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

W. C. Fields few weeks after the opening, in New York, he was virtually running the show. Mclntyre and Heath had to dig vigorously to keep on the pay roll. Fields stayed with The Ham Tree for its New York run and on the road through the years 1906 and 1907, but he never gave his employers a peaceful moment. By now his standing with the press was quite solid, and he gave out interviews all along the route that made pointed mention of richer offers elsewhere. Over his theater there hung always the sinister threat that he might bolt. An Ohio paper of October 17, 1905, said, "W. C. Fields, the 'Sherlock Baffles' of The Ham Tree company has been offered an engagement at the London Hippodrome. But he won't go. There has been talk of starring him next year in a piece that will give him an opportunity to employ his juggling. The talk has not yet come to anything like a definite arrangement, but Fields has decided that the possibility is worth trying for. He will stay with The Ham Tree, meanwhile, waiting for developments." During the run, Fields felt it vital to impress two things upon the management : ( 1 ) that he was outstanding and ( 2 ) that he should juggle. In consequence, he was alert and voluble when he collared his old friends of the press. "One of the most amusing bits in The Ham Tree'3 said the Pittsburgh Sun of May 1, 1907, "in which Mclntyre and Heath are appearing at the theater this week is the part of Sherlock Baffles which W. G. Fields is portraying. Since The Ham Tree has been on the road (and is now in its second season) he has been appearing in the role and his work has been one of the hits of the piece. During one portion of the entertainment he works in his specialty — that of juggling." From Fields' standpoint, a report forcibly concise and to the point. For the Chicago Herald of January 7, 1906, he consented to do a first-person piece that would appear under the introduction, 122