The Real Transcript of W.C. Fields Murder Trial (of a Canary), 1928

Stage Reading, September 15 and 16, 2025, at Actors Temple Theatre, 339 W. 47th St., NYC

(A little-known part of Broadway history with profound implications for the legacy of modern entertainment.

A true story of The People v. W.C. Fields – suspenseful and absurd – that just might have thwarted the Great Man’s Hollywood career in talking pictures, and might never have become the “Icon of American Culture and Humor” as described by the Librarian of Congress in 2000.)

While performing the canary scene in Earl Carroll Vanities on Broadway in 1928, W.C. Fields was arrested in the Theatre for torturing a canary, thrown in jail overnight, and appeared in Court the next day.