Marion Davies -- A Love-Lyric of the Revolution -- November 17, 2024

Washington Times, 29-November-1924

Janice Meredith, starring Marion Davies, was an epic tale of the American Revolutionary War. WC Fields returned to the screen in a small part.

Washington Times, 29-November-1924

Washington Times, 30-November-1924

Marion Davies -- In the Days of 1776 -- August 26, 2024

Exhibitors Herald, 16-August-1924

Marion Davies appeared in a string of successful movies.

Exhibitors Herald, 02-August-1924

Janice Meredith was an epic tale of the American Revolutionary War. Here we see the Battle of Trenton and Janice Meredith meeting George Washington, who was played by Joseph Kilgour.

Picture Play, August, 1924

Here we see Washington crossing the Deleware, the Battle of Trenton and Marian with her co-star Harrison Ford. This is not the contemporary Harrison Ford.

Exhibitors Herald, 23-August-1924

New York's Cosmopolitan Theater was specially decorated for the premiere of Janice Meredith.

Exhibitors Herald, 09-August-1924

San Francisco Bulletin, 30-August-1924

Note Gino Severi's eyebrows. 

Exhibitors Herald, 23-August-1924

"It's hundred proof!"

A Spectacular Moment from Yolanda -- May 28, 2024

Exhibitors Herald, 03-May-1924

Yolanda was another epic starring Marion Davies. 

Shreveport Times, 04-May-1924

William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions signed Fields to play a supporting role as a Red Coat Sergeant in Janice Meredith, a movie about America's Revolutionary War, which starred Hearst's inamorata, Marion Davies. Despite the statement that "This marks Mr. Fields' debut on the screen," Fields' film career had been paused since he made two short comedies in 1915. Janice Meredith was Fields' first feature film.

WC Fields -- Banana Oil -- May 16, 2024

Tacoma News Tribune, 09-May-1924

In the 1920s, "banana oil" was a synonym for "BS," "baloney" or "horse feathers." Here we see WC Fields made up as Professor Eustace McGargle in the Broadway musical Poppy. Fields was a widely proclaimed dispenser of banana oil.

Tacoma News Tribune, 09-May-1924

The item at the top is part of a full page ad announcing that Milt Gross' comic Banana Oil was going to start appearing daily in the Tacoma News Tribune. The ad includes endorsements from many popular entertainers. 

New York Daily News, 26-May-1924

Poppy was in its tenth month at the Apollo Theater. It would soon suspend operations for the summer. 

Mr. Battling Buttler was another popular musical. It starred Charlie Ruggles. In 1926, Buster Keaton starred in a silent adaption entitled "Battling Butler." Note that the musical spelled the name "Buttler" and the movie spelled it "Butler."

Shreveport Times, 04-May-1924

William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions signed Fields to play a supporting role as a Rec Coat Sergeant in Janice Meredith, a movie about America's Revolutionary War, which starred Hearst's inamorata, Marion Davies. Despite the statement that "This marks Mr. Fields' debut on the screen," Fields' film career had been paused since he made two short comedies in 1915. Janice Meredith was Fields' first feature film.

WC Fields and Jack Benny -- April 12, 2024

Motion Picture News, 12-April-1924

WC Fields, who had been having a great success with Poppy on Broadway, planned to appear in a Marion Davies movie, Janice Meredith. His film career had been paused since he made two short comedies in 1915. 

Variety, 09-April-1924

Jack Benny, who later became a huge star on the radio and made several movies, was scheduled to play the Palace. The Palace was the pinnacle of vaudeville. 

WC Fields -- In the New Musical Comedy Poppy -- September 15, 2023

New York Daily News, 03-September-1923

100 years ago this month, WC Fields appeared in the Broadway premiere of a new musical, Poppy. Dorothy Donnelly wrote the book and lyrics, and Stephen Jones and Arthur Samuels composed the music. Fields wrote some of his own material. After a long career in vaudeville, WC Fields made his film debut in 1915, but then returned to the stage, including the Follies, the Passing Shows, the Vanities and the 1922 edition of the Scandals. His film career would revive in 1924. He played a mildly crooked carnival barker, Professor Eustace McGargle.

