Joseph Albert Fields (February 21, 1895 – March 4, 1966)According to the State of California. ''California Death Index, 1940–1997''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California
ancestry.com
/ref> was an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, theatre director,

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, and

film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

Life and career

Fields was born in New York City, the son of

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

Lew Fields Lew Fields (born Moses Schoenfeld, January 1867 – July 20, 1941) was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager, and producer. He was part of a comedy duo with Joe Weber. He also produced shows on his own and starred in ...

. He graduated from

DeWitt Clinton High School , motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished , image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg , seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG , seal_size = 124px , ...

and attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

before enrolling in the

American Expeditionary Force The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought along ...

during World War I, after which he remained in Paris until 1922 working in the perfume business. He moved to Los Angeles in 1930, and his early writing career was spent churning out screenplays for mostly

B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feat ...

s, beginning with ''The Big Shot'' in 1931. Fields made his Broadway debut in 1938 with the play ''Schoolhouse on the Lot'', co-written with Jerome Chodorov, who became a frequent collaborator. The prolific pair went on to write ''

My Sister Eileen ''My Sister Eileen'' is a series of autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney, originally published in ''The New Yorker'', which eventually inspired many other works: her 1938 book ''My Sister Eileen'', a play, a musical, a radio play (an ...

'' (1940), ''Junior Miss'' (1941), ''The French Touch'' (1945), '' Wonderful Town'' (1953), ''

The Girl in Pink Tights ''The Girl in Pink Tights'' is a musical comedy with music by Sigmund Romberg; lyrics by Leo Robin; and a musical book by Jerome Chodorov and Joseph Fields. The musical opened on Broadway on March 5, 1954 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre where it ...

'' (1954), '' Anniversary Waltz'' (1954), and ''The Ponder Heart'' (1956). They also wrote the screenplay for the 1942 film adaptation of ''My Sister Eileen'' as well as the 1945 film adaptation of '' Junior Miss''. With Anita Loos, Fields wrote the book for the

Jule Styne Jule Styne (; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also becam ...

musical '' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'', and he collaborated with

Oscar Hammerstein II Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) director in the musical theater for almost 40 years. He won eight ...

on the book for '' Flower Drum Song''. He also co-produced and wrote the screen adaptation of the latter, garnering a

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers Gu ...

Award nomination for Best Written American Musical. Fields won the Tony Award for Best Musical for ''Wonderful Town'' and was nominated in the same category for ''Flower Drum Song''. As a director, Fields helmed

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...

's ''

The Man Who Had All the Luck ''The Man Who Had All the Luck'' is a play by Arthur Miller, his second major play (after '' No Villain''). ''The Man Who Had All the Luck'' follows protagonist David Beeves’ existential exploration into the enigmatic question of how fate and t ...

'' (1944), his own plays ''I Gotta Get Out'' (1947) and ''The Tunnel of Love'' (1957), and ''The Desk Set'' (1955). Fields was the brother of writer/lyricist Dorothy and writer Herbert. He died in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

; according to his obituary in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', "Joseph Fields...died here last night...Mr. Fields lived in New York but was wintering in California when he died."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fields, Joseph 1895 births 1966 deaths Jewish American military personnel Jewish American screenwriters 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Film producers from New York (state) American male screenwriters American theatre directors Tony Award winners American male dramatists and playwrights Writers from New York City United States Army personnel of World War I DeWitt Clinton High School alumni New York University alumni 20th-century American male writers Screenwriters from New York (state) 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American Jews