Look up field in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Field may refer to:

Expanses of open ground[link]

• Field (agriculture)
• Playing field, used for sports or games
• Lawn, mowed grass field
• Meadow, an untilled field
• Aerodrome, an air field

People[link]

• Field (surname)
• Field Cate, American child actor

Places[link]

• Field, British Columbia, Canada
• Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
• Field, Ontario, Canada
• Field Island, Nunavut, Canada
• Mount Field (disambiguation)

Science and mathematics[link]

• Field (mathematics), type of algebraic structure
• Field (physics), mathematical construct for analysis of remote effects
• Field (geography), with a definition similar to that of physics but in a different context and using unique models and methods
• Field (computer science), a smaller piece of data from a larger collection (e.g., database fields)
• Field-programmability, an electronic device's capability of being reprogrammed with new logic
• Field of sets, a mathematical structure of sets in an abstract space
• Electric field, term in physics to describe the energy that surrounds electrically charged particles
• Magnetic field, force produced by moving electric charges
• Electromagnetic field, combination of an electric field and magnetic field
• Field winding or field magnet, the stator of an electric motor
• Field of heliostats, an assembly of heliostats acting together

Sociology and politics[link]

• Field (Bourdieu), a sociological term coined by Pierre Bourdieu to describe the system of objective relations constituted by various species of capital
• Field Department, the division of a political campaign tasked with organizing local volunteers and directly contacting voters
• Sexual field, a term that describes systems of objective relations within collective sexual life

Businesses[link]

• Field Enterprises, a defunct private holding company
  • Field Communications, a division of Field Enterprises
• Field Records, a record label

Technical uses[link]

• Field (heraldry), the background of a shield
• Field (video), one half of a frame in an interlaced display
• Field, in flag terminology, the background of a flag

Other[link]

• Field of study, a branch of knowledge
• Field of view, the area of a view imaged by a lens
• Field of use, the subject matter of a patent license limited to some but not all uses of the invention
• Visual field, the part of the field of view which can be perceived by the eye's retina
• Depth of field, in photography, the distance in front of and beyond the subject that appears to be in focus
• Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago
• FIELD (magazine), a literary magazine published by Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio
• Field (sculpture), by Anthony Gormley

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Field"
• All pages with titles containing "Field"
• Fields (disambiguation)
• The Field (disambiguation)
• Fielding (disambiguation)
• Feild, surname
• Feld, surname

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Gary Moore
Moore in 2008
Background information
Birth name	Robert William Gary Moore
Born	(1952-04-04)4 April 1952 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died	6 February 2011(2011-02-06) (aged 58) Estepona, Malaga Province, Spain
Genres	Blues rock, hard rock, heavy metal, blues, jazz fusion
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, harmonica
Years active	1969–2011
Labels	Virgin, Eagle
Associated acts	Skid Row, Thin Lizzy, Colosseum II, Phil Lynott, Greg Lake, BBM
Website	www.gary-moore.com
Notable instruments
Gary Moore Signature Les Paul Fender Stratocaster

Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 1952^[1] – 6 February 2011), was a Northern Irish musician, most widely recognised as a blues singer and guitarist.

In a career dating back to the 1960s, Moore played with artists including Phil Lynott and Brian Downey during his teens, leading him to memberships with the Irish bands Skid Row and Thin Lizzy on three separate occasions. Moore shared the stage with such blues and rock luminaries as B.B. King, Albert King, Colosseum II, George Harrison and Greg Lake, as well as having a successful solo career. He guested on a number of albums recorded by high profile musicians, including a cameo appearance playing the lead guitar solo on "She's My Baby" from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.

Early life and career[link]

Moore started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar at the age of eight. He got his first quality guitar at the age of 14, learning to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left-handed. He moved to Dublin in 1968 at the age of 16. His early musical influences were artists such as Albert King, Elvis Presley, The Shadows and The Beatles. Later, having seen Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in his home town of Belfast, his own style was developing into a blues-rock sound that would be the dominant form of his career in music.

Moore's greatest influence in the early days was guitarist Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac who was a mentor to Moore when performing in Dublin. Green's continued influence on Moore was later repaid as a tribute to Green on his 1995 album Blues for Greeny, an album consisting entirely of Green compositions. On this tribute album, Moore played Green's 1959 Les Paul Standard guitar which Green had lent to Moore after leaving Fleetwood Mac. Moore ultimately purchased the guitar, at Green's request, so that "it would have a good home".^[2]

Moore performing at the Manchester Apollo, 1985

While less popular in the US, Moore's work "brought substantial acclaim and commercial success in most other parts of the world – especially in Europe".^[3] Throughout his career, Moore was recognised as an influence by many notable guitarists including Vivian Campbell,^[4] Patrick Rondat,^[5] John Norum, Paul Gilbert,^[6] Gus G, Slash, Orianthi, Joe Bonamassa, Adrian Smith, Doug Aldrich, Zakk Wylde,^[7] Randy Rhoads, John Sykes and Kirk Hammett^[8]

He collaborated with a broad range of artists including Phil Lynott, George Harrison, Trilok Gurtu, Dr. Strangely Strange, Colosseum II, Travelling Wilburys, Albert Collins, Jimmy Nail, Mo Foster, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Jim Capaldi, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Vicki Brown, Cozy Powell, Rod Argent, the Beach Boys, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul Rodgers, Keith Emerson, Roger Daltrey, Albert King and together with Colosseum II with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the composer's Variations album in 1978. He experimented with many musical genres, including rock, jazz, blues, country, electric blues, hard rock and heavy metal.^[9]

In 1968, aged 16, Moore moved to Dublin to join the group Skid Row with Noel Bridgeman and Brendan "Brush" Shiels. It was with this group that he earned a reputation in the music industry, and his association with Phil Lynott began.^[10]

Solo career[link]

Moore released his first solo album in 1973, Grinding Stone (billed as "the Gary Moore Band"). 'Grinding Stone' was issued in North America on Neil Kempfer-Stocker's fledgling record label imprint Cosmos. It received 'Album of the Year' accolades on KTAC-FM/Seattle-Tacoma, Washington in 1974. In 1978 his solo career continued with help from Phil Lynott. The combination of Moore's blues-based guitar and Lynott's voice produced "Parisienne Walkways", which reached the Top Ten in the UK Singles Chart in April 1979 and the Thin Lizzy album Black Rose: A Rock Legend which reached number two in the UK album chart. Moore appears in the videos for Waiting for an Alibi and Do Anything You Want To.