Star Madge Kennedy had a long career on stage and in movies. She played the Professor's daughter, Poppy. 

Robert  Woolsey later teamed up with Bert Wheeler as Wheeler and Woolsey. 

listal.com

When DW Griffith adapted Poppy as a movie called Sally of the Sawdust in 1925, he had no choice but to cast Fields as the Professor. Carol Dempster played Poppy, renamed as Sally.

listal.com

In 1936 Eddie Sutherland directed a talkie adaptation of Poppy. Fields played the Professor and Rochelle Hudson played Poppy. 

WC Fields -- George White's Scandals -- March 16, 2022

Chicago Tribune, 11-March-1923

100 years ago this month, WC Fields was touring in the current edition of George White's Scandals.

George White's Scandals was a touring review like Earl Carroll's Vanities, the Ziegfeld Follies and the Passing Shows. The Scandals featured lots of showgirls wearing very few clothes. 

After a long career in vaudeville, WC Fields made his film debut in 1915, but then returned to the stage, including the Follies, the Passing Shows, the Vanities and the 1922 edition of the Scandals. His film career would revive in 1924.

Blackhawk Bulletin 229 -- WC Fields -- October 20, 2022

Blackhawk Bulletin 229, October 1972

I was an avid reader of the Blackhawk Bulletin, even though I rarely had enough money to buy any movies from Blackhawk Films. I would have loved to get this one.

In the early 1930's, WC Fields made a series of short talkie comedies that were produced by Mack Sennett. "The Dentist" is the first one that I saw and may be the funniest.

I was excited to learn that scans of many issues were available at the HMH Foundation Moving Image Archives at USC: USC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive » Blackhawk Films’ Catalogs (uschefnerarchive.com)

Larry Semon in Golf -- August 1, 2022

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Vitagraph's comedian Larry Semon starred in "Golf." Golf comedies have always been popular. See Chaplin in "The Idle Class," Billy Bevan in "The Golf Nut," Buster Keaton in "Convict 13," Laurel and Hardy in "Should Married Men Go Home?," WC Fields in "The Golf Specialist" and "The Dentist," Charley Chase in "All Teed Up," the Three Stooges in "Three Little Beers," Jerry Lewis in The Caddy and Bill Murray in Caddyshack.

WC Fields & Co -- June 18, 2022

Chicago Tribune, 30-June-1922

After a long career in vaudeville, WC Fields made his film debut in 1915, but then returned to the vaudeville stage and the Ziegfeld Follies. He did not appear in another movie until 1924. Fields appeared at the Majestic Theater in Chicago 100 years ago this month. 

"Always COOL." This was a strong selling point in cities that got hot during the summer. 

Castle Films -- Rollicking Good Times With Filmdom's Funniest Comedians -- May 21, 2022

Castle Films Catalog, 1970

I recently came across this scan of Castle Films' 1970 catalog. I never had enough money to buy any of these films, but I enjoyed looking at the catalogue entries. As a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Universal, Castle had access to many of the company's comedies starring Abbott and Costello and WC Fields.

WC Fields & Co -- April 14, 2022

Washington Herald, 16-April-1922

After a long career in vaudeville, WC Fields made his film debut in 1915, but then returned to the vaudeville stage and the Ziegfeld Follies. He did not appear in another movie until 1924. Fresh out of the touring version of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921, Fields appeared at the BF Keith Theater in Washington, DC. "Presenting Greatest Travesty in His Brilliant Comedy Career, 'GOLFING.'" Fields liked golf routines. 

Bessie Barriscale was a popular actress on the legitimate stage, in vaudeville and in movies. 

