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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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."
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| 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.
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