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

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 #:
00095
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:
August 08, 2024
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BOOK ONE: PART TWO CHAPTER EIGHT A .merican vaudeville, the counterpart of Eng-v lish "variety," was somewhat younger than Fields, having been born in Boston in 1883. The circumstances of its birth are of moderate interest, as obstetrics goes. A circus employee, Benjamin Franklin Keith, growing tired of bouncing from town to town in wagons full of freaks and carnivora, rented an empty candy store in Boston and hung out a sign, "Gaiety Museum." His only excuses for this enterprise, his sole attractions, were Baby Alice, a midget weighing one and a half pounds, and a stuffed mermaid. Bostonians, a seafaring people, are presumably blase about mermaids, for they gave the dummy very little time, but they flocked in with petty cash to see the midget. Keith was much encouraged by the success of his theater; he soon added to his cast a pair of comedians, Joe Weber and Lew Fields, and a chicken with a human face. His bill being thus balanced, the theater continued to prosper. Keith was a restless, inventive man, and he branched out rapidly. He launched the idea of continuous performances, making it possible to pay stage entertainers more money than they could get in revues, and he took every step to beguile into his new medium all the talented performers of the day. In addition to being pro ^5