"One of the great nearly ungraspable Truths is the realization of to how great a degree Reality is a pliable, malleable thing. Our skill and our task — nay, our duty! no matter what our chosen medium — is to pique and tease the audience's perceptions; to compel them to always chase along behind us until the boundaries between illusion and reality blur. Until those boundaries fuse and merge and in a brief, elusive instant of blinding insight they experience the realization that dream is truer and more concrete than reality, and reality no more substantial than smoke."
At this the debonair juggler takes his cigar out of his mouth and blows out a circle of smoke to illustrate his point. The circle winds and coils and changes, becoming snakier, becoming a snake, until it perfectly resembles the head of William Duke's cane. At the same time the cane becomes transparent and insubstantial.
Mac's mouth gapes open. William Duke winks. The snake grasps its tail in its mouth and spins slow hoops through the air.
"Now pay attention, my little Scotch friend. This is very important. It's done like this: first you . . ."
There was a loud knocking at the door; Mac's reverie was broken. A young boy peeked around the edge of the door. "Your cue, Mr. McCay. Five minutes to showtime."
"Thank you. I'll be out right away."
Mac stared down at his drawings. What would he have done next? What wonderful tricks could he have drawn for Whitey to perform? He put the sketches away regretfully. Perhaps he would get back to them another time, when he'd caught up with his deadlines.
Mac's "chalk-talk" performance was called The Seven Ages of Man. An enormous blackboard had been set up. The chalk and erasers were waiting. Mac introduced himself and with no further ado began. He drew first the heads of two babies, a boy and a girl, facing each other. Then he rapidly erased lines and redrew, subtly aging them, telling the stories of their lives, till he had taken them all the way from infancy to death. In the background the orchestra softly played that old favorite tune, "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life."
The act was an enormous success. Over a period of several years Mac performed it at all the great vaudeville houses in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Toledo, Boston, and even Philadelphia. He loved vaudeville and found that he loved performing.
Yet it was only on that very first night when he first drew the little boy and girl that he felt as if he truly controlled their fates, that their destination was completely in his hands and at the service of his imagination.
Mac's life kept climbing. In 1908 a musical comedy, Little Nemo, based on the strip, opened to great acclaim on Broadway.
Mac continued with new strips, continued drawing political cartoons for the editorial page, and entered into what he believed to be the culminating medium of his career — animation. And not just animated cartoon strips (Outcault had beaten him into this territory, too), but that which was uniquely Mac's own — the first true interfacing between the drawn, animated universe and reality.
Mac invented a lovely animated dinosaur — Gertie the Brontosaurus.
He did not draw her and then send her off on a reel of film on her own into the world. Instead, he accompanied her on tour. When Gertie was hungry, Mac was waiting at the front of the bright-lit screen with an apple in hand. Which, to the audience's amazement and delight, she took. At the end of the performance Mac would realize his most secret desire — to enter into the world of his drawings. He stepped behind the screen and then reappeared within it. He mounted up, and off he and Gertie rode. Mac knew that he had moved even closer to mastering the fusion between illusion and reality.
The last part of the nineteenth century and first part of the twentieth witnessed an unprecedented wave of immigration into the United States. And for the first time, the majority of the immigrants were desperately poor and semi-literate at best. Brilliant as Mac was, his rising star had as much to do with the newspaper magnates' use of illustrations and cartoons as key weapons in the battle to attract an unlettered clientele as with his talent.
In June, 1911, William Randolph Hearst stretched forth his mephistophelean arm to beckon Mac with that which the artist had never been able to refuse: a more prestigious job at better pay. Faust-like, Mac took it.
For a few years Little Nemo continued and Mac was allowed to develop new strips. But Hearst had a very different agenda for his star illustrator than the one Mac had set for himself. He wanted Mac to focus on editorial and political cartoons. He discouraged Mac's creative efforts, pulling out his contract to prevent the artist from wandering, thus curtailing and finally stopping Mac's vaudeville touring. The strips became fewer and fewer. Hearst piled on the workload so that it became more and more difficult for Mac, tieless as he was, to find the hours necessary to develop his animation. The final blow came when Hearst put Mac under the yoke of the humorless and caustic editor Arthur Brisbane.