Bert Williams 100 Years -- March 4, 2022

Chicago Whip, 11-March-1922

Bahamian-American comedian Bert Williams died 100 years ago today, on 04-March-1922. Williams broke racial barriers, appearing in mainstream vaudeville and the Ziegfeld Follies. He appeared in about three movies. One was apparently not completed. 

7000 AT BERT WILLIAMS' BIER

POLICE HOLD

BACK CROWD

AT FUNERAL

Whole Nation Mourns As

Curtain Rings Down On

Premier Entertainer

NEW YORK CITY, March 8. -- More than 7,000 persons jammed the streets leading to the church at Bert Williams’ funeral here Tuesday. Details of mounted policemen patrolled the streets to keep the crowds back.

NEW YORK CITY. March 11 -- Bert Williams, considered by many critics the foremost American comedian of all times, died at his home here Saturday night of pneumonia. He was 52 years of age.

He collapsed on the stage at Detroit Monday night in the midst of the second performance of "Under the Bamboo Tree," in which he was starring. He had been in ill health for more than a year, and shortly before his collapse was under the constant attendance of physicians, who remained with him at all times, even accompanying him to and from the theatre, and sleeping in adjoining rooms with him.

Immediately after his collapse in Detroit he was taken to New York City, where it was hoped a blood transfusion would restore his health. A relapse occurred Saturday from which he was unable to recover.

Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at St. Phillip's Church, with a second ceremony to be held Wednesday afternoon under auspices of St. Cecile Lodge of Masons. He was a member of Haverly Lodge, of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Scores of telephone and telegraph messages were received by his widow at their home, 135th Street and Lenox Avenue. All day Sunday and Monday Bert's admirers, both on the stage and off thronged the house and requested the opportunity personally to pay their respects to the memory of the great entertainer.

Went on Nerve

During his recent engagement at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago Wiliams is said to have gone through his ' performances on sheer nerve, expecting a collapse at any moment, although the audience was unaware oi the fact.

Born in West Indies

Williams was born in Nassau, British West Indies and came to this country when two years of age. He worked at odd jobs in New York, and after serving an enlistment in the army, went on the stage.

He began his stage career as a banjo player with a minstrel show. He then joined with George Walker in a variety show and made a name along the Pacific Coast.

Their first hit was at Jack Halahan's Midway Theatre in San Francisco. From variety the team went to "three a-day" in vaudeville. Success finally crowned their efforts in "Dahomey," and Williams & Walker became an American institution.

One of Williams' greatest shocks was the death of his partner, George Walker. He threatened to leave the stage at Walker s death, but was persuaded by his friends to remain. Williams & Walker appeared both in this country and abroad at private entertainments and at special showings before royalty and nobility.

Scored with Follies

Bert Williams reached the zenith of his career with the Ziegfeld Follies, being even a greater drawing card than Ziegteld's far-famed. shapely limbed chorus girls. Declining health compelled him to forsake the "Follies" for a production which taxed his strength less.

No figure on the American stage was impersonated more often than was Bert Williams. Every vaudeville impersonator of stage celebrities included Bert Williams in his repertoire. His pantomime of "the poker game" is familiar to thousands of theatre-goers who never even saw Bert.

He created a comedy method of his own, which has been imitated universally. The slow, shambling gait, the balanced intonation, the clear diction and the skillful pauses, are familiar to theatre-goers.

When the famous comedian broke down in Detroit, the play. "Under the Bamboo Tree," in which he was starring was immediately disbanded. No attempt was ever made to find an understudy for him. It is said that Shelton Brooks, noticing his failing health, applied for the position.

He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Lottie Williams, formerly of Chicago.

His best-known songs were "Constantly," "I Never Done Nothing to Nobody," "Woodman, Spare That Tree," "Nothing From Nothing Leaves Me," "When the Moonshine Shines Upon the Moonshine," "Save a Little Dram for Me," and "Puppy Dog."

