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Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham
The 1971 photo of DTB shows a parking lot next to it, I worked for Grant Parking in '71 and operated that lot during the day. Mostly lot was for the Hollywood Medical Center, lots of older movie people had a Dr. there. Carlotta Monte, W.C. Fields girl friend was a regular, nice person. Many others. '71 was my last year then I went to work for City of L.A..
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash
W. C. Fields is one of my favorite comedians. However I was somewhat disappointed in the movie W. C. Fields and Me because it was almost nothing like her book.
From what I've read he used to be something of a regular at Boardner's in Hollywood, had an office near by in the old Warner Theater building, and for a time lived in a house in Whitley Heights. Finally I grew up about a mile from the "sanitarium" where he spent his final days.
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^^^
The film has it's moments. It is not perfect but Rod Steiger does a passable version of W.C. Fields. The film spends at least 30 minutes on the supposed abduction of the body of W.C.'s drinking buddy John Barrymore from the mortuary for one last meeting of the drinking & poker club and to send him off to eternity happy. Did that corpse abduction actually happen, or just a tall tale about Fields? See (*) below for more about Barrymore.
Valerie Perrine played Carlotta as the sweet woman that she probably was, and I remember the scene where she sprinkled the roof with a garden hose so the dying Fields could get to sleep. Fields liked the sound of rain on the roof--it relaxed him and it didn't rain often enough in L.A. like it did in Philadelphia. They also found an old L.A. red car to appear on tracks in one if the scenes.
The little person Billy Barty also appeared in the film as Ludwig, a pal of Fields. Maybe he was supposed to be one of the Munchkins. Can't remember. Fields would have made a memorable Wizard of Oz, but Frank Morgan did a good job. Besides, I don't think W.C. was still at MGM when they made it. I vaguely recall that L.B. Meyer had a grudge or dislike of Fields, possibly because he considered him demanding and unreliable because of his drinking. So Fields probably never had a chance to be the Wizard. Fields did a good Mr. Macawber in 1935 for the MGM version of David Copperfield, but he does seem a little tipsy sometimes, but Mr. M was a drinker. "Something will turn up my boy". The eternal optimist.
I read somewhere that Fields' family has possibly prevented the release of "W.C. Fields and Me" for viewing so it is very hard or maybe impossible to find on television or on DVD even today. I guess the family doesn't like the film or maybe they didn't like Carlotta Monti or her book. She did love Fields but I guess his family viewed Carlotta as a golddigger. Sad the way she was treated at the burial service.
I conjecture the unnamed "little (old) man" referred to in ER's newspaper article above about the burial service above may have been Fields' old vaudeville pal Ludwig, played by Billy Barty in the film. If that was Ludwig, he was treated even worse than Carlotta. The attendant wouldn't even let him see the crypt, and he shuffled away misty eyed. Carlotta and Ludwig got no respect.
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(*) John Barrymore and Evelyn Nesbitt. As some of you know, young John Barrymore and the youthful "Gibson Girl" model Evelyn Nesbitt had an affair around the time she got involved with the famous architect Sanford White around 1905 in NYC. White was later killed by Nesbitt's insanely jealous husband Thaw at the Madison Square Garden which White designed; Nesbitt may have posed for the rotating nude statue of the goddess Diana at the crown. The trial of Thaw was the O.J. trial of its day. The case is covered in the films/book "Ragtime" and the "Lady on the Red Velvet Swing". My question--Nesbitt later moved to L.A., perhaps when Barrymore was still alive in the late 1930s. Is it known whether Nesbitt and Barrymore ever met in L.A.? I believe Nesbitt led a quiet life teaching art here in her later years. Barrymore always said that Nesbitt was the love of his life, and he may have proposed to her back around 1905. So, did they ever run into eachother in L.A.? Was Nesbitt's move here because Barrymore was here? Any info?