A YEAR IN THE LIFE

In your May 22 Crypto-Quote, you noted in the biography accompanying the illustration that W. C. Fields was born in 1879.

Granted this is a mosquito-size error, but it’s an irksome one in that this is an ongoing mistake. From the time I was 14 1/2, I would drive my father, Gene Fowler, to the residences of his famous friends such as W. C. Fields, John Barrymore and Jack Dempsey. Fields told me he was born in 1880, the year that is also listed on the gold plaque in front of the reliquary holding his ashes at Forest Lawn Glendale.

An atheist, Fields stated in his will that he wanted to be “immediately cremated” and that there be no funeral services. However, he ended up having three, all in one day at Forest Lawn Glendale.

The first was a non-religious affair where actor-ventriloquist Edgar Bergen recited a warm eulogy. The second was a Catholic Mass for members of Fields’ family. And the third was a sort of cultish thing in front of the crypt where his mistress, Carlotta Monti, held forth.

Being Catholic, the Fields family would not allow his body to be cremated. It took two years before Superior Court Judge William R. McKay handed down the edict that, according to the wishes put forth by Fields in his will, the corpse was to be cremated.

WILL FOWLER

Sherman Oaks

A common mistake indeed. Numerous publications, including the World Almanac and “Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion,” list the year of Fields’ birth as 1879.