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W. C. Fields & Me
W.C. Fields & Me by Carlotta Monti with Cy Rice
227 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 12, 2021
Carlotta Monti, actor and singer, co-wrote this book with Cy Rice about her fourteen years living with W.C. Fields. in 1971. It’s stupidly out of print today, but you can still find it in places, and I recommend it, for lots of reasons. Not, however, for accuracy or historical fidelity. I first read this book at the tender age of nine or ten, having come across it in my grandfather’s house and, coincidentally, around the time the biography of Fields narrated by Dudley Moore was playing on PBS. I didn’t understand all of it at the time, but I lapped it up. Parts of it are laugh-out-loud funny, and Fields’ constant drinking seemed like a character trait carefully cultivated rather than a crippling addiction which eventually killed him.
To read it today, in the 21st century and as a middle aged man myself, is an entirely different experience, of course. Monti met Fields when she was twenty-four and he was in his late fifties; after four days of whatever you want to call their relationship, she moved in with him. Unsettling, yes, but apparently Hollywood has seen worse. And while Ms. Monti comes off as a good hearted person, with a sense of humor and justice of her own, she is still a product of her times. According to her, Fields hit her with his cane over her continuing a singing career (how hilarious), and while she claimed he “held no resentment towards any race, color or creed,” there’s a generous coating of racist lite in many of his comments. Ms. Monti herself mentions how difficult it was to get a gardener in the forties in California, since “authorities (had) rounded up the Japanese colony and clapped them into a High Sierra retreat (i.e. a concentration camp) called Manzanar.”
To read it as reliable biography is maybe not a great idea, therefore. I commented in an Amazon review twenty years ago that contemporary biographers agree that the Fields in this book is the Fields he wanted the public to see, and that facets of his personality showcased here—hatred of children, a hardscrabble period of homelessness in his youth, etc.—are exaggerated at best, false at worst. I also claimed that Fields was simply using Monti for sex, which, in retrospect, seems a stupid thing for me to have said.
But to read it as a story—not a true story but a story truer than truth—of one of the century’s greatest comedians is a treat; to view it as a nostalgia-tinged glimpse of vintage Hollywood is a wonderful experience. Monti describes Fields’ creative approach in his films and his peccadillos in his personal life engagingly and entertainingly. The stories still made me laugh, even though I already remembered many of them verbatim. Likewise, Fields’ earlier years as a vaudeville performer and his perambulation across the country as a younger man are well told, and absolutely hilarious.
The Fields in this book is the Fields you see in his movies, with a more human touch, and if the story is polished here or tweaked there, well, what of it? “When you have a choice between printing truth or printing legend, print legend,” we are told in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Here is the legend.
To read it today, in the 21st century and as a middle aged man myself, is an entirely different experience, of course. Monti met Fields when she was twenty-four and he was in his late fifties; after four days of whatever you want to call their relationship, she moved in with him. Unsettling, yes, but apparently Hollywood has seen worse. And while Ms. Monti comes off as a good hearted person, with a sense of humor and justice of her own, she is still a product of her times. According to her, Fields hit her with his cane over her continuing a singing career (how hilarious), and while she claimed he “held no resentment towards any race, color or creed,” there’s a generous coating of racist lite in many of his comments. Ms. Monti herself mentions how difficult it was to get a gardener in the forties in California, since “authorities (had) rounded up the Japanese colony and clapped them into a High Sierra retreat (i.e. a concentration camp) called Manzanar.”
To read it as reliable biography is maybe not a great idea, therefore. I commented in an Amazon review twenty years ago that contemporary biographers agree that the Fields in this book is the Fields he wanted the public to see, and that facets of his personality showcased here—hatred of children, a hardscrabble period of homelessness in his youth, etc.—are exaggerated at best, false at worst. I also claimed that Fields was simply using Monti for sex, which, in retrospect, seems a stupid thing for me to have said.
But to read it as a story—not a true story but a story truer than truth—of one of the century’s greatest comedians is a treat; to view it as a nostalgia-tinged glimpse of vintage Hollywood is a wonderful experience. Monti describes Fields’ creative approach in his films and his peccadillos in his personal life engagingly and entertainingly. The stories still made me laugh, even though I already remembered many of them verbatim. Likewise, Fields’ earlier years as a vaudeville performer and his perambulation across the country as a younger man are well told, and absolutely hilarious.
The Fields in this book is the Fields you see in his movies, with a more human touch, and if the story is polished here or tweaked there, well, what of it? “When you have a choice between printing truth or printing legend, print legend,” we are told in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Here is the legend.
May 14, 2009
Carlotta Monti is persona non grata among the Fields faithful. She is typically portrayed by the Fields family as a lying gold digger (as if old man Fields didn't have his own very human agenda for wanting the company of a young, attractive live-in Latina). But Monti comes off as personable in this memoir, and I trust her as much as anyone; after all, the lady WAS THERE, and all the complainers weren't. She was there for 14 years! There are many wonderful details relating to Fields' daily habits and so on that aren't captured in the other WC bios. I love this book. It's fun.
January 2, 2018
The life of a genius told by his mistress
Must have been a good woman. Even if the book was really written by Cy Rice. Congratulations.
Interesting that Fields was really not a nice man. Called his girlfriend china man.
Must have been a good woman. Even if the book was really written by Cy Rice. Congratulations.
Interesting that Fields was really not a nice man. Called his girlfriend china man.
July 20, 2023
Never have I read a book that was hilarious and sad at the same time.
November 28, 2011
Carlotta Monti's book gives a good idea what W. C. Field's character was like. Ms. Monti was a patient and flexible woman who was good to the man if her account is accurate, and I believe it was. In the end, she wasn't shown much gratitude.
December 25, 2008
How can any book about W.C Fields not be at least mildly entertaining?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews