Herbert Fields (July 26, 1897 - March 24, 1958) was a
Tony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American theatre and are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are for Broadway productions and...
-winning
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
librettist and
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
.
Born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, Fields began his career as an
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, then graduated to
choreographyChoreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
and stage direction before turning to writing. From 1925 until his death, he contributed to the libretti of many
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
musicalsMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. He wrote the book for most of the
Rodgers and HartRodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist Lorenz Hart...
musicals of the 1930s and later collaborated with his sister
DorothyDorothy Fields was an American librettist and lyricist.She wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films...
on several musicals, including
Annie Get Your GunAnnie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields...
,
Something for the Boys,
Up in Central Park, and
Arms and the Girl.
Herbert Fields (July 26, 1897 - March 24, 1958) was a
Tony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American theatre and are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are for Broadway productions and...
-winning
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
librettist and
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
.
Born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, Fields began his career as an
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, then graduated to
choreographyChoreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
and stage direction before turning to writing. From 1925 until his death, he contributed to the libretti of many
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
musicalsMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. He wrote the book for most of the
Rodgers and HartRodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist Lorenz Hart...
musicals of the 1930s and later collaborated with his sister
DorothyDorothy Fields was an American librettist and lyricist.She wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films...
on several musicals, including
Annie Get Your GunAnnie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields...
,
Something for the Boys,
Up in Central Park, and
Arms and the Girl. He won the 1959
Tony Award for Best MusicalThis is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack -1950s:* 1950: South Pacific – Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by...
for
RedheadRedhead is a Broadway musical set in London in the 1880s, around the time of Jack the Ripper. It is a murder mystery in the setting of a waxworks museum...
.
Fields wrote the screenplays for a string of mostly
B-movieA B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture conceived neither as an arthouse film nor as pornography. In its original usage, during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double...
s, including
Let's Fall in Love (1933),
Hands Across the Table (1935),
Love Before Breakfast (1936),
Fools for Scandal (1938),
Honolulu (1939), and
Father Takes a Wife (1941). He was also one of several writers who worked on
The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical / fantasy film directed mainly by Victor Fleming from a script by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and others and based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum...
, although he did not receive a screen credit for his contribution
Fields was the son of
Lew FieldsLew Fields , born Moses Schoenfeld, was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager and producer....
and brother of Dorothy and
Joseph FieldsJoseph Fields was a Tony Award-winning American playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film producer.-Biography:Joseph Albert Fields was born in New York City, the son of vaudevillean Lew Fields...
.
Additional theatre credits
- Dearest Enemy
Dearest Enemy is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and music by Richard Rodgers. This was the first of eight book musicals written by the songwriting team of Rodgers and Hart and writer Herbert Field...
(1925)
- The Girl Friend
The Girl Friend is a musical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart and book by Herbert Fields. This was the longest running show to date for the trio.-Production:...
(1926)
- Hit the Deck (1927)
- A Connecticut Yankee (1927)
- The New Yorkers
The New Yorkers is a musical written by Cole Porter and Herbert Fields . The musical premiered on Broadway in 1930. It is based on a story by cartoonist Peter Arno and E. Ray Goetz. The musical satirizes New York types, from high society matrons to con men, bootleggers, thieves and prostitutes...
(1930)
- Pardon My English
Pardon My English is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields and Morrie Ryskind, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. Set in 1933 Dresden, the farcial plot satirizes the Prohibition era.-Production history:Producers Alex A...
(1933)
- Du Barry Was a Lady (1939)
- Panama Hattie
Panama Hattie is a theater musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. It is also the title of a 1942 MGM musical based upon the play...
(1940)
- Mexican Hayride
Mexican Hayride is a 1948 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. The film is based on the 1944 Cole Porter Broadway musical of the same name starring Bobby Clark...
(1944)
- By the Beautiful Sea
By the Beautiful Sea is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and music by Arthur Schwartz. Like Schwartz’ previous musical, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, also starring Shirley Booth, the musical is set in Brooklyn just after the turn of the century...
(1954)