This was a battle for Mac's very soul. He fought back desperately but clandestinely. Comic strips drawn "in the manner of Winsor McCay" started to appear in backwater newspapers. Their artists' names were Silas, Hieronymous Oglethorpe, Dr. Otis Guelpe, Harry McSneed. Generally they were short-lived, lasting only a few months, too brief a time for Hearst to notice and investigate them.
One, however, lasted for years. It was published in an obscure Cincinnati periodical that had been taken over by one of Mac's old friends from the Commercial Tribune. Like the gracious queen she was, Cincinnati seemed to protect this small artwork from Hearst's jealous, proprietary eyes. The strip portrayed the story of a poor but talented juggler
Over the years Mac had continued to think about Whitey — to wonder what had happened to him, to wonder what Whitey's life would have, could have been like with a bit more good fortune.
As his own existence took a grinding downturn Mac toyed more and more with the idea of recreating Whitey's, investing it with the life that was slipping away from him.
First he had to think of a name for his protagonist. He didn't want to use the name Whitey, nor Whitey's stage name of Bill or William Duke. These had already proven unsuccessful for the actual juggler. Whitey's full name had been William Claude Dukinfield. Claude was unusable: Mac remembered how much Whitey hated the name. But the last part of the last name — Field — that had promise. Fields was already an honored vaudeville moniker shared by many: Lew Fields, the comedian; "Happy Fanny" Fields (her name described it all); Ben Fields; Mrs. Nat Fields, a singer and dancer; Joe Fields, an impersonator; and Harry Fields, the Hebrew dialect comic.
Yes, Fields would do nicely. And for the first name . . . why not just put the two initials together and leave it at that? William Claude: W. C. Fields. Mac drew rather than wrote the letters with a flourish and smiled. He liked it. He liked it very much. That was the hardest part. From here on in all the rest was drawing.
The strip debuted as The Life and Times of W. C. Fields.
The first months of the strip were effortless for Mac. He mined what he already knew of Whitey's life for episodes and drew them easily in the tiny niches of time he nibbled from his busy work schedule.
There was an episode of the tiny W. C. Fields hawking vegetables and fruit with his father from the cart drawn by that venerable old pony White Swan, juggling romantic foods and their exotic names with equal ease. There was W. C. running away from home and living in holes in the ground, which Mac turned into fabulous treasure caves equal in splendor to anything he'd drawn for Little Nemo. Strips illustrated the sojourn at the pool hall and W. C.'s flair for juggling cues and balls and subsequent mastery of the game of billiards. The dishonorable Methodists, the Coney Island "drownings," the standing-in as "Little Nell" . . . it was all grist for the mill. When Mac drew the lunch cage episode at the Chillicothe railway station he laughed so hard he cried. And then he drew himself into the strip, laughing himself into tears in a corner of the bar as he sketched away.
Mac felt younger, lighter again. He felt as though he were tap dancing around Hearst and Brisbane's efforts to bury him under avalanches of humorless pictorial c
ommentary.
The episode in the Peebles station was crucial. Rather than himself as Whitey's saviour, Mac had the sleepy, grumpy dispatcher lend W. C. the money. Just like Whitey, W. C. wept at the kindness. But unlike Whitey, W. C. was so touched by this trust and vote of confidence from a man who'd never even seen his skills that he returned to New York.
Mac was slowly shepherding W. C., strip by strip, to vaudeville. But he didn't let him succeed immediately. First came hilarious episodes where W. C. found work for the rest of the winter at the Old Globe dime museum. He had to hone his comedic skills to a level that matched his juggling, for the sword swallower and Trixie the Dog Girl were always conspiring to upstage him.
When summer's warmth arrived W. C. was hired by a circus. Alack and alas, the big-top already boasted a juggler, and this man was too jealous of his position to allow W. C. to share the billing with him. He barely tolerated the boy's presence as an understudy.
W. C. spent most of the season caring for the elephants. Mac loved doing this sequence, for he was terrific at drawing elephants. Unfortunately W. C. was not fond of the beasts. After he'd freed several mice in their vicinity the pachyderms decided to take their revenge, hosing down W. C. every chance they could get.
