#w.c. fields

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Humpty Dumpty - Alice in Wonderland (1933)

[citizenscreen]

Few make me laugh like W. C. Fields - sometimes against my better judgment - and he is spotlighted on #TCM tonight. Not a bad way to end the weekend.

[oldshowbiz]

W.C. Fieldmouse

[filmap]

Can I Be Your Bratwurst, Please? Rosa von Praunheim. 1999

Opening Titles You Are the Star Mural, 1665 Wilcox Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028, USA See in map

See in imdb

Bonus: also in this location

[randomnessoffiction]

"Because there's nobody with me."

[lobbycards]

The Bank Dick, US lobby card. 1940

[yestergaze]

W. C. Fields was born on January 29, 1880, in Darby, Pennsylvania. He began his career in vaudeville as a juggler in 1898 and soon was a headliner in North America and Europe. He once performed on the same bill with the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt, who proclaimed him to be "an artiste [who] could not fail to please the best class of audience". He starred in the Ziegfield Follies from 1916 to 1922, not as a juggler but as a comedian in ensemble sketches. In addition to many editions of the Follies, Fields starred in the 1923 Broadway musical comedy Poppy, where he perfected his persona as a colorful small-time con man.  He successfully became established as a silent film star in 1925 with Sally of the Sawdust and It's The Old Army Game (1926). He transitioned to talkies in the early 1930s. He appeared in seven shorts and 34 feature films. He became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood and his unique blend of physical comedy and wordplay made him a huge box office success. He died in 1946 at age 66 of a stomach hemorrhage.

[thursdaymurderbub]

Screenland magazine, March 1938

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) took 3 years, 750 artists, and nearly 2 million separate paintings to complete. The approximately 750 artists comprised about 32 animators, 102 assistant animators, 167 'in-betweeners,' 20 layout artists, 25 watercolour background artists, 65 effects animators, and 158 female inkers and painters.

Disney famously undervalued(s) the work of these artists and used the profits from Snow White to expand the studio and install luxuries such as a restaurant, gym, steam room etc that were only accessible to a very limited group of executives and head writers/animators. Individual departments were segregated from one another and heavily policed against fratranisation or perceived slights to the company. Employees were expected to work long overtime without compensation and the pay renumeration scheme was uneven and disorganised, with workers being paid substantially more or less for the same work due to internal politics and/or disorganisation. All this led to the animator's strike of 1941, which of course featured placards of the highest quality:

This photo likely shows John Garfield supporting the protest!

The animators were eventually allowed to form a union to protect their rights moving forward.