| |||||||||
![]() |
After this initial success, the Fields-McHugh team collaborated on "International Revue" (1930), a flop despite two enduring songs, "Exactly Like You" and "On The Sunny Side of the Street." The family of jazz pianist Thomas ("Fats") Waller maintained that Waller, not McHugh, actually composed the melodies to "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "I Can't Give You Anything but Love," and others, and sold them to McHugh for a nominal fee. In any case, however, it is undisputed that Fields is the lyricist. From 1930 to 1939 Fields worked in Hollywood, first with McHugh, with whom she wrote songs such as "I'm in the Mood for Love" and "Dinner at Eight" for the movie musicals LOVE IN THE ROUGH (1930) and EVERY NIGHT AT EIGHT (1935), and then with Jerome Kern. Kern and Fields first worked together on ROBERTA in 1935, and subsequent collaborations included I DREAM TOO MUCH (1935), SWING TIME (1936), and JOY OF LIVING (1938). In 1936, Kern and Fields won the Academy Award for Best Song for "The Way You Look Tonight," from SWING TIME. Other Kern-Fields songs from this period that have gone on to become standards include "Lovely to Look At" and "A Fine Romance." On July 15, 1939, Fields married David Eli Lahm, a clothing manufacturer. They had two children before his death in 1958. The same year, she returned to New York to work with composer Arthur Schwartz on the musical "Stars in Your Eyes." She then collaborated with her brother Herbert, with whom she had already worked on screenplays and the short-lived musical "Hello Daddy" (1928), and on the books for three Cole Porter hits: "Let's Face It" (1941), "Something for the Boys" (1943), and "Mexican Hayride" (1944). In 1945 Dorothy and Herbert Fields wrote the book for Sigmund Romberg's "Up in Central Park." Her lyrics for the show included "Close as Pages in a Book." In 1946, Fields approached Oscar Hammerstein with her idea for a musical based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Hammerstein agreed to produce the show, and Kern and Fields were contracted to write the songs. When Kern died before they were able to begin work on the project, Irving Berlin was hired to replace him. Berlin wrote both music and lyrics for "Annie Get Your Gun," but Dorothy and Herbert Fields contributed an excellent book. The finished product, starring Ethel Merman as Annie, ran 1,147 performances. It remains one of the most popular shows in the repertoire.
|
|||