Charlie Case and The Fatal Glass of Beer

[Rob Farr]

This may be old news to some, but 'twas new to me. I always assumed that the song that W.C. Fields sang in The Fatal Glass of Beer was his own composition written for "The Stolen Bonds" sketch. Turns out it was composed and first performed by a comedian named Charlie Case. Here's Wikipedia's entry on Case and the lyrics to the song: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Case

Case was mentioned in a recent article in Slate as the first stand-up comedian as opposed to monologist. The primary difference being that stand-ups rely on disconnected jokes and songs rather than longform comic stories. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cult ... omedy.html.

Wikipedia refers to Case as a black-face comedian while the Slate article refers to him as an African-American. I know the two descriptions aren't mutually exclusive because many African-Americans performed in burnt cork (Bert Williams). I spent a few minutes looking for an image of Case, but came up empty.

"There was once a poor young man who left his country home,
And came to the city to seek employment;
He promised his dear mother that he'd lead the simple life,
And always shun the fatal curse of drink.

He came to the city and accepted employment in a quarry,
And while there he made the acquaintance of some college men;
He little guessed that they were demons, for they wore the best of clothes,
But clothes do not always make the gentleman.

One night he went out with his new-found friends to dine,
And they tried to persuade him to take a drink;
They tempted him and tempted him, but he refused and he refused,
Till finally he took a glass of beer.

When he seen what he had done he dashed the liquor to the floor,
And he staggered through the door with delirium tremens;
While in the grip of liquor he met a Salvation Army lassie,
And cruelly he broke her tambourine.

All she said was 'Heaven bless you!' and placed a mark upon his brow,
With a kick that she had learned before she was saved;
So kind friends, take my advice and shun the fatal curse of drink,
And don't go around breaking people's tambourines."

[Richard M Roberts]

Yep, it was definitely Charlie Case's song, and he was indeed a blackface comedian. I believe there is a recording of him singing it.

I remember in the early 70's the elderly actor Burt Mustin was part of a Barbershop Quartet and they sang this song as part of their act and they did it on THE TONIGHT SHOW. It still got big laughs.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

[Robert Moulton]

Charlie Case's obit from the December 01 1916 Variety:

http://archive.org/stream/variety45-1916-12#page/n12/mode/1up

He's listed as a having an albino mother and Irish father.