"Pick Yourself Up: Dorothy Fields and the American Musical" by Charlotte Greenspan [Oxford University Press, Broadway Legacy Series; 298 pages; 16 pages of vintage photos; Index, Song index, 17-page section of source notes; SRP $28] is a lively biography of one of the most prolific and pioneering lyricists in American popular music history.
Dorothy Fields penned the words to more than 400 songs, among them mega-hits such as "Big Spender," "Hooray for Love," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, " "If My Friends Could See Me Now," "Make the Man Love Me," "Nobody Does It Like Me," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "It's Not Where You Start," and "The Way You Look Tonight." In "Pick Yourself Up," Greenspan, with her research and using countless sources, offers the most complete treatment of Fields' life and work to date, as the author traces the songwriter's rise to prominence in a male-dominated world.
Born in 1904 into a show business family. Her father, Lou Fields, was a famed stage comedian turned Broadway producer. She first teamed with songwriter Jimmy McHugh in the 1920s and went on to Hollywood collaborations with Jerome Kern, including the Astaire-Rogers classic, "Swing Time."
With her brother Herbert, she co-authored the books for several Cole Porter's shows and Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun. Fields's lyrics - colloquial, urbane, sometimes slangy, sometimes sensuous - won her high praise from later generations of songwriters including Stephen Sondheim. Most importantly, her stellar career opened a path for other women, among them Betty Comden and Dory Previn.
One aspect of the bio is the creation of Annie Get Your Gun. After their success with Up in Central Park, Herbert and Dorothy Fields had thought that their next show would be produced by Mike Todd, however, he wasn't high on Ethel Merman, whom he called "that old broad. She'll never work again." Merman had been known to rub some colleagues the wrong way but had brought in a smash for Todd in Something for the Boys. Undeterred, the Fields took their idea to Rodgers and Hammerstein, who were asked what they thought of Merman in a musical about Annie Oakley, Rodgers said, "Go home and write it." The composers opted to become producers.
There was one problem: Merman hadn't been asked. She'd just come off a difficult pregnancy and the birth of her daughter. Fields visited her and popped the question. Merman said, "I'll do it."
Now, all was in place, except the composer. The first choice was Jerome Kern, who had recently had a heart attack. In New York to begin work, he collapsed and was hospitalized (he died that November). Irving Berlin was approached, and the rest is, as they say, history.
"Pick Yourself Up" is the first definitive account of Miss Fields' career and its interactions with her famously-accomplished family, colleagues such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, and collaborators Kern, Berlin, Fosse, and Coleman. It's quite a fitting tribute to Dorothy Fields' indomitable optimism and enduring career.