In 1987, he collaborated on the UK charity record "Let It Be", a cover of the Beatles track. He performed a guitar solo for inclusion on the recording, which was released under the group-name of 'Ferry Aid'. The record raised substantial funds for the survivors of the MS Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.

In 1993, he was included on a cassette called Rock Classics Vol. 1 with "Run to Your Mama", and "Dark Side of the Moog".

Moore performing, 23 October 2010

After a series of rock records, Moore returned to blues music with Still Got the Blues, with contributions from Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. The album was well received by fans. He stayed with the blues format until 1997 when he returned to the harder rock, but with a softer, more pop and ballad-oriented sound on Dark Days in Paradise followed with another change of direction in 1999, when he decided to experiment with modern dance beats on A Different Beat; this left many fans, as well as the music press, confused. He also contributed guitar sections to Richard Blackwood's 2000 album, You'll Love to Hate This.

With Back to the Blues, Moore returned to his tried and tested blues format in 2001: he continued with this style on Power of the Blues (2004), Old New Ballads Blues (2006), Close As You Get (2007) and Bad For You Baby (2008).

In January 2005, Moore joined the One World Project, which recorded a song for the 2004 Asian Tsunami relief effort. The group featured Russell Watson, Boy George, Steve Winwood, Barry Gibb, Brian Wilson, Cliff Richard, Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Robin Gibb on vocals (in their order of appearance), and featured a guitar solo by Moore. The song, entitled "Grief Never Grows Old", was released in February 2005, reaching #4 on the UK Singles Chart.^[11]

At a press conference in Russia, weeks before his death, he announced that he would not visit the "criminal state" of Israel "because of its racist policies against the Palestinian people".

He also took part in a comedy skit entitled "The Easy Guitar Book Sketch" with comedian Rowland Rivron and fellow musicians Mark Knopfler, Lemmy from Motorhead, Mark King from Level 42, and David Gilmour.

Personal life[link]

Moore grew up on Castleview Road opposite Stormont's Parliament Buildings, off the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast, as one of five children of a promoter named Bobby and housewife, Winnie, but he left the city as a teenager, because all was not well in their household. His parents parted a year later. He left just as The Troubles were starting in Northern Ireland.^[12]

Aiming to become a musician he moved to Dublin at the age of 16 and joined Skid Row, a band that then included Phil Lynott. Moore would later join Lynott again in 1973 when he first joined Thin Lizzy, after the departure of founding member Eric Bell and again in 1977. He moved to England in 1970 and remained there, apart from two short periods in America. In 2002 he bought a five-bedroom detached Edwardian house in Hove, just west of Brighton, Sussex, to be near his sons, Jack and Gus, from his former marriage which had lasted from 1985 to 1993. Since 1997 he was living with his partner, an artist named Jo, and their daughter Lily (b. 1999) and Saoirse.^[12] His residence was reported to be on Vallance Gardens in Hove, East Sussex.^[13]

Death[link]

Moore died of a massive heart attack, associated with consumption of large amounts of alcohol,^[14] at the age of 58 during the early hours of 6 February 2011. At the time, he was on holiday at the Kempinski Hotel in Estepona, Spain, with his girlfriend, who raised the alarm at 4:00 am. His death was confirmed by Thin Lizzy's manager Adam Parsons.^[10][15][16] Tests revealed that Moore died after consuming huge amounts of alcohol. He had 380 mg of alcohol per decilitre of blood in his system – 30 mg more than the amount usually associated with such deaths. Although he wasn't driving, that amount would have put him nearly five times over the legal limit for driving in the UK.^[14]

Moore was laid to rest in St Margaret's Churchyard, Rottingdean, East Sussex, England, which is close to Brighton, in a private ceremony with only the family in attendance.^[17]

Legacy[link]

This article mainly consists of lists. The information may be better understood by either replacing or supporting with prose. You can help by consulting the relevant guideline and making appropriate changes or additions. Editing help is available. (September 2011)

Since his death, many fellow musicians have commented on Gary Moore's talents including Ozzy Osbourne,^[18] Eric Singer,^[19] Doug Aldrich,^[20] T mi,^[21] Bob Geldof,^[22] Roger Taylor,^[23] Brian May,^[24] Brian Downey,^[25][26] Andy DiGelsomina,^[27] Ricky Warwick,^[28] Glenn Hughes, Bryan Adams, Henry Rollins, Scott Gorham,^[29] Ignacio Garay,^[30] and Mikael Åkerfeldt.^[31] On 18 April 2011, a number of musicians including Eric Bell and Brian Downey, Silverbird and The Business blues band gathered for a tribute concert in Whelan's bar in Dublin, Ireland titled 'The Gig For Gary'.^[32]

Fans have called for popular magazines such as Classic Rock, Guitarist and Total Guitar to do tributes. In March 2011 Guitarist produced a tribute special with unreleased footage from 2009. Twitter was flooded with tributes from fans for several days after the news was revealed.^[33]

Moore left an estate worth more than £2 million following his death.^{[citation needed]}

Discography[link]

• Grinding Stone (1973)
• Back on the Streets (1978)
• G-Force (1980)
• Corridors of Power (1982)
• Dirty Fingers (1984)
• Victims of the Future (1984)
• Run for Cover (1985)
• Wild Frontier (1987)
• After the War (1989)
• Still Got the Blues (1990)
• After Hours (1992)
• Blues for Greeny (1995)
• Dark Days in Paradise (1997)
• A Different Beat (1999)
• Back to the Blues (2001)
• Scars (2002)
• Power of the Blues (2004)
• Old New Ballads Blues (2006)
• Close As You Get (2007)
• Bad for You Baby (2008)

Tributes:

• Give us Moore! - Gary Moore Tribute (Lion Music 2004)^[34]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gary Moore

Field Mob is an American Hip-Hop group from Albany, Georgia composed of artists Shawn Timothy Johnson and Darion Crawford better known by their stage names Shawn Jay and Smoke respectively. Field Mob is signed to T-Pain's label Nappy Boy Entertainment.