Washington Herald, 11-May-1913

Bert Williams is listed last among the performers in the Ziegfeld Follies. Ching Ling Foo (Chee Ling Qua) was a Chinese-born magician who toured the United States in vaudeville and the Follies. Their fellow performers in this edition of the Follies included Australian Leon Errol, who later starred in short films and B features for RKO, Elizabeth (not Fanny) Brice. Williams and Errol performed as a team, and Errol was the only white pallbearer at Williams' funeral.

Moving Picture World, 19-August-1916

"America's Greatest Comedian."

Own Castle Films' New Comedy Sensation -- January 23, 2022

Movie Makers, March, 1950

For many years, Castle Films and Official Films were the two big distributors of home movies. 

In this ad, Castle offered the automotive cataclysm from the finale of WC Fields' last starring feature, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. In 1947, Universal took control of Castle Films, giving Castle access to Universal productions like Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. 

Other items include a Walter Lantz cartoon, which had been released by Universal, and a movie of Deanna Durbin, a Universal star, singing "Ave Maria." 

W. C. Fields, Comic, Dies at 66; Quips With Nurses To the Last -- December 25, 2021

Washington Evening Star, 26-December-1946

Ironically, WC Fields, who professed to hate children and Christmas, died 75 years ago on Christmas day, 25-December-1946. I wonder if the item in his will leaving money to help white orphans was a gag poking fun at racism, or was it actually racism? A "dropsical condition" is an edema, a swelling. Fields made his first two films in 1915, then returned to films in 1924. 

W. C. Fields, Comic, Dies at 66;

Quips With Nurses to Last

Dropsical Condition

Fatal to Juggler

Who Rose to Stardom

By the Associated Press

PASADENA, Calif,, Dec. 26. -- Bulbous-nosed W. C. Fields, 66, vaudevillian and movie comic, whose capacity for liquor finally became a matter of court record, died Christmas Day in a sanitarium where for months he had been under treatment for a liver ailment.

Nurses said he quipped with them until, a few hours before his death, he slipped into a coma.

Although he had been troubled by liver and kidney ailments for two years, physicians said the immediate cause of death was a dropsical condition.

Born Claude William Dukinfield in Philadelphia, January 29, 1880, he revised his last name, reversed his initials and graduated from a $5-a-week juggler to the Ziegfeld Follies and ultimately into films.

Nose Was Trademark.

Of his nose, a trademark sometimes believed connected with his love of strong beverage, he once said:

The Fields nose was this size before I ever learned there was such delight in experimenting with spirits frumenti."

Nine years ago, a physician sued Mr. Fields for $12,000 for 23 days of hospital treatment. Mr. Fields retorted in a cross-complaint that the doctor’s methods retarded his recovery, to which the physician replied that the comic’s habit of drinking two quarts a day was the impeding factor.

"Nonsense," Mr. Fields bellowed, in his best buffoon manner. "I never drank two quarts a day, not even in the good old days. Right now I'm a teetotaler."

The judge awarded the doctor $12,000, but the Appeals Court pared the figure to $2.000.

Frequent Gag Target.

He was a frequent target for gags from other comics and only yesterday -- on a special Christmas broadcast -- his close friend Bob Hope aimed a barb in Mr. Fields' direction, not knowing that the latter already was dead. Informed of it later. Mr. Hope said he made Mr. Fields a frequent target because the latter got "such a big kick out of it."

"I feel terrible about his death," Mr. Hope added. "He was one of the world’s great comedians. The world will certainly lose a lot of laughs."

Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in nearby Glendale, resting place of such movie greats as Jean Harlow, Marie Dressier and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., will be the scene of fujneral services. The time has not yet been set.

Left Home at 11.

Mr. Fields left home and school at the age of 11 after a dispute with his father.

For four years he existed with some other boys by doing odd jobs. He said he once had a job driving an ice wagon, but quit because he had to rise at 4 a.m. He determined to find a profession in which he would not have to get up in the morning.

The actor started juggling, while in his teens and declared he practiced sometimes 16 hours a day. His first professional job was in a summer park at Norristown. Pa., at $5 a week.

