“Horse sense is a good judgment which keeps horses
from betting on people.” — Attributed to comic actor W. C. Fields (1880-1946)
in Nigel Rees, Cassell Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (1999)
Though he came to prominence on the vaudeville
circuit as a juggler and appeared in silent films (with a clip-on moustache),
it is impossible now to think of W.C. Fields—born on this day in 1880 in
Philadelphia—as anything but a product of the sound era. It was marvelously
nasal, the better to convey how cynical but woebegone his characters could be,
beset as they were by whiny children, attention-seeking dogs, and shrewish
wives.
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