Biography[link]

Formation[link]

Darion and Shawn grew up on the outskirts of Albany, Georgia a few blocks from each other in a relatively poor neighborhood locally known as "The Field" because of its semi-rural location as compared to the city's public housing.^[1] As teenagers attending Monroe Comprehensive High School, Darion observed Shawn and a group of friends holding rap freestyle battles in the schools courtyard, with Shawn being the "reigning champion." Darion decided to challenge Shawn on the idea that "he was just as good" and won. For four weeks afterward, the informal competition continued daily, with the victor alternating between himself and Shawn, and attracting the attention of many other students who came to spectate. Eventually, Shawn offered to form a rap group with Darion, and Field Mob was born.^[2]

According to Smoke and Shawn Jay, the origins of the duo's name are twofold. Field is a reference not only to the neighborhood where they grew up, but also an allusion to a slang term for the southern United States. Mob signifies the strength the duo represents- "We’re two people but together we make an army. We’re making a strong statement with two people. We’re a two man army.”^[1]

MCA[link]

Late in 1999, after floundering for sometime in the local music scene, Field Mob was signed to Southern House Records, a small independent label, recording the single Project Dreamz. The group then set out on the road to promote their new release during a time when the southern hip hop scene was on the rise. The single eventually drew the attention of MCA Records Benny Pugh and within days Field Mob inked a deal, making them the first southern hip hop act to be signed to a New York based label.^[1]

613: Ashy to Classy[link]

December 2000 saw the release of Field Mob's debut 613: Ashy to Classy. Introduced to much critical acclaim and hailed by some hip hop press outlets, most notably The Source, as one of the best albums of 2001, it reached #35 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums.^[3] Following their debut success, the duo's collaboration was sought after by several well-known regional artists, including Trick Daddy and Big Boi of Outkast, lending further public exposure and notoriety.^[2]

From tha Roota to tha Toota[link]

In October 2002, the group's second album From tha Roota to tha Toota was released. While some reviews were mixed, the album sold well, becoming certified gold and garnering the group their second largest hit to date (as of 9/07) with the Jazze Pha produced single "Sick of Being Lonely." (released July 3, 2003).^[2][3]

Disturbing tha Peace[link]

As Field Mob's career seemed to be accelerating, Universal Music Group, MCA Records parent, began to phase out the label in the spring of 2003, with the former company's rock, pop, and urban catalogs absorbed into Geffen Records. This action left the future of the duo's contract and any subsequent album releases in doubt. It appeared that Field Mob and their deep south influence may fade from the hip hop scene at large.^[4]

However, the situation came to the attention of Disturbing tha Peace CEO Ludacris, who saw untapped potential in the young rappers. After negotiations, which involved relieving them of their old MCA contract, the group was signed to Disturbing tha Peace in August 2005, shortly thereafter appearing on Ludacris Presents: Disturbing tha Peace, a collaboration album showcasing the label's new artists. The duo's track Georgia featuring Ludacris and Jamie Foxx became an instant underground hit and the albums top selling single, eventually reaching #39 on the US Billboard 200 and setting the tone for their third album.^[4][5]

Light Poles and Pine Trees[link]

After a postponed 2005 release date, Light Poles and Pine Trees dropped in June 2006 to high acclaim and much fanfare, owing at least partly from an extensive promotional campaign by Disturbing tha Peace and multiple radio promo tracks. This album garnered the pair their biggest hit^[6] with its first official single, So What, featuring Ciara and coincidentally also produced by Jazze Pha. This release reached #7 on the US Billboard 200 and #2 on Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums.^[3][5]

The groups increased success since signing with Disturbing tha Peace was largely been attributed to better promotion by their new label and, most importantly, the artistic freedom that the group has been allowed in their new home. Darian related this sentiment in an interview for SOHH.com:

"I went free with my creativity [at DTP, unlike when] I was over at MCA, aka rape you records. Ludacris let me say what I wanna say. If I wanna say f**k..., he's cool with it cause he trusts my creativity. I never knew our CEO at MCA Records. I never got to talk to him.... [Ludacris and I] are friends more than business partners, I'd like to say."^[4]

After DTP[link]

The group eventually left Disturbing tha Peace Records when, late 2011, Shawn Jay felt disrespected by a song Ludacris produced for his mixtape 1.21 Gigawatts: Back To The First Time which spawned a dispute between the two former label mates.

Controversy[link]

In April 2006 a controversial video leaked on the internet appeared to feature Smoke and Shawn Jay disrespecting New York hip hop artists and challenging the likes of Jay-Z and Nas to rap battles. This video turned out to have been filmed and produced by a Disturbing tha Peace cameraman who had subsequently been terminated by the label. In attempt to slander Field Mob, he had edited various pieces of footage together, bringing them totally out of context. The most inflammatory footage, of the pair poking fun at New York slang, was confirmed by Smoke to be a friendly joke toward Disturbing tha Peace co-CEO's, executives, and Harlem natives Chaka Zulu and his brother Jeff Dixon. Furthermore, though the footage was edited to cast a negative light, Smoke points out that "[New York artists] do [Southern artists] like that all the time, but nobody says nothing about it..."^[4]

Solo projects[link]

As of spring 2008 Smoke has signed a record deal with the Phoenix Arizona based indie label Mpire Records, under the Chevy P moniker. A new album, Caprice Classics , was scheduled for release in 2009 but has since been shelved. The music video for this album's pre-release single, "So Lonely" produced by Scott Storch, however did receive heavy rotation on BET as well as being featured on several video sharing and hip hop websites.^[7]

Shawn Jay has entered into a solo contract with parent company Universal Music Group.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

Featured appearances[link]

• 2001: "Jazzy Hoes Part 2" Jermaine Dupri - Instructions
• 2005: "Georgia" collaboration - Ludacris Presents: Disturbing tha Peace
• 2006: "Damn" Shawnna - Block Music
• 2006: "Ultimate Satisfaction" Ludacris - Release Therapy

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Label Website
• Official Myspace

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2010)

William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880^[1] – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer.^[2] Fields was known for his comic persona as a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathetic character despite his snarling contempt for dogs, children and women.

