Details
Synopsis
An exhaustively researched biography of the famed actor and comedian, written by a professor at the London International Film School. Best known today for his movie roles (many of which he wrote himself), Fields was actually an accomplished and famous performer--the first American, for example, ever to headline at the Follies Bergere--long before he went to Hollywood. Louvish traces Fields's life and career from its earliest years, and includes a collection of photographs of Fields and his contemporaries.
| Size | | Length: | 564 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.8 in | | Thickness: | 1.8 in | | Weight: | 34.4 oz |
Industry Reviews
"Field's biographer is face 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 the 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."
Atlantic Monthly - Phoebe-Lou Adams (10/19/1997)
"Though Simon Louvish delights in pointing out discrepancies between the myth and the man, W.C. Fields's on- and off-stage personas were at least consistent in one respect: they were both liars. From his earliest days in vaudeville as a comic juggler, Fields knew that a good story was good self-promotion. Which doesn't make the biographer's job any easier....A product of extensive research, Louvish's biography gains in accuracy what it loses in entertainment value. but such are the pitfalls of truth. One delightful thing about this biography is its recreation of turn-of-the-century vaudeville."
Boston Book Review - Robert Reynolds (11/19/1997)
"Besides proffering anecdotes, Louvish does a heroic job of filling in Fields's life.
New York Times Book Review - Katharine Whittemore (09/21/1997)
"At last 'the Great Man' (as Fields called himself, accurately) has a great biography."
Cushman
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