W.C. Fields died three weeks before his only granddaughter Dr. Harriet A. Fields was born, but his outlook on life, family and comedy is a message she has taken to heart and is devoted to spreading.
“I really do think sometimes when there is a death and a spirit is not settled, it might settle in a birth, and I’m hoping that his spirit is settled in me, because I am very passionate about spreading the word of W.C. Fields, especially to younger generations,” Fields told the crowd of about 150 at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre Sunday afternoon. “I so totally appreciate my grandfather. I call him my spiritual inspiration.”
Fields was in Wilton Sunday for a screening of her grandfather’s silent comedy classic “Running Wild.” She stayed after to talk to W.C. Fields fans.
His art and humor are timeless, she said, and touch on universal themes such as marriage, in-laws, divorce, jobs and death.
“You could always find solace in a film or a clip of W.C. Fields,” she said. “Which to me is such a gift to the world. He said, ‘If I can make them laugh and through that laughter make this old world seem a little brighter then I am satisfied.’”
A lifelong performer, W.C. Fields traveled the world to perform, was a huge Broadway star in 1915 and made many silent films at Astoria Studios in New York, before coming to Hollywood at the age of 50, in 1930, to see if he could succeed in talking films. He became a star and comedy legend of the 1930s and 40s.
He is best known for playing downtrodden, hen-pecked, family men often driven to drink. He was also known for his distinctive twangy voice and prominent nose. Some of his films include, “It’s a Gift, “The Man on the Flying Trapeze,” “You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man,” “My Little Chickadee,” “The Bank Dick,” and “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.”
W.C. Fields also said, “People are basically funny. They just don’t know it,” Fields added. “So I study people, I just exaggerate what I see and I give it back to them in my performances so that people see themselves and that they laugh so that we’re not being laughed at and we’re all laughing at ourselves.”
Fields was joined Sunday by silent film buff Jeff Rapsis, who helps organize the theater’s monthly silent film Sundays. Rapsis is also a silent film accompanist and provides a live musical score for the silent films on his digital keyboard, recreating the “movie score” texture of a full orchestra.
Rapsis said W.C. Fields was a popular silent film star because he was already a well-known live performer.
“They were reliable box office,” he said of the silent films.
His silent films, however, are not well known and more than half have been lost over the years.
W.C. Fields movies were above all about family and in his own way showed his love of family and devotion to it, though, he himself struggled with an estranged marriage, Fields said.
“W.C. Fields said, ‘Always keep with your family. They’ll try to take them away from you. Don’t let them. Always keep with your family.’ And this almost brings tears to my eyes and that’s why I’m here,” Fields said.
Fields says she is not a “professional granddaughter.” She teaches health care policy in Washington D.C. and also does aid work in Rwanda.
Dr. Fields is vice president of W.C. Fields Productions, Inc. You can learn more about it online at www.wcfields.com.