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

cheese. He himself got out his ice buckets, including a red one that was often referred to in newspaper accounts of his drinking, and filled them. He had a built-in refrigerator in the silver-plated Lincoln, but he wanted to take no chances of running short. When the ice buckets were in shape, he unlocked his liquor room (which was then secured by two iron bars and four padlocks) and carried down a case of Lanson '28. He added to the champagne several bottles of gin, half-a-dozen bottles of imported burgundy, and half-a-dozen bottles of a fine, dry sauterne. Fields disliked sweet wines. He put a case of beer in the Lincoln's refrigerator, then had his chauffeur drive him and the three girls to the Vendome, a fancy catering establishment. He bought about a hundred dollars5 worth of black caviar, pate de jois gras, anchovies, smoked oysters, baby shrimps, crab meat, tinned lobster, potted chicken and turkey, several cheeses, including a soft yellow Swiss cheese he was especially fond of, and some strong cheeses like Liederkranz and Camembert, a big bottle of Grecian olives, and three or four jars of glazed fruit. Back home, his cook had made sandwiches out of water cress, chopped olives and nuts, tongue, peanut butter and strawberry preserves, and deviled egg and spiced ham. She had also baked both an angel food and a devils food cake. "What we've missed we'll pick up on the road," Fields said, and he ushered the three girls to the car, which the chauffeur had rubbed down with a chamois and vacuumed on the inside. Fields sat in front. In the glove compartment he kept his martini glass, which he passed back every half-hour or so for a refill. They drove up Hollywood Boulevard, cut over to Sunset and followed the winding, busy artery through Beverly Hills, past the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Westwood turnoff, Sepulveda, and into Pacific Palisades. The chauffeur, by direction, drove slowly, so that Fields could point to many features of interest, including 283