The characterization he portrayed in films and on radio was so strong it became generally identified with Fields himself. It was maintained by the movie-studio publicity departments at Fields's studios (Paramount and Universal) and further established by Robert Lewis Taylor's 1949 biography W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes. Beginning in 1973, with the publication of Fields's letters, photos, and personal notes in grandson Ronald Fields's book W.C. Fields by Himself, it has been shown that Fields was married (and subsequently estranged from his wife), and he financially supported their son and loved his grandchildren.

However, Madge Evans, a friend and actress, told a visitor in 1972 that Fields so deeply resented intrusions on his privacy by curious tourists walking up the driveway to his Los Angeles home that he would hide in the shrubs by his house and fire BB pellets at the trespassers' legs. Several years later Groucho Marx told a similar story on his live performance album, An Evening with Groucho.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Fields was born William Claude Dukenfield in Darby, Pennsylvania. His father, James Lydon Dukenfield, was from an English family that emigrated to America from Sheffield, England in 1854.^[3][4] James Dukenfield served in Company M of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War and was wounded in 1863.^[5] Fields's mother, Kate Spangler (née Felton), 15 years younger than her husband, was a Protestant of German ancestry.^{[citation needed]} The 1876 Philadelphia City Directory lists James Dukenfield as a clerk. After marrying, he worked as an independent produce merchant and a part-time hotel-keeper.^[6]

Claude Dukenfield (as he was known) worked at the Strawbridge and Clothier department store and in an oyster house, before he left home at age 18 (not 11, as many biographies have said).^{[citation needed]} At age 15, he had begun performing a juggling act at church and theater shows, and entered vaudeville as a "tramp juggler" using the name W. C. Fields.^[3] He soon was traveling as "The Eccentric Juggler", and included amusing asides and increasing amounts of comedy into his act, becoming a headliner in North America and Europe. In 1906 he made his Broadway debut in a musical comedy, The Ham Tree.

Fields embellished stories of his youth, but his home seems to have been a reasonably happy one. His family supported his ambitions for the stage, and saw him off on the train for his first stage tour. His father visited him for two months in England, when Fields was performing there in music halls.^[3]

Fields was known among his friends as "Bill". Edgar Bergen also called him Bill in the radio shows (while Charlie McCarthy called him many names). Fields played himself in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, and his "niece" called him "Uncle Bill". In one scene he introduced himself: "I'm W.C., uh, Bill Fields." When he was portrayed in films as having a son, he often named the character "Claude", after his own son. He was sometimes billed in England as "Wm. C. Fields", due to "W.C." being the British slang for a water closet or toilet. His public use of initials was a commonplace formality of the era in which he grew up. "W.C. Fields" also fit more easily onto a marquee than "W.C. Dukenfield".

Personal life[link]

W.C. Fields

Fields married a fellow vaudevillian, chorus girl Harriet "Hattie" Hughes, on April 8, 1900.^[7] Their son, William Claude Fields, Jr., was born on July 28, 1904.^[8] Although Fields was "an avowed atheist [who] regarded all religions with the suspicion of a seasoned con man", he yielded to Hattie's wish to have their son baptized.^[9]

At the time Fields was away from Hattie on tour in England. By 1907, however, he and Hattie had separated; she had been pressing him to stop touring and settle down to a respectable trade, while he was unwilling to give up his own livelihood.^[10] Until his death, Fields continued to correspond with Hattie and voluntarily sent child-support payments.

He had another son, born on August 15, 1917, with girlfriend Bessie Poole, named William Rexford Fields Morris.^[11] Bessie was an established Ziegfeld Follies performer and met Fields while performing in New York City at the famous Amsterdam Theater. Her beauty and quick wit attracted Fields, who was the featured act from 1916 until 1922. She was killed in a bar fight several years later, leaving their son to be raised in foster care, where he acquired the surname Morris by his foster-mother. Fields sent voluntary support to young Bill in care of his foster mother until he graduated from high school, when he sent $300 as a gift.

Fields lived with Carlotta Monti (1907–1993) after they met in 1932, and they began a relationship that lasted until his death in 1946. Monti had small roles in a couple of Fields' films, and in 1971 wrote a biography, W.C. Fields and Me, which was made into a motion picture at Universal Studios in 1976.

Fields and alcohol[link]

Fields's screen character was often fond of alcohol, and this trait has become part of the Fields legend. In his younger days as a juggler, Fields himself never drank, because he didn't want to impair his functions while performing. The loneliness of his constant touring and traveling, however, compelled Fields to keep liquor on hand for fellow performers, so he could invite them to his dressing room for companionship and cocktails. Only then did Fields cultivate a fondness for alcohol.

Fields expressed his feelings to Gloria Jean (playing his niece) in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break: "I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. That's the one thing I am indebted to her for." Equally memorable was a line in the 1940 film My Little Chickadee: "Once, on a trek through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew...and were forced to live on food and water for several days!" The oft-repeated anecdote that Fields once claimed he never drank water "because fish fuck in it" is unsubstantiated.^{[citation needed]}

On movie sets, Fields kept handy a vacuum flask of mixed martinis, which he referred to as his "pineapple juice". While filming Tales of Manhattan, a prankster switched the contents of the flask, filling it with actual pineapple juice. Upon discovering the prank, Fields was heard to yell, "Who put pineapple juice in my pineapple juice?!"^[12]

In 1936 Fields became gravely ill, his health worsened by his heavy drinking. Fields's film series came to a halt while he recovered; he made one last film for Paramount, The Big Broadcast of 1938. The comedian's troublesome behavior kept other producers away, and Fields was professionally idle until he made his debut on radio. By then Fields was very sick and suffering from delirium tremens.

On stage[link]

Vaudeville[link]

Fields started as a juggler in vaudeville, appearing in the makeup of a genteel "tramp" with a scruffy beard and shabby tuxedo. He juggled cigar boxes, hats, and a variety of other objects in what appears to have been a unique and fresh act, parts of which are reproduced in some of his films. Fields confined his act to pantomime so that he could play international theaters. Fields toured several continents and became a world-class juggler and an international star. He worked bits of juggling into many of his films. A good portion of his act is contained in The Old Fashioned Way.

