Dorothy Fields
Dorothy Fields was a prominent American lyricist and librettist, known for her significant contributions to the world of musical theater and popular song during the early to mid-20th century. Born as the youngest child of vaudeville star Lew Fields, she faced early challenges in pursuing a career in show business, needing to establish her own identity separate from her father's influence. Teaming up with renowned composer Jimmy McHugh, she achieved notable success, crafting enduring standards such as "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street."
Fields also made her mark in Hollywood, collaborating with Jerome Kern on the classic film Swing Time, which produced the Academy Award-winning song "The Way You Look Tonight." Beyond her work in film, she co-wrote the libretto for the iconic Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun, showcasing her ability to blend dialogue with music seamlessly. Over the decades, Fields partnered with various composers, including Cy Coleman, producing hits that resonated with audiences well into the 1970s.
Her lyrical prowess, characterized by romantic and poignant themes, solidified her legacy as one of the most influential female songwriters of the Golden Age of American popular music. She is remembered not only for her individual songs but also for her impactful contributions to the evolution of musical theater.
Dorothy Fields
Songwriter
- Born: July 15, 1904
- Birthplace: Allenhurst, New Jersey
- Died: March 28, 1974
- Place of death: New York, New York
American popular music and musical-theater composer, lyricist, and librettist
In a career that spanned the 1920’s to the 1960’s, Fields wrote intelligent and witty lyrics for the Broadway stage and for films.
The Life
Dorothy Fields was born as the youngest of the four children of vaudeville star Lew Fields and his wife Rose. After high school, Fields wanted to go into show business, but her father did not allow it. Without the endorsement of her father or his influential theatrical organization, she had to prove that she could write lyrics and succeed on her own. Despite these obstacles, she teamed with songwriter Jimmy McHugh on such hits as “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby” from 1928. She and McHugh became a successful team, and over the next seven years they produced other enduring standards, including “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and “I’m in the Mood for Love.” In 1925 Fields married surgeon J. J. Werner; they divorced in 1932. In 1938 she married Eli Lahm, with whom she had a son and a daughter. For the next thirty-five years, Fields was one of the most productive lyricists in the songwriting world. She died of a heart attack in the spring of 1974.
The Music
Fields in Hollywood. In the 1930’s, Fields worked in Hollywood, most notably with composer Jerome Kern. The pair reached their artistic peak in the film Swing Time from 1936. A vehicle for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the film featured such hits as “Pick Yourself Up,” “A Fine Romance,” and “Bojangles of Harlem.” They also wrote for this film “The Way You Look Tonight,” which won the Academy Award for Best Song in 1936. When Astaire sang the song to Rogers, it was clear that the combination of Kern’s compelling melody and Fields’s elegant rhymes was magical. Kern and Fields collaborated for another four years without ever again attaining the artistic heights of Swing Time.Fields on Broadway. Fields worked with her brother Herbert writing the libretto for several Broadway shows. Their most successful and important collaboration was on Annie Get Your Gun (1946), based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. While talking with a World War II Marine, Fields got the idea for a musical about Oakley with Ethel Merman in the lead. The music was written by Irving Berlin, who drew on the Fieldses’ dialogue for much of his inspiration. The musical, Annie Get Your Gun, produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, was a great hit, and it represented one of Fields’s high points as a contributor to the evolution of the art form of the Broadway musical.
Fields returned to lyric writing for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, based on the Betty Smith novel and popular film. The show, for which Arthur Schwartz furnished the music, featured one of her best lyrics. Though the show closed after 270 performances, the songs such as “I’ll Buy You a Star” and “Make the Man Love Me” have endured as standards.
Collaborating with Coleman. Fields continued to write musicals during the 1950’s and 1960’s. She won a Tony Award for her work on Redhead, starring Gwen Verdon, in 1959. She and songwriter Cy Coleman had an even greater success in 1964 with Sweet Charity and the hit “Big Spender.” Finally, she and Coleman wrote a musical version of the William Gibson play Two for the Seesaw (1958), called Seesaw, which opened in 1973. Her talent showed no signs of flagging as she kept turning out hits into the 1970’s and as audiences responded to her work with the same enthusiasm they had shown three decades earlier.
