Eddie Cline an alcoholic?

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Tommie Hicks
Capo
Posts: 162
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:11 pm

Eddie Cline an alcoholic?

Postby Tommie Hicks » Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:08 am

Here's something I've been wanting to ask youse guys for a while: was Eddie Cline a drinker?

In the book GAG MAN by Matthew Deesem on page 228 Dessem states that Eddie Cline drank himself to death. Alcohol was the main lubricant for silent film comedy, some silent film comedians and directors drank themselves to death. Yet in all the years of researching silent film comedy, I received the distinct impression that Cline was one of the few silent comedy teetotalers. I seem to remember a quote from W.C. Fields that Cline "was the only teetotaler I knew who was worth a damn." I have read that Cline used to drive Vernon Dent to the Christian Science readings. Anyone know the real story? Were the stories of Cline being a teetotaler a gag? Did Cline start drinking late in life?

Ed Watz
Associate
Posts: 424
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 7:35 pm

Re: Eddie Cline an alcoholic?

Postby Ed Watz » Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:09 pm

Eddie Cline had a gambling addiction, but I never heard that he was an alcoholic. Edward Bernds told me that by the late 1950s Cline was so broke that he sold his car to pay off gambling debts.
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)

Richard M Roberts
Godfather
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Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Re: Eddie Cline an alcoholic?

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:47 pm

Ditto Ed, I always heard the ponies, not the hootch, was Eddie's main problem.


RICHARD M ROBERTS


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