FIELDS, W.C. (1880 – 1946). W.C. Fields’ Crooked Pool Cue. Twisted, tapered design wooden pool cue, length 63”, width 1 1/8” at base (even craquelure). Owned and used by legendary comedian, actor, juggler, and entertainer W.C. Fields. According to the accompanying signed letter of provenance from Red Skelton (1913 – 1997), dated 20 February 1984, this pool cue was a gift directly from Fields to Skelton. Skelton further states that this was the cue which Fields “smacked Ed Wynn over the head during Fields’ performance,” in a well-recorded incident from Fields’ first year in Ziegfield Follies on Broadway. Skelton continues that during Fields’ pool routine, “Ed Wynn, who was the darling of the New York crowd,…used to crawl under the pool table and did all kinds of mimes and Fields figured out where the laughs where coming from. Then, lastly, he discovered Wynn under the table. Fields walloped him with the heavy end of the cue stick…” Skelton states that he and Jean [Gene] Fowler visited Fields, and that Fields “took a liking to me and gave me his twisted Cue stick.” In this letter, Skelton presents the pool cue to magician Tom Mullica.

Provenance: Red Skelton (1913 – 1997); Tom Mullica (1948 – 2016).