At last Mac arranged for the main juggler to get the chicken pox, and W. C. went on at the last minute to save the show. W. C. almost did not survive his triumph, however. Flushed with success, he didn't see Gunga Din, Rajah and Elsie waiting for him in the wings, trunks and tusks ready, until it was almost too late.
Mac found nice resonances in these strips with his earlier work. Little Nemo too had been overwhelmed time after time in encounters with elephants, alligators, polar bears, lions and chimpanzees.
In the fall, Mac finally allowed W. C. Fields to arrive on the vaudeville scene by being spotted by an agent for the Benjamin Franklin Keith Circuit. Flaming brands, swords and white mice were added to the objects W. C. juggled — the mice so that he'd always have them on hand should he run into elephants again. W. C. further developed his natural flair for both humor and hyperbole in his act. He insisted on being billed as "W. C. Fields, Distinguished Comedian."
He went from success to success until he arrived at June of 1906.
W. C. hummed a tune to himself as he strode down the narrow corridors of the backstage rabbit warren, swinging his ebony cane. The tune was an old and rather disagreeable one, but it had stuck in his head, buzzing about like a fly there, and he couldn't get rid of it.
Except for that minor irritation W. C. was in a capital mood. The European tour had been a triumph, helping him to extort another raise from F. F. Proctor, his current agency. And he had thought of a capital trick to play on the newest member of the ensemble. W. C. was not being cruel — such an initiation was an honored tradition in the entertainment industry and he didn't want the fellow to feel left out.
He knocked on the door. He smiled to himself when a voice quavery with fear answered. Perfect!
He peered in at the newcomer, a "chalk-talk" artist. Great Godfrey Daniel! The man was no bigger than a churchmouse, and four times as trembly.
Upon enquiry, it turned out the fellow's name was McCay. W. C. winked at him and pulled a flask from the inside pocket of his silver morning coat. "I believe what is called for here is a little scotch for my little Scotch friend."
As the fellow took a long, desperate gulp W. C. palmed his trick cigar and pushed a button on the fake head of his cane, which ingeniously resembled a carved rosewood snake.
Rolling off a line of arcane patter to the artist, W. C. "puffed" on the trick cigar, launching the slowly hardening foam "smoke-snake." At the same time the ersatz cane head ignited inside and slowly burned and dissolved away into smoke.
W. C. left the fellow babbling away in the closet-sized dressing room just in time for his own curtain call. Then he watched from the wings as McCay came out and gave his presentation.
Aaah yas, aaah yas, the little man gave quite a performance. Fields nodded to himself and smiled. Once again he'd inspired a fellow illusionist to the heights of his art, and had rather a merry time himself in the process. Wait till he told the boys about this one at the bar tonight after the show.
Rather a nice bit that McCay did there, with his chalk and his erasers. It gave W. C. an idea. McCay had a box of spare supplies at the ready near the inside edge of the curtain, in case he snapped a chalk or dropped an eraser into the orchestra pit during his act. W. C. picked up several erasers and a few sticks of chalk. He tossed the chalk up in the air in intricate juggling pattern, then in between catches scribbled cryptic symbols in the air. He started feeding erasers into the design, then built up a rhythm: erase the symbols with one hand, catch chalk with the other, draw new symbols, at the same time catch the erasers again, then erase, then repeat.
It had promise. Maybe he'd use it when they played Poughkeepsie.
Fields continued in vaudeville for years. He quickly put his pool hall experiences to good use. Building on borrowed (some might say stolen) ideas, W. C. designed a trick pool table and, as an accessory, a cue as twisted and contorted as any shillelagh.
After weeks and weeks of practice, what he could finally accomplish with the apparatus bordered on the miraculous.
Exaggerating the hyper-refined, effete etiquette of habitués of the billiard parlor, W. C. bent ritualistically to the table to meditate upon the balls' configuration, his remarkable nose grazing the emerald felt. Then he jumped, startled, his concentration broken by the placement of the chalk he'd seasoned his cue with. After fussing with the offending chalk (a leftover from the batch he'd pilfered from Mac McCay) he bent again with reverence to his game.
