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

W. C. Fields palpable failure, then said, "I've caught your act many times, Bill. I think it might work out in the Follies/3 Fields replied, in a condescending voice, that he'd check his commitments, and a few minutes later he began to discuss terms. For a man who had just been booted from a cast after one performance, he was peculiarly high-handed. To land on the legitimate stage, he finally agreed to accept $200 a week, with certain strictures about dressing accommodations, billing and minor expenses, and Buck signed him for the Ziegfeld Follies of 19*5 In the intervening time, Fields returned to vaudeville, obtaining bookings, as before, over the Orpheum Circuit. He commanded higher prices, by advertising himself, verbally and a little prematurely, as a full-fledged Follies star. "Wherever he went," says one of his friends of that era, "he spoke familiarly of the legitimate stage and was critical of the best-known musical-comedy figures of the day." In his dressing rooms, during these vaudeville tours, his attitude was florid and majestic; he had quite plainly arrived, but he was tolerant of, and even helpful toward, his struggling colleagues. He leaned on a sort of editorial "we," a reference to himself and his fellow players of the higher spheres. He often laughed indulgently and spoke in the past tense of Watch Your Step, which was enjoying an excellent run in New York. To newspapermen everywhere, Fields made sage, proprietary observations about the Follies and the state of musical comedy in general. "One gathered that he might make some important changes for the forthcoming season," an acquaintance has said. The Duluth Herald of April 22, 19 15, said, "W. C. Fields is closing his vaudeville work next week to go into the Follies, which will open in New York June the first, run through the summer, and tour to the coast and back during the winter." The interns