emMan on the Flying Trapezeem is the first biography in decades -- and the only accurate one -- of the beloved cinematic curmudgeon and inimitable comic genius W. C. Fields. Simon Louvish brilliantly sifts through evidence of Fields's own self-creation to illuminate the vaudeville world from which Fields sprang and his struggles with studios and censors to make his hilarious films-in the process confirming suspicions yes, he did drink and confounding them he doted on his grandchildren. One of the best movie biographies to come along in quite some time. . . . A book to cherish.--emFilm Reviewem emMan on the Flying Trapezeem nicely regales us with many vaudevillian stories. . . . Louvish does a heroic job.--Katharine Whittemore, emNew York Times Book Reviewem A rapturous, giddy, and irrepressible book. . . . Let us be clear this is a delight, a marvel of research . . . and a superb argument for the case that William Claude Dukenfield was, and is, the greatest comic the movies have given