He sighted critically down the length of his stick at the coveted ball. Unfortunately the cue was so twisted that its end came to rest before a completely different sphere. And it would be that ball, not his heart's desire, which would bounce and carom around the table in balletic display. W. C. would stand back, baffled at this outcome.
It took almost half of his performance to realize and come to terms with the fact that his cue stick was crooked.
At that point the nature of the game changed. As he finally lined up appropriately for his shots, the other balls, to the public's amazement and delight, slowly and shyly rolled across the table toward W. C. as if begging him to propel them instead. He cursed them away like bothersome street urchins. The balls rolled off and clustered together in a far corner, obviously plotting revenge for this rejection.
When he was deeply immersed in his most difficult shot they launched their attack. W. C.'s following howled with laughter at the contortions he performed as he ducked and defended himself against the ricocheting hail of billiards, all the while stubbornly refusing to give up his shot.
Fields' success with this act not unsurprisingly excited the jealousy of other comedians, especially those who had to share the billing with him.
One night his chief rival, Ed Wynn, contrived to sneak under the pool table while W. C. was carrying on chalking up and examining his unlikely cue stick. As soon as Fields began his performance, Wynn commenced mugging and capering beneath the table. Fields' obvious bewilderment at the laughter erupting at inappropriate times in his act was cause for even more hilarity.
He finally figured out the source of his woes. Keeping a sharp eye on the front edge of the table, he waited for Wynn to get careless. A moment later the other comedian allowed his head to emerge, turtlelike. W. C. leapt lightly onto the table and in one motion brought the rococo pool cue down on Wynn's head with a singularly gorgeous golfing swing. Wynn keeled over into unconsciousness to thunderous applause.
Being of a magnanimously forgiving nature, not to mention gratified by the tremendous response of the public to this variation in his performance, Fields not only forgave Wynn but offered to incorporate his shenanigans into the act on a regular basis. It was reported that the still-recovering Wynn slammed his dressing room door on W. C. in a fury.
Fiel
ds enjoyed travelling abroad so much that he insisted that his contracts stipulate that he spend a good two-thirds of his time performing overseas. Not for him the stifling constraints of hearth, home or the daily grind. Besides broadening his view of the world, his ramblings allowed him to be surrounded by exotic backgrounds and fall into dubious and picaresque situations.
In one memorable set of episodes he arrived propitiously in South Africa just in time for the Boer War. W. C. wrote home to an acquaintance that the dour bearded burghers of Johannesburg exhibited all the cheerfulness of a bunch of midwestern farmers at a good hanging.
Furthermore, there was a curfew due to martial law, stranding and idling several theatrical troupes. It just so happened that all of these companies featured internationally famous jugglers: W. C., Valazzi, Frank Le Dent, Silvo and Selma Braatz. The antics of this bored and therefore dangerously creative crew began to resemble, to the horrified denizens of Jo'burg, an infestation not unlike that of a plague of giant, frolicsome fleas.
The stint in South Africa also witnessed the beginning of Field's involvement with cowboys. In Cape Town he ran into a young cowpoke who'd sailed over from the States with a herd of range ponies to sell. The fellow demonstrated some dazzling rope tricks and turned out to have a truly fine sense of humor — ultimately offending W. C. by upstaging the juggler.
Alas for Fields! The bovine overseer, a likeable fellow with a twangy accent who went by the handle of Will Rogers, was fated by the Creator to, like a black cat, cross the juggler's path time and time again.
A few weeks later Will showed up in Durban. Impressed with W. C.'s history, he had joined a local circus. Later they would appear together in the Ziegfeld Follies and other venues. They eventually became good friends, though W. C. could never forgive the cowboy for the gall of being so talented.
Fields did not feel threatened by another expatriate cowboy, equally talented but thankfully laconic and humorless. This terse fellow's name was Tom Mix. He showed up in South Africa to check out and get in on what he'd heard was a good fight. It didn't matter to Mix that he hadn't the vaguest notion what the quarrel was about and hadn't decided which side to throw in with.
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