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W. C. Fields
the decisions, while artistic and cultured to a fault, preferred to play it safe with Gable and Nelson Eddy. In the tycoons' defense, it must be said that Fields' reputation for truculence, unmatched in entertainment history, except possibly by John Wilkes Booth, was an effective danger signal. There were two or three studio officials, small men, who were frightened of him physically. "He beat Ed Wynn over the head with a billiard cue," one of them told an awed group in a Beverly Hills restaurant.
During this period of his travail, Fields occupied himself in playing golf, getting acquainted, talking loudly against the movie people, and running his large establishment. His old friends Le Baron and La Cava were in Hollywood, Le Baron now working for RKO and La Cava directing at Paramount; Fields saw a good deal of them, of Grady, who was with Metro-GoldwynMayer, and of Gene Fowler and Mack Sennett. Once or twice a week he drove down to Dave Chasen's restaurant and, at a table always reserved for him on those nights, bragged spaciously about the movie offers he was rejecting. He and Sennett played golf at the Lakeside course ; every time they played, Fields would say at some point, "You know, Mack, I ought to be working at that studio of yours." Sennett, who had been considering this possibility for some while, usually nodded thoughtfully. One day he replied, "That's not a bad idea, Bill."
"I'll do anything," Fields said, "write, produce, direct, anything."
Sennett thought it curious that Fields had failed to mention acting, but he said, "Why don't you drop out some day next week, Bill? We'll talk it over."
Fields shook his hand warmly, crying, "Why, that's wonderful, Mack. As I said, I'll do anything. I don't care about the money — I just want to get back to work."
On Wednesday of the following week, the comedian, in his
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