Advancing in the show business, Mr. Fields made a vaudeville tour of Europe and other continents. On his return from a trip to Australia he was discovered by Composer Gene Buck and brought to the attention of Florenz Ziegfeld, the great showman. For 10 years Fields was a member of the Ziegleld troupe of comedians that included Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor, Ed Wynn, Fanny Brice and Bert Williams. He also was in Earl Caroll’s "Vanities."

Entered Films in 1924.

In 1924 Producer D. W. Griffith was making "Sally of the Sawdust," a film version of Fields' stage success, "Poppy," and induced the comedian to recreate the role on the screen. Mr. Fields stayed for seven more pictures before he returned to Broadway.

He went back to Hollywood in 1932, this time to stay. Although he never received screen credit, he wrote much of his own material, using such pseudonyms as Charles Bogle or Mahatma Khan Jeeves.

Outstanding pictures in which Fields appeared included: "It's the Old Army Game," "Million Dollar Legs, "If I Had a Million," "International House," "Six of a Kind," "Alice in Wonderland," "Old Fashioned Way," "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch," "It’s a Gift," "David Copperfield," "Mississippi," "The Man on the Flying Trapeze," "Poppy," "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man," "My Little Chickadee," "The Bank Dick" and "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break."

Always A Showman.

The comedian had no use for a script. He would just get a fair idea of the movie story and ad lib it from there. The same was true on the air and many a radio executive spent frightening moments while Mr. Fields deviated from the written (and censored) script. A true showman, he was the master of any situation. During one theater engagement an assistant fell against a backdrop and brought the painting of houses on a New York street crashing to the stage. Fields saved the day by remarking. "They don't put up buildings like they used to."

About the only time he stuck to the script was when he played Micawber in the picturization of Dickens' "David Copperfield." "Even then I could think of some snappy ways to read the lines," he said.

Mr. Fields was married in 1901 and was never divorced. His wife Harriet, a nonprofessional, reared their only child. W. C. Jr., after they were separated. W. C. III, a grandchild. was born in 1943.

Washington Evening Star, 26-December-1946

Fields' Will Sets Up Fund

For College for Orphans

By the Associated Press

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 28. -- Comedian W. C. Fields, who died Christmas Day, bequeathed part of his estate for the benefit of orphans, Attorney Leo L. Schaumer said today.

Mr. Schaumer. counsel for the executrix, Mrs. Magda Michael, Mr. Fields' secretary for many years, said the will directed that a trust fund be set up to establish a non-denominational college here for white orphans.

Members of Mr. Fields' family also are beneficiaries, Mr. Schaumer said. He would not disclose the size of the estate or of the proposed trust fund. The will was drawn in 1943.

Funeral arrangements have not been completed.

Washington Evening Star, 31-December-1946

Private Rites Will Be Held

Thursday for W. C. Fields

By the Associated Press

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 31. -- Private funeral services for W. C. Fields, the comedian, will be held Thursday morning.

His widow, Harriet, from whom he was separated years ago, disclosed through her lawyer that an intimate friend would say a word of farewell and that only Mr. Fields’ closest friends would attend.

Burial will be in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.

Announcing that the body would be placed in a mausoleum, the attorney for Mrs. Fields said: "We do not wish that he be cremated, as this is not favored by the Catholic Church. While we favored interment in the ground, he always opposed being buried in the earth and we are sure that he would be comfortable with what we have done."

Mr. Fields left instructions that his body be cremated.

WC Fields -- The Flivvertons and Their Family Ford -- October 24, 2021

Washington Evening Star, 02-October-1921

After a long career in vaudeville, WC Fields made his film debut in 1915, but then returned to the vaudeville stage and the Ziegfeld Follies. He did not appear in another movie until 1924. He developed and performed "The Flivvertons and Their Family Ford" as a sketch in the Ziegfeld Follies. Jim Harkins took the role of the father, which Fields had played in the Follies.

