Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

by Michael Harriot

But Case’s legacy remains. “Case suffered from more pirates than anyone in show biz,” wrote vaudeville chronicler Joe Laurie Jr. in 1953, adding, “In fact, entertainers are still using his stuff on the radio and TV but it’s not like it’s Charlie Case.”8 Perhaps the most famous of the movie vaudevillians was W. C. Fields, the “comic genius” whose entire career was essentially a Charlie Case impersonation. In 1928, Fields copyrighted all his live sketches, including the sketch that later became the movie The Fatal Glass of Beer. The sketch, the movie, and even the song that opened the film were all created by Charlie Case. In announcing his death, the reviewer for the New York Evening World said, “If all the minutes of joy he gave to the public could be added up it would cover hundreds of gladsome years.”