ENGLISH LIT 344 / COMEDY & SATIRE Who's Who in American Comedy
Fields began in vaudeville as a juggler, then added comic remarks and eventually abandoned the juggling for comedy. His persona developed into a classic American archetype (derived from the Greek "alazon," the blustering fool who claims outlandish things that he hasn't really done and/or exaggertating things he actually Had done.) Fields was the archetypical boaster, a drunk who hated children, dogs, and women. The following opening scene from The Bank Dick illusrates this.
[For more details on W.C.Fields, check his listing in Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._C._Fields], but note--this is one of the rare times I can accept the use of Wikipedia as a source. I have found that most of the information there about these people is reliable.]
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