Joseph Fields

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Fields, Joseph [Albert] (1895–1966), playwright. Son of Lew Fields and brother of Dorothy Fields and Herbert Fields, he was born in New York and attended New York University with the intention of becoming a lawyer. While in the navy during World War I, he wrote sketches for shows and appeared in them, and then decided to make the theatre his career. Fields contributed sketches to some revues and afterward spent some time in Hollywood before collaborating with Jerome Chodorov on a spoof of film life, Schoolhouse on the Lot (1938). The team next wrote two major hits, My Sister Eileen (1940) and Junior Miss (1941). He also succeeded with a solo venture, the wartime comedy The Doughgirls (1942). He collaborated again with Chodorov on The French Touch (1945); Wonderful Town (1953), a musical version of My Sister Eileen; The Girl in Pink Tights (1954); Anniversary Waltz (1954); and The Ponder Heart (1956). With Anita Loos he scripted the musical version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949) and with Peter De Vries on The Tunnel of Love (1957). His last work was his collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein on the libretto of Flower Drum Song (1958). Fields also occasionally served as a director.