Lumus
Posts: 5968
Joined: 9/16/2007 Status: offline
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From WC Fields: CHILDREN (NOTE: Fields' public attitude toward children, needless to say, was atrocious. It is probably the least laudable aspect of his screen personae. Like the later Monty Python however, it was part of the Fields mystique that he held and expressed unpopular or controversial attitudes. Fields' own persecution complex is said by some to have resulted from his own mistreatment as a youth. As an adult, he was separated from his own child, whom he deemed a "mother's boy" and "sissy.") (Someone asked Fields: "How do you like children?") (He responded:) "Parboiled!" (Quoted in numerous books). (Variations included, "Fried!" and "well done.") (Also:) "They are very good with mustard." (**** page 163) (When he was a 14-year-old starstruck lad, the future science fiction writer Ray Bradbury spotted Fields on the sidewalk in front of the Paramount studios and whipped out his autograph book. After signing it and handing it back to Bradbury, Fields said:) "There you are, you little son of a bitch." (From The Hollywood Reporter as related in ** page 137.) (Fields raises his hand, ready to hit his movie daughter.) Mother: "Don't you hit her!" WC: "Well, she's not going to say I don't love her!" (The Bank Dick. This same situation and line, with slight variation, shows up in several other Fields films.) "There is not a man in America who has not had a secret ambition to boot an infant." (Saturday Evening Post August 6, 1938) (This quote has turned up in numerous variations, ie: "There isn't a man alive who hasn't wanted to boot a kid.")
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<Talk to educate; listen to learn.> ~ the other half of "L&L" ~ I have been dubbed the Rainmaker. Do not make me take your water for my tribe.
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