Bessie Poole was a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl who had a love child with WC Fields
She was born Elizabeth Chatterton Pool on June 25, 1895 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her family moved to Wareham, Massachusetts, where her father, Lewis Poole, worked as a musician. After Bessie’s parents divorced, her father returned to Boston and her mother remarried. At the age of sixteen she moved to New York City to become a dancer. She had long legs, curly black hair, and a lovely smile. Ella Bessie Ella joined the Ziegfeld Follies chorus in 1915. Ella Shortly thereafter she began dating actor WC Fields. She was forced to leave Follies in 1917 when she discovered that she was pregnant. Unfortunately, WC refused to leave her wife for her. On August 15, 1917, she secretly gave birth to a son named William. The baby was adopted by a friend. She returned to the Ziegfeld Follies in 1918 and then went on tour with the WC vaudeville act. Bessie was heartbroken when he ended their affair after almost ten years together.
His theater career stalled and he began to drink. She eventually moved in with her best friend, the actress.
lillian lorraine. When she needed money in 1927, WC agreed to give her $20,000 if she would sign an affidavit that he was not the father of her child. One afternoon in October 1928, Bessie went to the Chez Florence nightclub with two gentlemen friends. A fight broke out and she was hit in the face. She died the next day, October 8, at the young age of thirty-three. Surprisingly, the medical examiner concluded that her death was caused by alcoholism and heart disease. Bessie’s father told the press that he believed she had been murdered. In her will she left a valuable diamond ring to WC Fields. When questioned about it by reporters, he cruelly denied knowing her. She was buried in the Long Neck Cemetery in Wareham, Massachusetts. Bessie’s mother later revealed that she had written a letter on her deathbed that said
“Goodbye, my dears. If you are not here, I will see you in the other world.”