Broadway[link]

Back in America, Fields found that he could get more laughs by adding dialogue to his routines. His trademark mumbling patter and sarcastic asides were developed during this time. (According to the A&E Biography program about Fields (1994), when he was young his mother would sit with him on the front steps and mumble comments about the passersby.)

He soon starred on Broadway in Florenz Ziegfeld's Ziegfeld Follies revues. There he delighted audiences with a wild pool skit, complete with bizarrely shaped cues and a custom-built table used for a number of hilarious gags and surprising trick shots. His pool game is reproduced, at least in part, in some of his films, notably in Six of a Kind (1934).

He starred in multiple editions of the Follies and in the Broadway musical comedy Poppy, where he perfected his persona as a colorful small-time confidence man.

Films[link]

Silent era[link]

Fields starred in a couple of short comedies, filmed in New York in 1915. His stage commitments prevented him from doing more movie work until 1924. He reprised his Poppy role in a silent-film adaptation, retitled Sally of the Sawdust (1925) and directed by D.W. Griffith. Following this, he starred in It's The Old Army Game (1926) which featured his friend Louise Brooks, later to become a screen legend for her role in G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box in Germany. The film included a silent version of the porch sequence which would one day be expanded in the sound film It's a Gift (1934). Fields wore a scruffy-looking, clip-on mustache in virtually all of his silent films, discarding it only after his first sound feature film, Her Majesty Love, his only Warner Brothers production.

At Paramount[link]

Fields made four short subjects for comedy pioneer Mack Sennett in 1932 and 1933, distributed through Paramount Pictures. During this period, Paramount began featuring Fields in full-length comedies, and by 1934 he was a major movie star. It was for one of the films of this period (International House) that outtakes of one scene (Fields, and two other actors) allegedly recorded the only moving image record of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. This footage was later revealed to have been faked as a publicity stunt for the movie.

He often contributed to the scripts of his films, under unusual pseudonyms such as the seemingly prosaic "Charles Bogle", which appeared on most of his films in the 1930s; "Otis Criblecoblis", which contains an embedded homophone for "scribble"; and "Mahatma Kane Jeeves", a play on mahatma and on a phrase an aristocrat might use when about to leave the house: "My hat, my cane, Jeeves". In features such as It's a Gift and Man on the Flying Trapeze, he is reported to have written or improvised more or less all of his own dialogue and material, leaving story structure to other writers.

In his films, he often played hustlers such as carnival barkers and card sharps, spinning yarns and distracting his marks. He had an affection for unlikely names and many of his characters bore them. Some examples are:

• "Larson E. [read "Larceny"] Whipsnade" (You Can't Cheat an Honest Man);
• "Egbert Sousé" [pronounced 'soo-ZAY', but pointing toward a synonym for a 'drunk'] (The Bank Dick);
• "Ambrose Wolfinger" (Man on the Flying Trapeze); and,
• "The Great McGonigle" (The Old-Fashioned Way).

The carnival fraud was not the only character Fields played. He was also fond of casting himself as the victim: a hapless householder constantly under the thumb of his shrewish wife and/or mother-in-law. His 1934 classic It's a Gift included his stage sketch of trying to escape his nagging family by sleeping on the back porch, and being bedeviled by noisy neighbors and traveling salesmen. That film, along with films such as You're Telling Me! and Man on the Flying Trapeze, ended happily with a windfall profit that restored his standing in his screen families.

Although lacking formal education, he was well read and a lifelong admirer of author Charles Dickens, whose characters' unusual names inspired Fields to do likewise for his various characters. He achieved one of his career ambitions by playing the character Mr. Micawber, in MGM's David Copperfield in 1935. In 1936, Fields re-created his signature stage role in Poppy for Paramount Pictures.

Supporting players[link]

Fields had a small cadre of supporting players that he employed in several films:

• Kathleen Howard, as a nagging wife or antagonist.
• Alison Skipworth, as his wife (although 16 years his senior), usually in a supportive role rather than the stereotypical nag.
• Grady Sutton, typically as a country bumpkin type, as either a foil or an antagonist to Field's character.
• Baby LeRoy, a pre-school child fond of playing pranks on Fields' characters.
• Tammany Young, as a dim-witted, not intentionally harmful assistant; appeared in seven Fields films until his sudden death from heart failure in 1936.
• Bill Wolfe, a gaunt looking character, usually a Fields foil.
• Jan Duggan, an oldish woman (actually about Fields' age) who played small roles as a widow type. It was about her character that Fields said in The Old Fashioned Way, "She's all dressed up like a well-kept grave."
• Franklin Pangborn, a fussy, ubiquitous character actor of the period who played in several Fields films, most memorably as J. Pinkerton Snoopington in The Bank Dick.
• Elise Cavanna, whose on-screen interplay with Fields was compared (The Art of W.C. Fields 1967 by William K. Everson) to that between Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont

At Universal[link]

Fields's renewed popularity from his radio broadcasts with Bergen & McCarthy earned him a contract with Universal Pictures in 1939. His first feature for Universal, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, carried on the Fields-McCarthy rivalry. In 1940 Fields made My Little Chickadee, with Mae West, and The Bank Dick, perhaps his best-known film, in which he has the following exchange with bartender Shemp Howard:

Fields: "Was I in here last night, and did I spend a $20 bill?"

Shemp: "Yeah."

Fields: "Oh boy, what a load that is off my mind... I thought I'd lost it!"

Fields often fought with studio producers, directors, and writers over the content of his films. He was determined to make a movie his way, with his own script and staging and his own choice of supporting players. Universal finally gave him the chance, and the resulting film, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, (1941) is a masterpiece of absurd humor in which Fields appeared as himself, "The Great Man". Universal's singing star Gloria Jean played opposite Fields, and his old cronies Leon Errol and Franklin Pangborn served as his comic foils. But the film Fields delivered was so surreal Universal recut and reshot parts of it and then quietly released both the film and Fields.

Sucker turned out to be his last starring film. By then he was much heavier and less mobile than he had been at the peak of his film career during 1934–1935, when he was reasonably fit and trim.

Fields completed a scene for the 20th Century Fox film Tales of Manhattan (1942), in which he played an eccentric professor hired by Margaret Dumont to give a temperance lecture to a gathering of high society swells. This scene was cut from the film before release, supposedly due to running time. It was discovered in the vaults at Fox in the mid 1990s and was included in the video and DVD releases of the movie.

