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

W. C. Fields rolling, Sennett fixed on a system whereby he might retain a slight hand in his studio's management and keep Fields propitiated besides. "It was very simple," he says. "All I had to do was make Bill feel that he thought of everything, and he co-operated perfectly." Sennett would develop a gag, mention it to Fields, hear it damned and blasted, and drop it meekly for about a week. Then he would say, "You know, Bill, I've been thinking over that business of yours about the washtub and the goat, and I believe it would work out fine." "I thought you'd see the light on that one," Fields would reply, and add, "I did it in the Follies." He had a stock answer any time he was pushed. "I'm afraid that's for some other boy," he'd say, then he would pick up a newspaper and retire to a rocker he kept in his dressing room. Despite the arguments, Sennett and his new comedian remained friendly and turned out a string of brilliant comedies. Fields liked the atmosphere of informal gaiety around the Keystone Studios, which were unique in Hollywood. Sennett, amused by the formidable bastions surrounding the major lots, had no fences, no walls, no watchmen, no barriers of any kind to keep out the public. He even did without the vital Hollywood secretary, whose principal function, as she did sentry-go in the outer office, was to provide a spurious air of jammed-up importance while her mentor, huddled inside, nervously studied his option and swilled Bromo-Seltzer. People wishing to observe a Keystone comedy in the making could wander in and out at their leisure ; if by inadvertence they got in front of the camera, Sennett seldom bothered to reshoot. "Most everybody's funny, one way or another," he told a writer. Fields also approved the absence of prohibitive signs on the Keystone walls. The big studios were, and are, generously dec 216