Editing WC Fields (section)

== Vaudeville and Broadway ==

Fields' vaudeville career, which began in the 1890s and continued into the 1910s, established him as one of the circuit's premier performers. His juggling abilities, which provided his initial attraction, became context for comedy as he developed the persona that audiences would recognize. His success on the Ziegfeld Follies (1915-1921) demonstrated ability to dominate prestigious venues while his Broadway work in productions including "Poppy" (1923) showed his capacity for sustained characterization.<ref name="louvish"/>

His vaudeville persona—the pompous blusterer whose elaborate dignity barely concealed incompetence and meanness—developed through years of performance before film could capture it. The vocal style, with its nasal delivery and creative vocabulary, became as distinctive as his physical comedy. His comic timing, refined through thousands of performances, achieved precision that his apparently casual delivery concealed. The Philadelphia streets that had shaped his youth, whatever their actual hardship, contributed to authenticity that purely theatrical training might not have provided.<ref name="curtis"/>

His transition to film, beginning in the silent era but flourishing in talkies that could showcase his voice, brought his persona to audiences that vaudeville circuits could not reach. The Broadway experience that preceded film work provided the performance discipline that film's technical demands required. His Philadelphia origins, already essential to his mythology, became part of the persona that film would make internationally recognizable.<ref name="louvish"/>