The first biography in decades (and the only accurate one) of the comic genius behind Larson E. Whipsnade, Egbert Sous, Eustace McGargle, and other immortal examples of the American male at bay. Everyone seems to know the story of W. C. Fields, the curmudgeon of classic film comedy--his Dickensian childhood in Philadelphia, the numerous bank accounts opened around the world under outlandish names, and so on. All entertaining--and all completely untrue. Simon Louvish's meticulously researched and wonderfully entertaining biography is the first one to disentangle the facts from the pack of lies and myths mischievously nurtured by Fields himself. Louvish lovingly traces the origin of Fields's comedy in his self-authored vaudeville sketches and follows his progress from the stage (where he was renowned as the world greatest juggler) to silent screen to the talkies--including such howlingly funny films as The Bank Dick, My Little Chickadee, and You Can't Cheat an Honest Man. He highlights his tragic struggles against studio heads, censorship, alcoholism, and illness--in the course of which he created some of the greatest gems of film humor. Man on the Flying Trapeze is the story of an artist whose finest creation was himself--a fully achieved, imaginary person who finally subsumed his creator, to the immense benefit of us all.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
The first serious biography of the legendary comedian in nearly 50 years, and one worthy of its hero. Even people who have never seen a W.C. Fields film probably know him as a man who loved to drink and hated dogs and children. Most likely, they would assume that the onscreen character and the offscreen man were one and the same. But Louvish, in his lively biography, delves beneath the surface and discovers an artist who carefully built this character as a comic construct. The real Fields had nothing against dogs, and, yes, even enjoyed the company of children. (The drinking, however, was authentic.) Louvish, who teaches at the London International Film School, is clearly a Fields fan, and this lends his book a warmth uncommon in show- business biographies. He aims the book at his fellow fans, and uses a chatty, conversational tone: sharing stories and trading opinions and favorite gags over some Fieldsian libation. But the tone doesn't hide the exceptional research he has done. He vividly paints the details of Fields's life and the vaudeville, film, and radio worlds he moved in. Most importantly, in extensively describing Fields's early career, he presents the classic films not as the solitary miracles they appear to be, but as the culmination of an extensive career that saw Fields a major star on the world stage as early as the turn of the century. Louvish is also a novelist (The Silencer, 1993), and in the book's coda (in which he imagines Fields entering heaven and greeting his vaudevillean friends), he demonstrates that even the hokiest of concepts can be moving when presented with passion and commitment. He concludes with a brief but sharply perceived analytical afterword. At last ``the Great Man'' (as Fields called himself, accurately) has a great biography. (photos) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Louvish does a heroic job of filling in Fields's life. -- New York Times Book Review, Katharine Whittemore
Mr. Louvish, who teaches at the London International Film School, must have worked long and hard on this biography of W. C. Fields. Fields was a superb comedian, but he was also a mischievous, amusing, and habitual liar. The hard-drinking curmudgeon who hated babies, kicked dogs, and stashed money in unlikely places under fantastic aliases was a deliberate invention, except for the drinking. Fields's biographer is faced with the problem of replacing entertaining fantasy with mere fact, and Mr. Louvish surmounts it very well indeed, with histories of vaudeville (Fields began as a juggler), of the extravagancies of Ziegfeld Follies, and of the uncertainties of early movie-making, while enlivening his text with effective quotations and sketches of everyone concerned--a gallery of great clowns. The reader gets a sound view of Fields and of his world. -- The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams
Simon Louvish ... teaches at the London International Film School, and in Man on the Flying Trapeze he nicely regales us with many vaudevillian stories.... Louvish tells us less about Fields's films. This is a flaw, though admittedly the more famous ones have been much parsed, and many of the smaller ones are now lost. Still, there are the stories. -- The New York Times Book Review, Katharine Whittemore
Simon Louvish, who is too young and too English to understand the narrow and unforgiving America that shaped (and outraged) Fields and is too dull-witted to imagine it ... [reduces] the profoundly authentic misanthropy of a figure he inexplicably adores into mere curmudgeonliness, which he appears to think will play better in our squishier age. A writer of astonishing ineptitude--are there no editors left who check usage and syntax?--he's also the kind of biographer who thinks that if he notes who was in the White House at a turning point in his subject's life, he has discharged his obligations to social history. -- Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Richard Shickel
This dogged biography of the irascible, bulbous-nosed comic sweeps away the myth of his hardscrabble youth, cruel father, and life as a bitter, unfriendly star steeped in isolation and alcohol. (Well, the bit about the alcohol is true.).... Man on the Flying Trapeze does what an artist's biography should do: It makes you itch to view his work again (in this case, classics like The Bank Dick and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break). -- Entertainment Weekly
Mr. Louvish, who teaches at the London International Film School, must have worked long and hard on this biography of W. C. Fields. Fields was a superb comedian, but he was also a mischievous, amusing, and habitual liar. The hard-drinking curmudgeon who hated babies, kicked dogs, and stashed money in unlikely places under fantastic aliases was a deliberate invention, except for the drinking. Fields's biographer is faced with the problem of replacing entertaining fantasy with mere fact, and Mr. Louvish surmounts it very well indeed, with histories of vaudeville (Fields began as a juggler), of the extravagancies of Ziegfeld Follies, and of the uncertainties of early movie-making, while enlivening his text with effective quotations and sketches of everyone concerned--a gallery of great clowns. The reader gets a sound view of Fields and of his world. -- The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams
Simon Louvish ... teaches at the London International Film School, and in Man on the Flying Trapeze he nicely regales us with many vaudevillian stories.... Louvish tells us less about Fields's films. This is a flaw, though admittedly the more famous ones have been much parsed, and many of the smaller ones are now lost. Still, there are the stories. -- The New York Times Book Review, Katharine Whittemore
Simon Louvish, who is too young and too English to understand the narrow and unforgiving America that shaped (and outraged) Fields and is too dull-witted to imagine it ... [reduces] the profoundly authentic misanthropy of a figure he inexplicably adores into mere curmudgeonliness, which he appears to think will play better in our squishier age. A writer of astonishing ineptitude--are there no editors left who check usage and syntax?--he's also the kind of biographer who thinks that if he notes who was in the White House at a turning point in his subject's life, he has discharged his obligations to social history. -- Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Richard Shickel
This dogged biography of the irascible, bulbous-nosed comic sweeps away the myth of his hardscrabble youth, cruel father, and life as a bitter, unfriendly star steeped in isolation and alcohol. (Well, the bit about the alcohol is true.).... Man on the Flying Trapeze does what an artist's biography should do: It makes you itch to view his work again (in this case, classics like The Bank Dick and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break). -- Entertainment Weekly
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Flawed Effort,
By Waldo Lydecker (Lexington, KY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W. C. Fields (Paperback)
Louvish seems to spend about a third of the book on Fields' life, another third criticizing Robert Lewis Taylor's earlier Fields biography, and a final third relating the history of the English Music Hall circa 1895-1915. (Pages and pages of this with no mention of Fields whatsoever!)
Taylor's book may be innacurate-but as another reviewer noted, it's a heck of a lot more entertaining.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Wretchedly written account of a great comedian's life,
By A Customer
This review is from: Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W. C. Fields (Paperback)
With the wealth of family scrapbooks and intimate anecdotes provided by Ronald Fields (W.C.'s grandson), it is difficult to see how someone could so thoroughly destroy what should have been an entertaining book. Louvish's mess is unreadable, aggravating, smarmy and smart-alecky. A sheer waste of precious anecdotes clumsily recounted by an inept writer. When Louvish does any original research on his own, he gets his facts wrong, to boot. Forget this mess and seek out W.C. FIELDS BY HIMSELF, at least the Fields letters are undoctored there and in the great man's own entertaining style of prose.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great research, but a bit too dry(and not as in martini),
By
This review is from: Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W. C. Fields (Hardcover)
Simon Louvish once again dazzles the reader with his tremendous research, and still is able to make an interesting subject boring. Louvish gathers many details about Fields' early life and career and uses this material to punch holes in the constantly repeated misinformation previous biographies contained (most of the misinformation was supplied by Fields himself. For the facts alone this book is worth the purchase for any fan of "The Great Man," but don't expect to be enthralled by the writing style of Louvish, who has a tendency to write while patting himself on the back. Not enough time is spent on Fields' movie career and his personal life remains a mystery despite Louvish's efforts. Probably the best biography available on W.C. Fields, which only proves how well he covered his tracks.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The Master of Ceremonies and General Manager himself strides out from behind a tent flap, pushing his way vigorously through the thin crowd of dilapidated fun-seekers, swinging a cane and wearing an immense Texan hat. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
golf sketch, purple bark sarsaparilla, boy juggler, motoring sketch, eccentric juggler, tramp juggler, ham tree, comedy juggler, misplaced eyebrow, golf act, old army game, fit night out for man, young juggler, comic supplement, hearty handclasp, baffles science, spoken title, stolen bonds, pool act, boxing kangaroo, vaudeville sketches, little chickadee, midget car, vaudeville actor, masked bandit Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Bill Fields, Gene Fowler, Los Angeles, Ronald Fields, Fanny Brice, Carlotta Monti, Eddie Cantor, United States, Will Rogers, The Old Fashioned Way, Bessie Poole, Claude Dukenfield, Mack Sennett, South Africa, Will Fowler, Louise Brooks, The Bank Dick, Two Flaming Youths, Flying Trapeze, Mae West, Bert Williams, So's Your Old Man, The Ham Tree, Colonel Bogey New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The Master of Ceremonies and General Manager himself strides out from behind a tent flap, pushing his way vigorously through the thin crowd of dilapidated fun-seekers, swinging a cane and wearing an immense Texan hat. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
golf sketch, purple bark sarsaparilla, boy juggler, motoring sketch, eccentric juggler, tramp juggler, ham tree, comedy juggler, misplaced eyebrow, golf act, old army game, fit night out for man, young juggler, comic supplement, hearty handclasp, baffles science, spoken title, stolen bonds, pool act, boxing kangaroo, vaudeville sketches, little chickadee, midget car, vaudeville actor, masked bandit Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Bill Fields, Gene Fowler, Los Angeles, Ronald Fields, Fanny Brice, Carlotta Monti, Eddie Cantor, United States, Will Rogers, The Old Fashioned Way, Bessie Poole, Claude Dukenfield, Mack Sennett, South Africa, Will Fowler, Louise Brooks, The Bank Dick, Two Flaming Youths, Flying Trapeze, Mae West, Bert Williams, So's Your Old Man, The Ham Tree, Colonel Bogey New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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