On radio[link]

While Fields was inactive in films due to extended illness, he recorded a short speech for a radio broadcast. His familiar, snide drawl registered so well with listeners that he quickly became a popular guest on network radio shows.^[13] One of his funniest routines had him trading insults with Edgar Bergen's dummy Charlie McCarthy on The Chase and Sanborn Hour.

Fields would twit Charlie about his being made of wood:

Fields: "Tell me, Charles, is it true your father was a gate-leg table?"

McCarthy: "If it is, your father was under it!"

When Fields would refer to McCarthy as a "woodpecker's pin-up boy" or a "termite's flophouse," Charlie would fire back at Fields about his drinking:

McCarthy: "Is it true, Mr. Fields, that when you stood on the corner of Hollywood and Vine, 43 cars waited for your nose to change to green?"

Bergen: "Why, Bill, I thought you didn't like children."

Fields: "Oh, not at all, Edgar, I love children. I can remember when, with my own little unsteady legs, I toddled from room to room."

McCarthy: "When was that, last night?"

Thanks to radio, Fields reached an even wider audience than before, and he was soon in demand for films again.

Final years[link]

Fields occasionally entertained guests at his home. Generally, Fields fraternized with other actors, directors, and writers who shared his fondness for good company and good liquor. John Barrymore, Gregory La Cava, and Gene Fowler were a few of his intimates. Anthony Quinn and his wife Katherine DeMille (daughter of Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille) were visiting Fields one afternoon when the Quinns' two-year-old son, Christopher, drowned in Fields’s lily pond. Fields was greatly distraught by this incident, and brooded about it for months.^[14]

In the 1994 Biography TV show, his 1941 co-star Gloria Jean described how she would visit his house from time to time, and they would talk. Gloria Jean found Fields to be kind and gentle in real life, and believed that Fields yearned for the kind of family he lacked when he was a child. The show also reported that Fields eventually reconciled with his long estranged wife and son, and enjoyed playing with his grandchildren.

With a presidential election looming in 1940, Fields toyed with the idea of lampooning political campaign speeches. He wrote to vice-presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace, intending to glean comedy material from Wallace’s speeches, but when Wallace responded with a warm, personal fan letter to Fields, the comedian decided against skewering Wallace. Instead, Fields wrote a book entitled Fields for President, consisting of humorous essays in the form of a campaign speech. Dodd, Mead and Company published it in 1940 but declined to reprint it at the time. The book did not sell well, mostly because people were confused as to whether it was meant to be taken seriously. In 1971, Dodd, Mead reprinted it when Fields was seen as an anti-establishment figure. The 1940 edition includes illustrations by Otto Soglow, while the 1971 reprint is illustrated with photographs of Fields.

Fields's film career slowed down considerably in the 1940s. His illnesses confined him to brief guest-star appearances in other people's films. An extended sequence in 20th Century Fox's Tales of Manhattan (1942) was cut from the original release of the film; it was later reinstated for some home video releases. He performed his famous billiard-table routine one more time on camera, for Follow the Boys, an all-star entertainment revue for the Armed Forces. (Despite the charitable nature of the movie, Fields was paid $15,000 for his appearance, and he was never able to perform in person for the armed services.) In Song of the Open Road (1944), Fields juggled for a few moments, remarking, "This used to be my racket". His last film, the musical revue Sensations of 1945, was released in late 1944.

He also guested occasionally on radio as late as 1946, often with Edgar Bergen, and just before his death that same year he recorded a spoken-word album, delivering his comic "Temperance Lecture" and "The Day I Drank A Glass Of Water" at Les Paul's studio, in which Paul had just installed his new multi-track recorder. The session was arranged by Paul's old Army pal Bill Morrow, a friend he had in common with Fields. Fields's vision had deteriorated so much that he read his lines from large-print cue cards. It was W. C. Fields's last performance.

Death[link]

Fields spent his last weeks in a hospital, where a friend stopped by for a visit and caught Fields reading the Bible. When asked why, Fields replied, "I'm checking for loopholes." Fields died in 1946 (from an alcohol-related stomach hemorrhage) on the holiday he claimed to despise: Christmas Day.^[15] As documented in W.C. Fields and Me (the memoir of Carlotta Monti, published in 1971 and made into a 1976 film of the same name starring Rod Steiger), he died at Las Encinas Sanatorium, Pasadena, California, a bungalow-type sanitarium where, as he lay in bed dying, his longtime and final love, Carlotta Monti, went outside and turned the hose onto the roof, so as to allow Fields to hear for one last time his favorite sound—the sound of falling rain. According to the documentary W.C. Fields Straight Up,^[16] his death occurred in this way: he winked and smiled at a nurse, put a finger to his lips, and died. Fields was 66, and had been a patient for 22 months. His funeral took place on January 2, 1947, in Glendale, CA.

Fields was cremated and his ashes interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California. There have been stories that he wanted his grave marker to read either "On the whole, I would rather be in Philadelphia", his home town, or "All in all, I would rather be in Philadelphia", both of which are similar to a line he used in My Little Chickadee: "I'd like to see Paris before I die...Philadelphia would do!" In the same film, he made a point of referring to "Philadelphia cream cheese"; whether he knew of the actual J. L. Kraft Foods product is unknown. Given his fondness for words, maybe he just liked the sound of his own home town's name. This rumor has also morphed into "I would rather be here than in Philadelphia". The anecdote that Fields often remarked, "Philadelphia, wonderful town, spent a week there one night" is unsubstantiated. It is also said that Fields wanted "I'd rather be in Philadelphia" on his gravestone because of the old vaudeville joke among comedians, "I would rather be dead than play Philadelphia". Whatever his actual wishes might have been, the interment marker for his ashes merely bears his stage name and the years of his birth and his death. The genesis of the line as originally phrased can be found in a 1925 article in Vanity Fair entitled "A Group of Artists Write Their Own Epitaphs." The mock-epitaph for Fields reads "Here Lies / W.C. Fields / I Would Rather Be Living in Philadelphia."^[17]

Unrealized film projects[link]

W. C. Fields was the original choice for the title role in the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz. One rumor was that he believed the role was too small. Another alleged that he was asking too much money: his asking price was $100,000, while MGM offered $75,000. However, his agent asserted that Fields rejected the role because he wanted to devote his time to writing You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.

