W.C. Fields

W.C. Fields (1880-1946)[1] was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer.

Biography

Born William Claude Dukenfield in Darby, Pennsylvania, on 29 January, 1880. He had no formal schooling, but learnt to read and write, becoming a voracious reader.

He taught himself juggling and began his career in show business in vaudeville, calling himself as "The Eccentric Juggler" and achieving international success. He toured widely in North America and Europe over the years, often billed as "the world's greatest juggler", visiting Australia and South Africa on occasion as well. He continued touring in vaudeville until 1915, gradually incorporating comedy into his act, and in 1915 he began to appear on Broadway as well, inter alia as the featured comedian in the Ziegfeld Follies. He eventually had a starring role in the Broadway musical comedy Poppy (1923), and this set of his mercurial career as a prolific and highly regarded radio, TV and film comedian.

Fields died on 25 December, 1946, in Pasadena, California.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He is mentioned as one of the famous British variety artists who performed as part of the opening programme for the new Empire Palace of Varieties in Johannesburg (formally opened on 1 December 1894). (Others included Marie Lloyd and Kate Harvey.) He probably toured more widely, performing at other major centres as well in this year.

In 1903 Fields once more toured the vaudeville circuits in South Africa and Australia and, according to D.C. Boonzaier (1923), while in Cape Town he was also one of the solo participants in the Bloemfontein Flood Benefit (a matinee benefit performance for the sufferers in the disastrous flood in Bloemfontein), put on in the Cape Town Opera House on 28 January, 1904, by a company brought together for the purpose by Grant Fallowes.

Boonzaier is cited in F.C.L. Bosman (1980: p, 418) as referring to the performer in the latter event as "N.C. Fields", a performer he typifies as "the famous American grotesque juggler". This clearly seems to have been a misremembered recollection by the South African critic (or a typographical error on the part of Bosman's publishers).

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._C._Fields

https://johannesburg1912.com/2013/07/29/theatres-in-early-johannesburg/

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p. 418.

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