Forbes Field

Forbes Field: Build-It-Yourself: With an Introduction and History
$19.95
I'm normally not a model builder, and I never saw Forbes Field, but I really enjoyed putting this ballpark model together. The quality of the design is tremendous, and the finished product is display-worthy. A nice gift idea for native Pittsburghers. The enterprise is very much doable, but this is no two-day project. If you aren't willing to put some energy into it, you're better off with a jigsaw puzzle.

Forbes Field: Essays and Memories of the Pirates' Historic Ballpark, 1909-1971
$39.95
This text is a must read for anyone who enjoys Pittsburgh, history, and baseball. In several of the citations Century Printing is listed. This Pittsburgh printer made the Pirate yearbooks. I remember the pressman at Century letting me gather as many yearbooks as I wanted. My deepest gratitude and respect to the authors of this amazing text which is a worthy investment to any library.

2:00 P.M. - 3:00 P.M.
$1.99

You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) [VHS]
$14.98
If Fields were alive and could rate this film, he would probably give it one star. He was very unhappy at the final result, in which most of his main story ideas were thrown out, he went through three directors although one extra stayed on and worked only with Edgar Bergen.

I'm sure most people who made this movie would be astounded that anyone would still be watching these movies seventy years later. In those days, it was strictly the business of selling the tickets and popcorn and using radio stars like Bergen and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson to draw in the customers.

At times, Fields may have gone overboard in his role as an inept scoundrel, but when he is good, he is terrific. There are so many hilarious bits in the movie that make you forget that it is a silly mishmash. It baffles science.

Once again there is the running gag on the Field's character's name: "It's not Larceny, it's Larson E." he yells, "And it's not Whipsnake, it's Whipsnade."

Once again he has a brilliant stock company to work with. Grady Sutton as "Colonel Dalrymple's Nephew" is the perfect imbecile. Bill Wolfe plays several different characters, once again getting cheated at the ticket window. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson helps ready Whipsnade for his shower provided by Queenie the Elephant's trunk. Anderson even helps Whipsnade when he gets mixed up about how to say his name.

Then little Evelyn Del Rio, "reeking of lollipops," successfully swindles Whipsnade out of fifty cents claiming that his elephant stepped on her dog. Later, she produces the pooch alive and well and laughing in his face. He tries to retrieve the money until an adult intervenes.

The Charlie McCarthy-Fields rivalry, immensely popular on radio and an act that literally kept Fields alive during a dry spell in the late 30's, is played out here as well.

Once he gets rolling, Field's improbable comedy sequences build like a crescendo in a musical composition. In the third act of the movie, he leaves the circus one step ahead of the law in a Roman chariot with a cape and top hat. He arrives for his daughter's wedding at the Bel Goodie home, the creme de la creme, and proceeds to work the room as the all time braggart and lout completely immune to their sensibilities. He tries to tell a story about a struggle with snakes but every time he mentions the word "snakes" Mrs. Bel Goodie faints and the room goes into a tizzy. Most of the guests ignore him. Finally, Whipsnade's son pulls him out of the room and chastises him for his lack of social graces...but it's not over yet. Inside the game room, Jan Duggan, another favorite of Fields leans against the wall leering at Whipsnade with an invitation, "Do you play ping pong?"

Does he play ping pong? Like nobody else. And when the wedding is a shambles, and the law almost catches up with him again. He makes one of the great exits in cinema.

I suggest getting Vol 2 of the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection on DVD.