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

W. C. Fields spirit of Leander paddling toward Hero. Ascending the ladderv Fields had trouble with his mask, which kept slipping, and when he entered the room, the eager maid rushed forward just as he poked his rather chilling nose through the gap and began a series of low-comedy endearments in a hoarse, asthmatic whine. This scene pleased Fields, but he preferred a later one in which, again through mistaken identity, he reclined in the half dark with a goat. In the beginning, in vaudeville, Fields played, besides the Orpheum Circuit, such places as Henderson's Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and Custer and Black's Music Hall, all in New York, and Poli's Circuit, which extended into New England. After his first success with Keith's, he was booked, off and on, by the William Morris Agency, which, together with other agencies, kept him gainfully employed. Unlike many vaudeville performers, Fields managed, by skillfully juggling both agents and managers, to avoid delays between bookings. He conceived a horror of the brotherhood's familiar lament, "Between Engagements," or "At Liberty," that showed up in pathetic brevity all too often in the theatrical publications Billboard and Variety. Even when he was middle-aged, wealthy and famous, he became furtive and uneasy if unemployed for long. Idleness always revived his old fears, returning him to his starvation days — never a very long trip, in his mind. In San Francisco, again with Keith's, he had some imposing professional pictures made at Bushnell's, which was the most popular shop of its kind in those days. As pointed out by John Chapman, in his newspaper features about Fields, Bushnell's was rated above New York photographic shops because it showed that a performer was important enough to travel. Pictures inscribed "Bushnell's, San Francisco" and standing outside a theater 80