Born on this date in 1880, W C Fields was known for playing a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist in films such as My Little Chickadee and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Here are ten facts about him:
- His full name was William Claude Dukenfield and he was born in Philadelphia. His father had emigrated from England in 1854.
- He only went to school for four years, then left to work with his father selling vegetables from a horse cart. His relationship with his father was volatile, and he ran away from home several times. At eleven, he left home for good after a fight with his father in which his father hit him over the head with a shovel. That said, he didn’t seem to bear his family any ill will in later life, since he bought his father a summer home and enabled him to retire; and encouraged his entire family to learn to read so that he could write to them. His father even visited him while he was touring in England.
- When he first left home, however, he was living rough and stealing food in order to survive. His first regular job was delivering ice. During that time, he learned to juggle and was very good at it. This got him his first job entertaining people, at an amusement park in Norristown PA. Later on, he worked at Fortescue's Pier, Atlantic City, where, when business was slow, he’d jump into the sea and pretend to be drowning, in order to attract a crowd.
- From there, he went to Vaudeville, where, to distinguish himself from the plethora of Juggling tramps, developed a persona as "The Eccentric Juggler" who would juggle hats and cigar boxes and other objects as part of his act.
- By the time he was 23, he was doing extremely well, touring as "The Distinguished Comedian" and opening a bank account in every city he worked in. He was appearing with big names like Sarah Bernhardt, Charlie Chaplin and Maurice Chevalier, and even appeared at Buckingham Palace.
- He played for a year in the highly praised musical Poppy which opened in New York in 1923. His film break came a couple of years later when the play was made into a film called Sally of the Sawdust; although Fields had already appeared in a handful of short films prior to that, his first being Pool Sharks in 1915. He made his first film at the age of 35.
- While known for being a heavy drinker, he hardly drank at all as a young man, because he needed to be sober in order to be a skilled juggler. When he started touring, he’d drink socially with other cast members to stave off loneliness, and when juggling was no longer part of his act, started to drink regularly.
- He’s also perceived as disliking dogs and children, thanks to a quote which was erroneously attributed to him: "any man who hates Dogs and babies can't be all bad". He occasionally owned dogs, and enjoyed the company of his friends’ children and his grandchildren.
- He married vaudevillian, chorus girl Harriet "Hattie" Hughes in 1900. She appeared as his assistant on stage, and behind the scenes was helping him learn to read and write. As a result, he became very fond of reading and would travel with suitcases full of books. Hattie, however, didn’t see show business as a forever career, and in time, began nagging Fields to give it up and get a proper job. Unable to agree on this point, the couple separated, but never divorced. He went on to have significant relationships with two other women: Bessie Poole, a Ziegfeld Follies performer, which lasted until 1926, and Carlotta Monti, which lasted until his death.
- He died on Christmas Day 1946, at the age of 66. He’d spent the best part of two years in a sanatorium in California. As he lay dying, his partner, Carlotta Monti, got a garden hose and sprayed water onto the roof of his room, because she knew his favourite sound was that of falling rain.
New Year New Reading Challenge?
I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:
A title with three words
- Death and Faxes
- Killing Me Softly
- Settling the Score
- Secrets and Skies
- Over the Rainbow
- Closing the Circle
A title with six words
A book with a number in the title
A book with a colour in the title
Short story collections/A book with a green cover
A book published in the last year/during lockdown
A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages
A book featuring characters from a deck of cards
A Book set during Christmas
A book with a place in the title
A Debut novel
A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings
A book with a female villain or criminal
Includes space travel
Features Royalty
Books featuring skiing or snowboarding
A book with the Olympic games in it
A book with a bird in the title
A book featuring a secret society
A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions
Raiders Trilogy:
Books featuring superheroes
Books featuring ghosts
From an Indie Publisher/Self published/An author you've not read before/A female author/A genre you wouldn't normally read/A book outside your comfort zone/A book by an author with your initials and your initials are JH
All of them!
More details can be found here
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