BY ROBERT E. TEVIS
Recently,
the American Theater of Actors, in conjunction with Dr. Harriet Fields, presented
a theatrical reenactment of the 1928 trial of W.C. Fields for the murder of a
Canary. Entitled “The Real Transcript of W.C. Fields Murder Trial (Of A
Canary),†the thirty minute production is based upon a true story of the night
that Fields was arrested for the inhumane treatment of a canary in his act at
the Earl Carrol Theater by two New York City policemen attached to the Humane
Society.
Fields
had been appearing in Earl Carroll’s Vanities and was performing a routine that
is immortalized in his 1932 film “The Dentist.†In the routine, a man with a
huge brisling beard comes to see Fields, the dentist. As Fields pokes around
the man’s beard in an attempt to locate the man’s mouth, birds fly out, at
which point Fields grabs a rifle and tries to shoot them. When the routine was
done on stage, the two police officers claimed the bird, was not shot, but was
tortured and fatally injured when it ran into the scenery and fell to the stage.
While they could have issued a summons under the law protecting the creatures,
they instead arrested Fields and took him to jail.
Fields
was arraigned at the Seventh District Magistrates’ Court at 314 West 54th
Street and tried in front of the Honorable George Simpson charged with:
“Violation of Section
949 of the Penal Law in that on September 13, 1928 at 11:35 P.M. at 755 Seventh
Avenue, the Earl Carroll Theater, he did carry a bird in his pocket and took
the same from his pocket and permitted the bird to fly upon the stage and cause
said bird to fall to the floor as to produce torture.†(From the actual
trial transcript)
You
can’t make this up.
You
also cannot believe that the reenactment was done on a stage in what was then,
in 1928, the original courtroom where the trial was held. Yet that is also
true. Under the direction of James Jennings, the founder of the American
Theater of Actors, his team of professional took some very slight liberties
with the actual trial and transcript and added some dramatic business to
entertain the fairly large crowd who attended this commemorative
performance. Fields was played by
Terrence Montgomery and, taking some license with the casting, changed the
“Honorable George†to the “Honorable Georgina—played by Jane Culley.
Few
changes were required in what must have been one of the most entertaining
trials in New York jurisprudence. Especially when Officer Moran, the arresting
officer in the case (played emotively by Thomas Kane), had actual lines from
the trial like:
“We saw the bird in
the cage, and in the window of the taxicab we held the bird up. It was gasping, and we took it down, and we
notified the taxi driver that the bird was dying. When we got to the hospital, the bird was
dead.â€
Not
surprising that, in the performance, Fields signaled to the audience, that
“Moran†is really pronounced “Moron.†Especially as Fields’ attorney,
established to the court that the two officers posed for press photos with the
bird in the cage before leaving the theater. He also brought out the photographers’
use of magnesium powder flashes almost suffocating the people in the photos.
While
the judge patiently let both sides produce witnesses and allowed the trial to
go on, it was obvious that the Honorable Georgina found a more likely cause of
the birds death (the flash powder used by the photographers when the officers
posed with the bird and cage). She delivered her verdict, as the original Judge
ruled:
“The bird was all
right, I am satisfied, until he got into the hands of one or both of the officers. This was a case I am very frank to
say, that if the proper discretion had been used, Officer Moran would not have
taken a reputable citizen and placed him under arrest when he had the right to
use a summons…There is no danger of Mr. Fields running away and, in an act that
is shown every night, there is every inducement to stay here. He made an
unjustifiable arrest of a reputable citizen on the theory that this bird was
suffering torture and, before me, there is not one scintilla of evidence of the
bird having suffered torture….The bird did not die from any act on the part of
this defendant, William C. Fields, nor did the bird suffer any torture at his
hands whatsoever. Therefore I find the Defendant not guilty, and he is
acquitted. (The bird and cage returned to the attorney for the defendant.†(Again,
from the original trial transcript)
The
audience signaled agreement with their applause and the reenactment was
followed by some film clips of the sound films Fields made in the years
following his run in with the law.
This
was then followed by a question and answers session with Dr. Fields and James
Jennings and some refreshments generously provided by the theater. A fun
evening for all and definitely NOT for the birds.