W. C. Fields from Sound Film and Radio Comedy to Stardom

W. C. Fields is known as a virtuoso comedian and legendary iconoclast who gave the gift of laughter to multitudes. As the first author to use the newly-opened Fields Papers at the Academy library, Arthur Frank Wertheim illuminates the comedian-s arduous ascent to stardom during Hollywood's golden age. The book reveals details of Fields-s turbulent private life, from his wife's refusal to divorce, to his estranged son, and to his fleeting relationships with women. Here is a portrait of an aggrieved artist whose emotional anguish found refuge in his poignant comedy about life-s frustrations and the human condition. This third volume in Wertheim's trilogy documents Fields's rise to iconic status during the counterculture 1960s, creating a legacy of his comedy for generations to come.

Arthur Frank Wertheim is the author of W. C. Fields from Burlesque and Vaudeville to Broadway: Becoming a Comedian (2014). The first volume of a three-part series on the comedian's life and career, it has already been hailed as the definitive biography of a famous American comic iconoclast and cultural icon. He has also written several books on twentieth-century American culture, including Vaudeville Wars, The New York Little Renaissance, and Radio Comedy. He has co-edited three volumes: The Papers of Will Rogers and edited Will Rogers at the Ziegfeld Follies and American Popular Culture. A former American history professor at the University of Southern California, USA, as well as visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, his awards range from a Fulbright grant to teach at the University of Indonesia to a fellowship on biography at The Norman Mailer Center, USA.

1. Welcome Back to Hollywood.- 2. The Sennett Quartet.- 3. "The World's Biggest Entertainment Joy Ride".- 4. Three of a Kind.- 5. From Silent to Sound.- 6. Return to the Sawdust Trail.- 7. The Mail-Order Groom.- 8. Magnum Opus.1.- 9. "A Perfect Mixture of the Part and the Actor".- 10. Mississippi River Card Shark.- 11. All in the Family.- 12. A Vocal McGargle Emerges.- 13. "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter".- 14. Battling Sickness.- 15. Radio Saved My Life!.- 16. The Big Broadcast of 1938.- 17. The Paramount Purge.- 18. Battling Universal.- 19. Compustible Co-Stars.- 20. Magnus Opus.2.- 21. The Great Man.- 22. Swan Songs.- 23. Doomsday at Bundy Drive.- 24. Scenes Before the Final Exit.- 25. The Man in the Bright Nightgown Cometh.