Concord Transcript from Concord, California • 22

TOTIE FIELDS fiW HAVE BEEN DOWN BUT SHE mS NEVER OUT By John Dorschner After her leg was amputated comedienne Totie Fields received countless letters and telegrams from friends Rickies told me that if people stopped laughing at my Jokes I should put on a bandanna and tell them I'm a pirate Buddy Hackett told me to get a woodpecker to do acupuncture Steve Lawrence said if people asked about the leg 1 should tell them I was in Jauu Throughout the ordeal my friends came to see me in the hospital four or five times a week They never gave me an ounce of sympathy and so I never started feeling sorry for Humor loyal friends lack of self-pity and willpower that's how Totie Fields says she was able to keep going through eight months of hospitalization that was more bizarre than any routine she ever created on stage The humor should come as no surprise By her own description she is highest paid nightclub comedienne in the and she has appeared on hundreds of talk shows including 125 visits to the Mike Douglas Show and 13 years with Merv Griffin who calls her talking marathon" Much of her humor was directed at her bowling-ball appearance She once appeared in an ostrich-feather gown "that every fat woman dreams of buying but Another time she cracked have the same dimensions as Elizabeth Taylor Her living room is 12 feet by 18 feet and so is But behind her fat facade she says now "I was a very vain woman You make fun of something only so that you are aware of it and others are aware of it Then you can get It out of the It was her vanity that started her problems In March 1976 she entered a Connecticut hospital to have a doctor remove the Bnes around her eyes Before her operation however she had an asthma attack and was put on a breathing machine There were other complications: she had been a diabetic since she was 20 and had a history of circulation problems in her legs Then after the doctor performed the surgery Totie developed a blood dot in her leg Another operation wavequired to try to bypass the clot When that failed doctors were forced to amputate her left leg Just above the knee A month later she "drove her family by insisting she wanted to attend her daughter wedding She was flown to their Las Vegas home in a hospital plane "My daughter was mar- much better started her therapy "I had to worry about my hands too I was cut so many times with IVk and blood transfusions they lost all the veins and had to cut me It severed some nerves" For months she worked with SiHy Putty trying to get her hands to clasp "I unbutton a House I brush my teeth I unscrew the cap to the toothpaste die first Merv Griffin Show I did after I got out of the hospital I got a call from Lucy Lucille Ball and Hie said 1 Just went Into a room and started to ary I was happy to see you sitting up again And you have such magnificent Well that was so funny Everybody mentioned my hands and it was because I didn't know where to hide To force herself through therapy she insisted that her manager find her an early club date Part of the reason was financial medical bills had drained the family savings "But it was more than that I needed to function That's my life I'm a performer Every day in the hospital I thought about going back on Once she started she learned to use her new artificial leg with speed that amazed her therapist "He asked me are you so and I told him I am going on stage in seven weeks and I'm going to On a Saturday she had her last therapy treatment and on a Monday she opened at a theater in Fort Lauderdale Fla Before she went on stage she received hundreds of teleams from friends saying "Break a the traditional show-business phrase for good luck At the age of 47 she was making a comeback The first night she was so nervous that she sat throughout the show For her second performance she tried standing It worked well and she expects to be working soon on stage again "The reception has been fantastic and I don't think it was because of my being handicapped I'd cry tf that was it Remember something: people around you are Influenced by your attitude toward your shortcomings and I was always aware of my shortcomings "Just like my opening line with my audience: was never a beautiful leg so wherek the great loss? And everyone starts laughing right away It's true No one has ever said 'My God she had such gorgeous It's not like Betty Grable lost a leg I mean everybody felt sorry for me but no one ever said it was a great leg It I've had ugly legs all my life And you Just have to accept that "If you like yourself you'll like yourself with one leg I like Totie Fields I like what I've made myself and that's what's VM Important" Mil After the amputation of her left leg two heart attacks and an incredible display of guts she is back on stage wowing audiences ried at the end of my bed in a full wedding gown I was so sedated all this time one of the few things that I can But her problems over Transferred to a Los Angeles hospital for more operations on her leg she suffered two heart attacks Altogether she was hospitalized for eight months At one point to add to her other problems doctors had to remove an Ingrown toenail and she lay with her foot in the air "When I explained that on the phone to Bob New hart there was this then he said has it ever dawned on you that your feet like Being bedridden had one strange advantage: she lost 80 pounds put me in a crib with two sides and cut my leg off How was 1 to get to a refrigerator? I really wasn't aware of the weight loss until the nurse sat me up in bed one day and my nightgown fell off my body "You know for the first time in my life I began eating right and enjoying it There had been times when I would shorten my show because I thought of something I wanted to eat I thought of nothing else but food because I guess I had nothing else to think of Now It's so unimportant to me that I have to be reminded to Whenever she became depressed in the hospital family members were there to cheer her up Her sister stayed by her bedside from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM every day and her husband of 26 years George Johnston was always present have a rare she says "He couldn't five without me He's never even bought a pair of socks on his own And I couldn't live without him Fm a firm believer in family life My two daughters both live near us in Las Vegas and that's very Important to She insisted on recovering at her own pace "The doctors were a little angry with me But it was so horrible especially looking at myself In a minor that I told them 'I can do anything I want to do The day I'm out of pain Is the day I will walk Now bug When she finally was allowed to go home she touched the gray out of her hair put on her eyelashes and feeling John Dorschner is an assistant editor of The Miami Herald's Sunday magazine FAMILY WEEKLY May 15 1977.