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

W. C. Fields the wire, studied a fictitious signature, and with his upper lip lifted in careful enunciation, said "Sneed Hearn." An assistant directer later asked him out of curiosity what had prompted him to tack on the name, and he said, "It just seemed like a good idea at the time." It was an incident similar to his irrelevant comment a few years later during a radio program. In the middle of a script he remarked conversationally, "I wear red woolen underwear winter and summer" — a gratuitous lie, since he never owned a suit of woolen underwear in his life. A member of the production staff expressed interest in the statement and he said, "Oh, I don't know — people are always telling me things like that as if they were letting me in on something." The business of scene-stealing represented total war to Fields. He had no scruples about tricking his closest friends. His behavior was much like that of an amiable but efficient prize fighter; during the rounds he was occupied in trying to fracture his opponents' skulls; at the bell he was ready to embrace and exchange amenities. Fields had real affection for Bing Crosby, his neighbor and occasional companion. In turn, Crosby had an idolatrous, filial attitude toward Fields, whom he always called "Uncle Bill." They were both gratified when they were cast together in the picture Mississippi, which Eddie Sutherland directed. Fields was never in better form. His accounts to his gambler friends of "cutting a swath" through a living wall of Indians; his manipulation of the river boat's wheel, absently tilting his cigar as each spoke came by; his poker games — these were sequences that pleased him, and he capered along in his most larcenous style. Crosby played the scenes with his usual quiet competence, satisfied to let the director worry about where the emphasis was falling. He sang and he made love to Joan Bennett, though he was consistently interrupted by the overpowering rasp of the 236