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

Fields' subsequent attitude toward the writer who had brought her out is of passing interest. Thenceforward, he never had anything to do with the man at all. Presumably, Fields took the notion that the writer might have conceived designs on Miss Monti during the brief car ride. Whatever the reason, he spoke of him in the most distrustful terms from then on out. The comedian was suspicious and jealous of nearly everybody. In the family circle (Miss Monti moved in and took up her duties soon after their introduction ) Fields preferred to dominate the conversation, and he brooked no loose compliments, or even any references, to other funny men. Miss Michael often stayed overnight, if her work had piled up. She has vivid impressions of the group clustered around the radio, searching for something not likely to irritate the master. While Fields listened to the radio a good deal, he also damned it eloquently and burlesqued it for home consumption. Both Miss Michael and Miss Monti agree that he gave splendid shows, of artistic worth rivaling that of his paid performances— a compelling tribute to his preoccupation with the medium. At the bottom of Fields' radio list were operatic divas. During programs in which these ladies rode the air, he stuffed a pillow in his shirt front and walked around the house braying like a jackass. His gestures, his expressions, occasionally even his tones, had striking verisimilitude, and his single-handed portrayal of Carmen, an omnibus effort in which he took note of several parts, including those of the fidgety heroine, the toreador, Micaela, a number of gypsies, several soldiers, and the bull, established new peaks in this kind of work. Fields was very keen on advertising, especially that of the tobacco hawkers. He often tried to ferret meaning out of sentences like "More doctors smoke Gubebs than formerly," "Repeated tests have proved that Corn Silks are not responsible for 67 per cent Q63