Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1340195 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 564 pages

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

About the Author
Simon Louvish is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels. He teaches film at the London International Film School and writes frequently about the Golden Age of comedy.

Customer Reviews

"Woo-hoo!" "Don't let the posie fool ya!"
I really cannot understand why someone would give this book a bad review.

FIRST - It is rare that there is a book written about THE GREAT MAN. We should give a hearty handclap to those who take the time to revisit such a great comedian and orginal personality.

SECOND - It is rare that a book would be honest enough to say where it's shortcomings may be. Meaning that, much to my and I'm sure other peoples amusement, our friend W.C. did a lot of tall-tale telling in his day. It is hard to decifer where truth on his life lay. Louvish checks with all resources to find whre the turth may be. He had access to family members, W.C.'s own scrapbooks, library archives, etc. He presents the book in the begining as a sort of mystery - and that's what it is. Even W.C.'s own authorized bio is full of holes and tall tales - and Louvish proves it. Those who are familiar with THE GREAT MAN know that even he fouled up his own tale telling at times.

THIRD - This book is not only a biography but a historical account. A good biography should not only tell the story of a person but should also give you points of reference in regards to time, event, people & places. Louvish does this. He gives you helpful background on key people and places in W.C.'s life. It allows the reader to understand the subject clearer. And this information is presented clear and concise - not as a "filler" for the text.

FOURTH - For those who feel that Louvish is being a "wiseguy" by the way he writes I ask you to think about who the subject matter is! One of the biggest and most original wiseguy of them all. I feel it makes the book more personal and fun to read.

If you're a fan of Fields you read it & judge for yourself. However, unlike some more ignorant folk, you must remember that ANY biography is not an "end all" to who that person is. A personality is a many layered thing, and so is telling the story of someones' life.

Take the book as it is. An enjoyable journey into the world of W.C Fields. You may learn something new, or you may not. However I'm sure you'll enjoy!

Give Him an Even Break
Although I have reservations, Simon Louvish's *Man on the Flying Trapeze* is a thoroughly competent job, strong in many areas. Louvish paints the vaudeville show circuit out of which Fields's later inimitable character was born with just the right amount of detail. Fields's earliest years were spend both in America and in Europe as one of a series of variety acts presented as part of an evening's performance (he was often on stage for only 12 minutes), and Louvish recreates this ambiance with some deftness, not easy to do when researching materials 90 years old. The Ziegfeld Follies live again! Similarly, by the time Fields starts in motion pictures in 1915, and with an explicitness that grows throughout the book, Louvish gets behind Fields's connection with the studios that filmed him. Chapter 23 on the now obscure producer J. P. McEvoy is a great piece of detective work: here is a key figure who underlies most of Fields's most sympathetic satirical postures.

Louvish doesn't claim to have figured out what he cannot: what caused the breakdown of Fields's marriage to Hattie Hughes? A biography that does include many of Fields's well-known lines--"Have you had this tooth pulled before?"--and reprises the best skits has much else to relish: e. g., the movie studio atmosphere and the hilarious objections to Fields's then-too-smutty-but-now-tame-enough gags. Louvish represents dutifully if a little thinly Fields's decline from illnesses brought on by alcoholism.

Now a few cavils. We need more on why William Claude Dukenfield was able to transform his life into comedy. Why could he and not others sublimate his anger and tensions first into juggling and then into physical and finally verbal humor? If the book needs the inspiration of genius to answer this point, that nevertheless is what a Fields fan wants. It also needs a fuller, richer aesthetic and intellectual context in appraising Fields's films. Less consequentially, Louvish on occasion needs more distance from Fields; adopting the master's voice in the narrative ("Never give a sucker an even break, particularly when he might be your biographer," p. 165) blurs the vision instead of clarifying it. There are a few factual errors: *Babbitt* was published in 1922, not 1921; the poem on p. 388 that Louvish thinks is Fields's was written by Ogden Nash (surely the W. W. Norton Company has editors for such details?)

Nevertheless, *Man on the Flying Trapeze* is an entertaining and illuminating biography, and I am grateful for it. Godfrey Daniel!

Great research, but a bit too �dry�(and not as in martini)
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.