Washington Evening Star, 02-October-1921

"W. G. Fields Presents..." 

"Juggling Bill" Fields Becomes a Straight Comedian -- July 21, 2021

 

New York Tribune, 24-July-1921

After a long career in vaudeville, WC Fields made his film debut in 1915, but then returned to the stage and the Ziegfeld Follies. He did not appear in another movie until 1924. This article claims that Fields did not drop the juggling from his act until 1921. Could be.

"Juggling Bill"

Fields Becomes a

Straight Comedian

For years -- at least long before the coming of the Volstead law -- W. C. Fields hiccupped his inebriate way in and out of the scenes of Ziegfeld's annual summer pleasantry, "The Follies," juggling hats, canes, tennis balls, golf balls, hat racks, plates, dishes and cigar boxes. He was a fixture, and every year he had a surprise for Broadway audiences.

This year at the Globe, where "The Follies" is playing, Mr. Fields is revealed as a straight comedian. He does not juggle a single juggle. Fields has always been a comedian, but he didn't know it until Mr. Ziegfeld suggested to him that he was just as good without his juggling as he was with it.

"Anyway, Bill, I'm going to try you at it," Mr. Ziegfeld told Fields six months ago. And Fields was glad to be relieved of the grind of juggling rehearsals, but he approached his new sphere with great misgivings. He didn't think he could do it. But he did.

Just now Fields does not believe he will ever go back to juggling, but of course he will, for juggling, as any juggler will tell you, is a sort of habit-forming industry -- once started, you juggle all your life.

Fields began to juggle at the age of eight. He has juggled around the world, appearing at various times in London, Berlin, Paris, Melbourne, New Zealand, China, Japan and Cuba. He first ran away with a circus, but his parents yanked him back when he was two days out. He had hired out as assistant to a cannon ball juggler when his parents wanted him to study law.

Fields finally did take a job in a drugstore, sweeping out and running errands and waiting on customers when the boss went to dinner.

One day the boss returned, walked behind the prescription case, and then his hair did a splendid imitation of a comedy fright wig. It stood on end. Fields was juggling three bottles of powerful acids. When the druggist crept out and walked around the block expecting to return to find his assistant beyond human help he found him instead, at the cigar counter juggling cigar boxes.

That ended Fields's career as a pharmacist, and after playing a few small-time vaudeville houses he went to Europe. It was in Paris that Ziegfeld first saw him and put him in "The Follies." where he has been for eight years.

In the present edition of that summer revue Fields is showing that he is a real straight comedian. In the scene with Raymond Hitchcock, Ray Dooley and Fannie Brice he holds up his end of the fun-making with them all.

"It is a great relief," says Fields, "to get away from juggling for just one season. I had to keep practicing at least six hours a day. I had to keep the hours of an athlete, and, all in all, it was a tough existence. I feel that I am at last having a real vacation."

Hula Hula Island -- April 1, 2019

Motion Picture Classic, August, 1926

"Lillian Gish asked for and got the part of the native dancer in a South Sea Island picture with W. C. Fields as the shipwrecked yachtsman."

Gloria Jean, RIP -- September 4, 2018

www.listal.com

I was sorry to learn that actress Gloria Jean died at the end of August.  She worked well with WC Fields in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, and they seem to have liked each other.

www.listal.com

WC Fields His Lordship's Dilemma -- July 5, 2017

Moving Picture World, 09-October-1915

WC Fields' second movie, "His Lordship's Dilemma," is probably lost.  It was produced in 1915 by Gaumont as part of its Casino Star Comedies series.

Omaha Daily Bee, 24-October-1915

 "John T. Rocks and the Flivver" was a Thanhouser production.  "The Great Question," not to be confused with DW Griffith's The Greatest Question, was an American Film Manufacturing Company production.

Moving Picture World, 23-October-1915

 There is a good chance you have not heard of the other Gaumont Stars listed here.