W. C. Fields : his follies and fortunes (1949)

Page scan 00040 from W. C. Fields : his follies and fortunes

Record Details:

Title:
W. C. Fields : his follies and fortunes
Date:
1949
Publisher:
Garden City, NY : Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Volume:
W. C. Fields : his follies and fortunes
Leaf #:
00040
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Motion pictures--Biography
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Date Added:
September 19, 2024
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CHAPTER FOUR T JLm he second winter after his departure Fields entered upon a time which was forever afterward distasteful to him. He tried to forget it. In interviews he skirted it nimbly, allowing his hobo triumphs to stand intact and untarnished. Only a handful of persons — relatives for the most part — knew his dreadful secret. The regrettable truth is, however, that for a space he backslid in a rather shocking manner. After one spirited dip of the temperature, during which Wheeler closed the forge and muttered vaguely about moving to Georgia, Fields went to live with his maternal grandmother. It is to be presumed that she informed the boy's parents of his whereabouts, but they made no recorded attempt to recover him. Persons close to the situation believe that, in the two years, they had made adjustments. His cushioned residence was only a part of the compromise that Fields eventually came to regard as infamous. He accepted employment. His grandmother was opposed to children stealing for a living, and she said so, in robust language. Under her tutelage he got a job as "cash boy" at Strawbridge & Clothier's Department Store. His duties consisted of sprinting back and forth between departments, holding a leather cup containing change. He suffered terribly, according to one of the few friends he later 26