PALGRAVE STUDIES IN THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE HISTORY W.C. F Z F B S S Becoming a Character Comedian Arthur Frank Wertheim Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History Series Editor Don B. Wilmeth Brown University Emeritus Professor Providence, USA Aims of the Series Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History is a series devoted to the best of theatre/performance scholarship currently available, ­accessible and free of jargon. It strives to include a wide range of topics, from the more traditional to those performance forms that in recent years have helped broaden the understanding of what theatre as a category might include (from variety forms as diverse as the circus and burlesque to street buskers, stage magic, and musical theatre, among many others). Although historical, critical, or analytical studies are of special interest, more ­theoretical projects, if not the dominant thrust of a study but utilized as important underpinning or as an historiographical or analytical method of exploration, are also of interest. Textual studies of drama or other types of less traditional performance texts are also germane to the series if placed in their cultural, historical, social, or political and economic context. There is no geographical focus for this series and works of excellence of a diverse and international nature, including comparative studies, are sought. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14575 Arthur Frank Wertheim W.C. Fields from the Ziegfeld Follies and Broadway Stage to the Screen Becoming a Character Comedian Arthur Frank Wertheim Historian, Rancho Palos Verdes California, USA Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History ISBN 978-1-349-94985-4 ISBN 978-1-349-94986-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-94986-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016960536 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image © In the “Sleeping Porch” scene Fields futilely tries to place a heavy block of ice in his icebox. The Comic Supplement/1925 Follies. Courtesy, W. C. Fields Productions Inc., www.wcfields.com. Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A. In honor of my beloved brother Jack—a devoted friend, a caring helpmate, and an exemplar of strength and courage to the end—R.I.P INTRODUCTiON My life with W.C. Fields started on a spring day in May 2007. An article in The Los Angeles Times announced that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was staging an exhibition on its fourth floor gallery titled: “The Amazing Peregrinations and Pettifoggery of One William Claude Dukenfield, late of Philadelphia, PA., familiarly known to Crowned Heads and Hoi Polloi alike as W. C. Fields.” Entering the door to the show, I was bowled over by the sight. The walls were covered with colorful posters; original playbills; handwritten and typed personal letters; contracts; cartoons; photographs; stage scripts; movie scenarios; souvenirs from his performances abroad; and much much more. At one end of the room gales of laughter stemmed from visitors watching his films. The show embodied a treasure trove of memorabilia recently donated by the Fields family so that the public might encounter the astonishing career of an eminent comedian, who brought so much hilarity to people around the world. As if he was a skeleton in a closet, the Fields Papers were once pad- locked in the basement of his widow’s home. Fields’s five grandchildren were not even allowed to see what was hidden behind a bolted door. They believed that the “Bogeyman” lived in the basement. After Fields’s widow died, the contents were placed in storage. The curse of silence about the comedian was finally broken by his grandson, Ronald J. Fields, who gained access and released his findings in his groundbreaking bookW. C. Fields By Himself (1973). His complete papers remained unavailable for researchers until the family gifted them to the Academy. vii viii Introduction After the show, I was granted permission to research the material with the goal of perhaps writing his life story. After perusing the multi-page inventory and the material for a few months, I became convinced that the seventy-one boxes in the Fields Papers are possibly the most voluminous and valuable collection of an American performer’s career. The collection is a gold mine. It begins with his date book listing his first stage appear- ances in 1898 and ends with papers about his lengthy confrontational probate trial lasting until the mid-1950s. A journey through Fields’ career from 1898 to 1946 is an incredible ride that yields significant information about his appearances in practi- cally every performance art during the first half of the twentieth century: club shows; burlesque; medicine, museum, and minstrel shows; American vaudeville; British music halls; leading European variety theaters; three Broadway revues, including performances in six annual Ziegfeld Follies; a star in the long-running Broadway show Poppy; twelve silent movies; thirty-­ two sound shorts and features; guest spots on radio comedy programs; and a recording of the artist six months before his death. Responsible for this amazing body of work primarily is that comedy came naturally to Fields—it was in his DNA. As I worked my way through the research, a number of revelations stood out. Fields’s long stage career from 1898 to 1930 had a major influ- ence on his comedy. While a performer in burlesque in 1899 he made a monumental decision—to use juggling as a means to furnish comedy in his act. In the Ziegfeld Follies he next became a character comedian playing roles that became the quintessence of his art. While in Ziegfeld’s spectacular revue he created two comic char- acterizations: the good-natured charlatan and besieged husband; two impersonations that reappear in his films. When he went to Hollywood permanently in 1930 to make films he took with him not only his stage scenarios but the techniques he had learned in the theater. He repeated his vaudeville acts juggling balls, manipulating cigar boxes, and pool tricks for the screen Pool Sharks (1915). His 1918 Follies’ sketch as a frustrated bun- gling golfer is reused in The Golf Specialist (1930). Three of his four shorts for Mack Sennett stem from his stage sketches. Fields’s hilarious “Back Porch” scene from the 1925 Ziegfeld Follies is repeated in the silent picture It’s the Old Army Game (1926) and sound filmIt’s a Gift (1934). Three of his last movies can even be traced back to his stage career. Fields pos- sessed the talent to make these sketches appear pristine and side-­splitting on the screen. Introduction ix Since Fields’s vaudeville juggling act was mostly silent, he turned to pantomime to amuse his audience. He never trained as a pantomimic art- ist; it happened instinctively. Fields started intentionally missing a trick, grimaces, feigns embarrassment, and then completes the stunt, which pro- vokes theatergoers to laugh heartedly. Building on his talent, he showed various emotions by using different body movements, diverse facial expressions and gestures, and unique mimicry. Fields honed his flair for pantomime on the Broadway stage and used this skill in his silent motion pictures, which require feelings and dialogue to be expressed by an actor’s movements. Although his inimitable voice usurps the screen in his talkies, Fields still uses pantomime to demonstrate his emotions. Fields’s massive correspondence sheds light on new information about his life off stage. The letters help to unravel many legends about him and to discover the truth behind many fabrications, beginning with the come- dian’s own hyperbolic tales about his personal life. Adding to the conun- drum are the numerous trumped-up stories written by studio publicists and fan magazine writers who were anxious to create an exciting rags-­ to-­riches tale about a runaway poverty-stricken lad who climbed to fame. Thanks to the Fields Papers numerous questions about Fields’s life can be answered. His letters reveal that his comic persona and private life were strongly intertwined. The correspondence provides insights into his tragic relation- ships with his wife and son; affairs with other women; clashes with his father; battles with censors; confrontations with stage producers and film moguls; his complex dual personality; prejudices; and frustrations, among others. Because Fields’s wife refused to divorce him the correspondence between the two ranges from the practical (continual complaints that the money he sends was meager) to the vitriolic (wild accusations about each other).