Musical Legacy
Although her work was never judged on the basis of her gender, Fields was one of the most important females in the coterie of songwriters and lyricists who worked during the Golden Age of American popular song between 1925 and 1955. She was a superb writer of romantic and poignant lyrics, who brought out the best in her partners, Kern, McHugh, Romberg, and Coleman. Several decades after it first appeared, “The Way You Look Tonight” endures as a rare example of the exceptional fusion between words and music that makes a love song a standard. Fields had a wide-ranging talent that enabled her to move from the ribaldry of the 1920’s to the more cynical expressions of the 1960’s with equal deftness. Her contributions to the literature of the musical theater are also impressive. Annie Get Your Gun is frequently revived as an artful blend of the plot that Fields and her brother conceived and the music of Berlin. With the wit and the sophistication of her lyrics, Fields made a memorable contribution to musical theater and film.
Principal Works
musical theater (lyrics and libretto unless listed otherwise): Blackbirds of 1928, 1928 (music by Jimmy McHugh); Hello, Daddy, 1928 (libretto by Herbert Fields; music by McHugh); Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic, 1929 (music by McHugh); The International Review, 1930 (libretto by Nat N. Dorfman and Lew Leslie; music with McHugh); The Vanderbilt Revue, 1930 (libretto by Lew M. Fields with others; lyrics and music with others); Shoot the Works, 1931 (libretto by Heywood Broun with others; lyrics with others; music by Michael H. Cleary with others); Singin’ the Blues, 1931 (libretto by John McGowan; lyrics with Harold Adamson; music by McHugh and Burton Lane); Stars in Your Eyes, 1939 (libretto by J. P. McEvoy; music by Arthur Schwartz); Let’s Face It!, 1941 (libretto with Herbert Fields; lyrics and music by Cole Porter); Something for the Boys, 1943 (libretto with Herbert Fields; lyrics and music by Porter); Mexican Hayride, 1944 (libretto with Herbert Fields; lyrics and music by Porter); Up in Central Park, 1945 (libretto with Herbert Fields; music by Sigmund Romberg); Annie Get Your Gun, 1946 (libretto with Herbert Fields; lyrics and music by Irving Berlin); Arms and the Girl, 1950 (libretto with Herbert Fields and Rouben Mamoulian; music by Morton Gould); A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1951 (libretto by Betty Smith and George Abbott; music by Schwartz); By the Beautiful Sea, 1954 (libretto with Herbert Fields; music by Schwartz); Redhead, 1959 (libretto with others; music by Albert Hague); Annie Get Your Gun, 1966 (libretto with Herbert Fields; lyrics and music by Berlin); Sweet Charity, 1966 (libretto by Neil Simon; music by Cy Coleman); Seesaw, 1973 (libretto by Michael Bennett; music by Coleman); Shirley MacLaine, 1976 (libretto by Fred Ebb; music by Coleman); Sugar Babies, 1979 (libretto by Ralph G. Allen and Harry Rigby; lyrics with Al Dubin; music by McHugh).
Bibliography
Furia, Philip. Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America’s Great Lyricists. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. This source includes an incisive analysis of Fields and her work.
Sheed, Wilfred. The House That George Built with a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty. New York: Random House, 2007. A deft survey of popular songs that places Fields in the context of other songwriters of the period in which she enjoyed her greatest hits.
Wilk, Max. They’re Playing Our Song: The Truth Behind the Words and Music of Three Generations. New York: Moyer and Bell, 1991. This collection contains an informative interview with Fields that sheds light on her working habits.
Winer, Deborah Grace. On the Sunny Side of the Street: The Life and Lyrics of Dorothy Fields. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997. An anecdotal biography of Fields.