W. C. Fields from Sound Film and Radio Comedy to Stardom

W. C. Fields is known as a virtuoso comedian and legendary iconoclast who gave the gift of laughter to multitudes. As the first author to use the newly-opened Fields Papers at the Academy library, Arthur Frank Wertheim illuminates the comedian's arduous ascent to stardom during Hollywood's golden age. The book reveals details of Fields's turbulent private life, from his wife's refusal to divorce, to his estranged son, and to his fleeting relationships with women. Here is a portrait of an aggrieved artist whose emotional anguish found refuge in his poignant comedy about life's frustrations and the human condition. This third volume in Wertheim's trilogy documents Fields's rise to iconic status during the counterculture 1960s, creating a legacy of his comedy for generations to come.

Completes the first biography to use the recently opened W.C. Papers at the Film Academy in Beverly Hills Describes both Fields's private life and showbusiness career and how they intertwined Explores how Fields became a cultural icon in the 1960s and 1970s

Auteur

Arthur Frank Wertheim is the author of the first two volumes in the W.C. Fields trilogy illuminating the comedian's life and career: W. C. Fields from Burlesque and Vaudeville to Broadway (Palgrave, 2014) and W.C. Fields from the Ziegfeld Follies and Broadway Stage to the Screen (Palgrave, 2016).

Contenu

1. Welcome Back to Hollywood.- 2. The Sennett Quartet.- 3. The World's Biggest Entertainment Joy Ride.- 4. Three of a Kind.- 5. From Silent to Sound.- 6. Return to the Sawdust Trail.- 7. The Mail-Order Groom.- 8. Magnum Opus.1.- 9. A Perfect Mixture of the Part and the Actor.- 10. Mississippi River Card Shark.- 11. All in the Family.- 12. A Vocal McGargle Emerges.- 13. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.- 14. Battling Sickness.- 15. Radio Saved My Life!.- 16. The Big Broadcast of 1938.- 17. The Paramount Purge.- 18. Battling Universal.- 19. Compustible Co-Stars.- 20. Magnus Opus.2.- 21. The Great Man.- 22. Swan Songs.- 23. Doomsday at Bundy Drive.- 24. Scenes Before the Final Exit.- 25. The Man in the Bright Nightgown Cometh.