W.C. FIELDS: A Biography

Hattie Hughes, ex-wife and lifelong adversary of W.C. Fields (1880–1946), claimed "my husband was a coward. He liked to bully people." In Curtis's admirable biography, the comedian corroborates this assessment by calling himself "the most belligerent guy on the screen." Curtis, a biographer of James Whale and Preston Sturges, takes on another creative, deeply flawed protagonist, enabling readers to identify with Fields's drive, his unstable relationships and the anger that fueled so much of his humor. The "eccentric juggler," Fields slowly built a niche in vaudeville through such technical accomplishments as mastering six balls in one position. Showbiz struggle is never romanticized, and readers can sense and taste the unpleasantness of sleeping on trains, baggage delays and bad food, along with facing Florenz Ziegfeld, who hired comics and hated them all. Curtis dramatizes Fields's love life in dark detail, from his money-hungry wife, Hattie, to a succession of mistresses, prompting a friend to comment, "Bill changed women every seven years, as some people get rid of the itch." Though acclaimed as the definitive Wilkins Micawber in George Cukor's 1935 David Copperfield, much of the Micawber footage was cut, eliciting rage from Fields. Also fascinating is Fields's rejection of the wizard role in The Wizard of Oz. His screen partnership with Mae West, deftly documented, tells how two hefty egos coexisted until West accused Fields of demanding an undeserved credit on her script for My Little Chickadee. Curtis's sharp intelligence and a pungent modern edge in his writing make Fields relevant to contemporary readers unfamiliar with his classic work. (Mar.)