Fields also figured in an Orson Welles project. Welles's bosses at RKO Radio Pictures, after losing money on Citizen Kane, urged Welles to choose as his next film a subject with more commercial appeal. Welles considered an adaptation of Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers which would have starred Fields and John Barrymore, but Fields's schedule would not permit it. The project was permanently shelved, and Welles went on to adapt The Magnificent Ambersons.

During the early planning for his film It's a Wonderful Life, director Frank Capra considered Fields for the role of Uncle Billy, which eventually went to Thomas Mitchell.

Influence and legacy[link]

According to Woody Allen (in a New York Times interview from January 30, 2000), W. C. Fields is one of only six "genuine comic geniuses" he recognized as such in movie history, along with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Groucho and Harpo Marx, and Peter Sellers.^[18]

A W.C. Fields commemorative stamp was issued by the United States Postal Service on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the comedian's birth in January 1980.

Caricatures and imitations[link]

Fields, with his bulbous red nose (partly as a result of rosacea, although his parents also had bulbous noses), rotund body and nasal, braying voice, has been imitated for decades in a wide variety of media. A few examples:

• The comic strip The Wizard of Id by Johnny Hart and Brant Parker features an attorney called "Larsen E. Pettifogger", an obvious parody of Fields, named in allusion to Fields's character Larson E. Whipsnade from You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.
• Big Chief Wahoo was a newspaper strip drawn by Elmer Woggon and written by Allen Saunders that was later reprinted in comic books like Famous Funnies. It featured a W.C. Fields-like carpetbagging con artist and snake oil salesman named J. Mortimer Gusto, (a.k.a. "the Great Gusto"). According to Saunders, Fields was flattered. The feature gradually evolved into Steve Roper and Mike Nomad.
• Frito-Lay's controversial Frito Bandito advertising mascot in the late 1960s was retired in favor of an animated Fields lookalike called "W.C. Fritos".
• In addition to the above Fritos ads, Fields was mimicked and caricatured in a great many animated cartoons and commercials. They ranged from classic Looney Tunes shorts like The Coo-Coo Nut Grove (1936), At Your Service, Madame (1936) and Little Blabbermouse (1940), to Walt Disney's Mickey's Polo Team (1936) and Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938). In the late 1960s Warner Brothers again spoofed Fields's persona with their character Merlin the Magic Mouse, voiced by Larry Storch, and a TV ad for Cocoa Puffs cereal featured Sonny disguising himself as Fields, voiced by Chuck McCann.
• Cartoonist Al Hirschfeld has portrayed Fields in caricature many times, including the book cover illustrations for Drat!, A Flask of Fields and Godfrey Daniels! – all edited by Richard J. Anobile.
• The Firesign Theater's How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All (Columbia CS-9884 — July 1969) includes a character "Bill" who speaks in fluent W.C. Fields-ese.
• The TV show Gigglesnort Hotel featured a puppet character named "W. C. Cornfield", which was an obvious caricature of Fields.
• Fields was an easy target for impressionists and mimics. Ed McMahon aped Fields on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and Family Feud host/Match Game panelist Richard Dawson frequently did imitations of Fields. Master impressionist Rich Little often imitated Fields on his TV series The Kopykats, and used a Fields characterization for the Ebenezer Scrooge character in his 1978 HBO special Rich Little's Christmas Carol, a one-man presentation of A Christmas Carol.
• In Great Britain, comic Les Dawson's Fieldsian character, Zebediah Twain, was obviously an affectionate tribute. British comedian Benny Hill also mimicked Fields, reportedly one of his heroes, in sketches and musical numbers on The Benny Hill Show.
• Fields was also caricatured in the Belgian comic strip Lucky Luke by Morris and René Goscinny, in the album Western Circus and the French animated film La Ballade des Dalton as Dr. Aldous Smith.
• The character of Horatio K. Boomer on radio's Fibber McGee & Molly, voiced by Bill Thompson, was a vocal parody of Fields.

In other popular culture[link]

• Actor Rod Steiger did a brief impression of Fields in the film No Way to Treat a Lady (1968). Steiger later impersonated him at length in the big screen biography W.C. Fields and Me in 1976.
• Singer/songwriter duo Boyce & Hart included a song on their 1967 LP "Test Patterns" called "My Little Chickadee." The song features an impersonation of Fields in spoken interludes.
• Fields, whose popularity enjoyed a renaissance in the late 1960s, is included in the cover photo array on the 1967 Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
• The Firesign Theatre's 1968 album Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him includes a sketch satirizing the hippie counterculture called "W.C. Fields Forever." Eric Idle's Beatles spoof, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, features an album cover parody of Magical Mystery Tour in which the song Strawberry Fields Forever is renamed "W.C. Fields Forever."
• In the finale of the 1970s TV series Gangsters, writer Philip Martin appeared as "W.D. (White Devil) Fields", a ninja assassin who adopted the appearance and mannerisms of Fields in order to lull his opponents into a false sense of security. His first line in the series was "Birmingham, eh? On the whole I'd sooner be in Philadelphia." Martin was credited as "Larson E. Whipsnade". Fields also turns up as a wax figure brought to life by KAOS agents in a Get Smart episode titled House of Max, Part II, which first aired January 16, 1970.
• On Sesame Street, muppet performer Jerry Nelson used an impression of Fields for the voice of the inept magician The Amazing Mumford.
• In the 1991 movie The Rocketeer, which was set in 1938, Bob Leeman^[19] played the part of W. C. Fields. In the 1982 ABC TV biopic Mae West, starring Ann Jillian, Fields was impersonated by comedy actor Chuck McCann.
• While recovering from an assassination attempt, President Ronald Reagan reportedly said, "All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia", which alluded to the site of the 1981 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament's Final Four games held at the same time as Reagan's hospitalization.
• "Filthy McNasty," the villainous bank robber from The Bank Dick, inspired jazz pianist Horace Silver's composition of the same name, introduced on his 1961 Blue Note LP Doin' the Thing: The Horace Silver Quintet at the Village Gate. According to Silver (quoted by Herb Wong in the liner notes for The Best of Horace Silver) the classic Fields film was playing on television while Silver was inspired to compose the tune.
• In the Gilmore Girls episode 'I'd Rather Be In Philadelphia, Lorelai's father states while in hospital; 'Well all in all, I think I'd rather be in Philadelphia'.

