Old Radio

January 29: Happy Birthday, W.C. Fields Raise your glass to toast a playboy, a consort of the likes of John Barrymore , Anthony Quinn, Cecil B. DeMille, and a hard drinker, comedy icon W.C. Fields . Fields is known for his acerbic, biting persona, which includes sexism and a general misanthropy. He was a vaudeville and Broadway one-man act, a silent film star, a talkie star, and a radio star. In 1937, Fields joined the cast of The Chase and Sanborn Hour , popularly remembered as "The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy " show. One of Fields' niches was trading insults with the dummy, Charlie. "Is that your nose or are you eating (insert a vegetable here)" was a standard line from Charlie to Fields, whose nose was not small. A shorter-lived stint for Fields was as emcee of Your Hit Parade , briefly known as Your Hit Parade With W.C. Fields . His particular brand of comedy kept him on the show for just a month. If you're looking for a quote for...