Hold the sauce

In an interview in the late 1930s (I believe), W. C. Fields was noted to have said, "You know, I have to wonder how I would have done without the booze."

That's likely not an exact quote, but the gist of it is accurate: Fields could put away the booze in epic fashion, and it took its toll (he died in 1946 at age 66). Suppose, however, that as a significantly younger man (say, in the early 1920s, as a function of some sub-standard prohibition stuff) he cut back his consumption to a degree that could be accurately described as average for the time?

I suspect that he would have lived longer--absent his liver problems caused by alcohol, one might reasonably guess he'd have reached his mid-70s or perhaps more--and his career, largely shelved by illness during the war, would have been extended. Can you imagine, let's say, Fields on live television in the early 1950s, trading barbs with Groucho on "You Bet Your Life", or appearing in cameos with Ernie Kovacs? Might Fields have also drawn on his extensive ad hoc knowledge of British fiction to write some sort of scholarly work as a semi-retirement project?

Godfrey Daniel, this is worth speculation!
 
An interesting POD

The tortured romance between artists and their intoxicants of choice is the stuff of many graduate theses. Poe was nuts with or without opium. Did it help him tell Tales of Mystery and Imagination? Hell yeah! Could Samuel Taylor Coleridge have written Xanadu without opium? Maybe, but I doubt it. I pick opium, but the drug (coke, booze, opium) isn't the issue, it's what allows the artist to catch and execute whatever inspiration comes to them.
Addicts have major issues with craftsmanship and exercising critical judgment when intoxicated, but when they get sober, more often than not, the craftsmanship and career management improves, but the inspiration loop gets blocked.
YMMV on that one but that's the pattern I see over and over in music, art, acting, literature, you name it. I hear so-and-so gonzo artist cleans up, and it's interesting to see what more focus and less sweaty desperation can lend to a project. I see much better craftsmanship, more coherent performances, etc but "great" performances usually are a thing of the past after clean-up.
My verbose way of saying WC Fields sobering up would most likely be able to dine out on his previous wackiness a while but folks will notice he wasn't funny anymore in the rakish way he was when soused and start praying for him to pick up the sauce again by 1950.
 
Top