Filmography[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: W. C. Fields

Information for this filmography is derived from the book, W. C. Fields: A Life on Film, by Ronald J. Fields. All films are feature length except where noted.

Further reading[link]

• W. C. Fields, Fields for President (1940, 1971) Dodd, Mead ISBN 0-396-06419-1. (Humorous essays about Fields's stance on marriage, politics, finance, etc.)
• Robert Lewis Taylor, W.C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes (1949) Doubleday & Co., (1967) New American Library ISBN 0-451-50653-7. (First book biography, with many firsthand quotes from friends and colleagues)
• Gene Fowler, Minutes of the Last Meeting (1954) Viking Press
• Eddie Cantor, As I Remember Them (1963) Duell, Sloan & Pearce
• Donald Deschner (ed.), The Films of W.C. Fields (1966, 2000) Citadel Press
• Corey Ford, "The One and Only W.C. Fields" from The Time of Laughter (1967) Little, Brown
• William K. Everson, The Art of W.C. Fields (1967) Random House ISBN 0-517-01232-4. (First book-length examination of the Fields films)
• Richard J. Anobile (ed.), Drat!: Being the Encapsulated View of Life by W. C. Fields in His Own Words (1968) World Publishing
• David Robinson, The Great Funnies: A History of Film Comedy (1969) E.P. Dutton
• Jan Kindler, "Elysian Fields" from Playboy (March 1969)
• Bosley Crowther, "W.C. Fields Comedy Festival" from New York Times Film Reviews, 1959–1968 (1970) Arno Press
• Andre Sennwald, capsule reviews from New York Times Film Reviews, 1932–1938 (1970) Arno Press
• Raymond Durgnat, "Suckers and Soaks" from The Crazy Mirror: Hollywood Comedy and the American Image (1970) Dell Publishing
• Andrew Bergman, "Some Anarcho-Nihilist Laff Riots" from We're in the Money: Depression America and Its Films (1971) New York University Press
• Otis Ferguson, "The Great McGonigle" from The Film Criticism of Otis Ferguson (1971) Temple University Press
• Carlotta Monti (with Cy Rice), W.C. Fields and Me (1971) Prentice-Hall, ISBN 978-0139444548. (basis of the 1976 film starring Rod Steiger)
• Richard J, Anobile (ed.), A Flask of Fields: Verbal and Visual Gems from the Films of W.C. Fields (1972) W.W. Norton
• Leonard Maltin, Selected Short Subjects (first published as The Great Movie Shorts, 1972) Crown Publishers, (revised 1983) Da Capo Press
• Ronald J. Fields (ed.), W.C. Fields by Himself: His Intended Autobiography with Hitherto Unpublished Letters, Notes, Scripts and Articles (1973) Prentice-Hall ISBN 0-13-944462-9.
• W. C. Fields (with Charles Grayson), The Bank Dick (1973) Simon & Schuster (the August 22, 1940 screenplay)
• W. C. Fields (with John T. Neville, et al.), Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (Rupert Hughes, et al.) Tillie and Gus (1973) Simon & Schuster (Continuity scripts derived from these films)
• Penelope Gilliatt, "To W.C. Fields, Dyspeptic Mumbler, Who Invented His Own Way Out" from Unholy Fools: Wits, Comics, Disturbers of the Peace (1973) Viking Press
• Gerald Mast, The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies (1973, 2nd ed. 1979) University of Chicago Press
• Donald W. McCaffrey, "The Latter-Day Falstaff" from The Golden Age of Sound Comedy (1973) A.S. Barnes
• Nicholas Yanni, W.C. Fields (1974) Pyramid Library
• Richard J. Anobile (ed.), Godfrey Daniels!: Verbal and Visual Gems from the Short Films of W. C. Fields (1975) Crown
• Walter Kerr, The Silent Clowns (1975) Alfred A. Knopf, (1990) Da Capo Press
• Stuart Byron and Elizabeth Weis (eds.), The National Society of Film Critics on Movie Comedy (1977) Grossman/Viking
• Leonard Maltin, The Great Movie Comedians (1978) Crown
• Will Fowler, The Second Handshake (1980) Lyle Stuart
• Louise Brooks, "The Other Face of W.C. Fields" from Lulu in Hollywood (1982) Alfred A. Knopf
• Ronald J. Fields, W.C. Fields: A Life on Film (1984) St. Martin's Press
• Wes D. Gehring, W.C. Fields: A Bio-Bibliography (1984) Greenwood Press
• Gerald Weales, Canned Goods as Caviar: American Film Comedy of the 1930s (1985) University of Chicago Press
• David T. Rocks, W.C. Fields: An Annotated Guide (1993) McFarland & Co.
• Wes D. Gehring, Groucho and W.C. Fields: Huckster Comedians (1994) University Press of Mississippi
• Simon Louvish, It's a Gift (1994) British Film Institute
• Simon Louvish, Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields (1999) Faber & Faber ISBN 0-393-04127-1. (New biography with new research)
• Ronald J. Fields with Shaun O'L. Higgins, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break: W.C. Fields on Business (2000) Prentice-Hall
• James Curtis, W.C. Fields: A Biography (2003) Alfred A. Knopf ISBN 0-375-40217-9. (The definitive, comprehensive biography, with many "apocryphal" stories from previous bios corrected)
• Scott MacGillivray and Jan MacGillivray, Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven (2005) iUniverse ISBN 978-0-595-67454-1. (Authorized biography with recollections of Fields at work)
• Wes D. Gehring, Film Clowns of the Depression (2007) McFarland & Co.
• Gregory William Mank (et al.), Hollywood's Hellfire Club (2007) Feral House

References[link]

External links[link]

• W. C. Fields at the Internet Movie Database
• W. C. Fields at the Internet Broadway Database
• Official site
• Official fan club
• Criterion Collection essay by Dennis Perrin on W.C. Fields: Six Short Films
• The Fatal Glass of Beer (iPod format) at the Internet Archive