boy most: Paul Cinquevalle, the Prince of Jugglers, a mustachioed American showman who juggled plates, cannon balls, umbrellas, even tables and chairs.
A stint with a traveling burlesque show followed, which ended when the show's manager abandoned the troupe in Kent, Ohio. But Fields had fallen for a chorus girl, Hattie Hughes; he married her and made her his assistant. For the next couple years Fields played burlesque circuits in the East and Midwest, advancing steadily toward the top of the bill. In 1901 he made his first tour of Europe, and his silent Tramp Juggler act was a hit wherever he played. In 1903 Fields added his trademark routine, the trick pool table, and it wasn't long before critics heralded him as the greatest comedy juggler of his generation. Fields began his self-education around this time, filling a steamer trunk with volumes of the classics -- Dickens, Twain, Hardy, Milton, Shakespeare, Dumas -- and reading them voraciously between performances.
It was during these years that Fields, equipped with a little clip-on mustache, made his ventures into silent film, commencing with Pool Sharks (1915). Except for Sally of the Sawdust (D. W. Griffith's 1925 filmed version of Poppy), these early films fared poorly with critics and at the box office. It was also during these years that Fields gave up on his marriage and began a series of relationships with chorus girls. One of these led to an illegitimate son, William Rexford Fields Morris, born in 1917 to Bessie Poole, a Follies dancer. Poole gave the boy up for adoption and died 10 years later in a bar fight. (Fields had had Poole sign a document stating he was in no way responsible for the child, but in fact he supported the boy through adulthood. Morris would later track down Fields in Hollywood and show up at his door, asking to see his father. Fields reportedly instructed his butler: "Give him an evasive answer. Tell him to go fuck himself.") In 1930, Fields made his first "talkie," The Golf Specialist, for RKO (at a New Jersey studio), featuring the golf routine he'd made famous in the Vanities and in a silent film, So's Your Old Man, and for the first time film audiences heard his distinctive, raspy drawl. The next year, with the popularity of sound pictures and the death of Vaudeville, Fields moved to Hollywood and soon found a home at Paramount Pictures. He stole the show in 1932's Million Dollar Legs, an oddball comedy about a nation of Olympic-calibre athletes, but tentative studio executives kept trying to "pair him up" with other comic actors like Alison Skipworth and Charlie Ruggles. In 1932 and 1933, Fields moonlighted with director Mack Sennett to make four shorts that would showcase Fields' stage routines: The Dentist, The Fatal Glass of Beer (a re-working of "The Stolen Bonds"), The Pharmacist and The Barber Shop.
By 1936 his drinking caught up with him, and he tried to "dry out" a couple times. Paramount wouldn't renew his contract, so he accepted radio guest appearances (notably with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy) that, to his surprise and delight, made him more popular than ever. In 1939, back on his feet, he negotiated a deal with Universal Studios, where he would make his most famous films: You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (with Bergen and McCarthy); My Little Chickadee, with Mae West co-writing the script; The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (both described below).
After a protracted court battle,
Fields' wife Hattie was awarded his estate, valued at
more than $700,000. His mistress of many years,
Carlotta Monti, and his illegitimate son went home
empty handed. Although rumored to have dictated an
epitaph -- "On the Whole, I'd Rather Be in
Philadelphia" -- Fields' columbarium niche at Forest
Lawn in Glendale, California simply reads "W.C. Fields
/ 1880-1946." |
Fields instructed him to stop for the man. "Where's your sense of charity?" he asked. The man got in, and Fields offered him his gin bottle. The man refused sternly, and soon revealed that he was a minister of the gospel, and that although he usually didn't preach for free, he was about to give Fields a "Number Four" -- "The Evils of Alcohol." The preacher launched into his temperance sermon. Fields leaned forward and instructed
Grady to pull alongside the first ditch he saw. Soon
Grady spotted one and slammed on the brakes. Fields
opened the door and pushed the preacher out of the car
and into the ditch, then tossed in an unopened bottle
of gin after him. "Here's my Number Three," Fields
bellowed. "How to Keep Warm in a Ditch." |
Many myths still
surround Fields: that he was a misanthropic, tight
fisted, bigoted boozer. Well, three out of four ain't
bad. Fields maintained close ties with family and a
small circle of friends throughout his life. He was a
soft touch for old friends down on their luck, and his
gift giving was frequently lavish. And although his
will sets aside funds for "The W.C. Fields Home for
Orphan White Boys and Girls, where no religion of any
type is to be taught," that provision was dictated
just after a black employee had stolen from him. In
practice he treated all races the same, and several
times he publicly added his voice to the call for
racial equality. But he did drink a lot, starting in his
Vanities years. When he suspected rum and pineapple
juice was making him fat, he switched to martinis.
Observers say he never appeared drunk, but he was
touchy about it sometimes. When The Christian
Science Monitor complained that Never
Give a Sucker an Even Break had "the usual
atmosphere of befuddled alcoholism," he wrote back:
"Wouldn't it be more terrible if I quoted some
reliable statistics to prove that more people are
driven insane through religious hysteria than by
drinking alcohol?" |
Recommended reading: W.C.
Fields: A Life on Film (1984, St. Martin's Press)
by Ronald J. Fields (his grandson): comprehensive
film-by-film examination, including background and
contemporary reviews; W. C. Fields By Himself (1973,
Prentice Hall): a revealing "intended autobiography"
compiled by Ronald J. Fields. Includes scripts, articles
and letters chronicling his battles with his wife and
with studio executives; Man on the Flying Trapeze:
The Life and Times of W.C. Fields (1997, Norton)
by Simon Louvish: takes on the task of de-mythologizing
Fields, and provides intriguing new details. W.C.
Fields, A Biography (2003, Knopf) by James
Curtis: a definitive and engrossing account of the Great
Man.
Recommended viewing: The Fatal
Glass of Beer (1933): Forty years
before Monty Python, Fields concocted -- and Mack
Sennett directed -- this Yukon parody about a prodigal
son. Popularized the saying "It ain't a fit night out
for man or beast"; |
(c)1999- 2019 John F. Crowley
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