Pick Yourself Up: Dorothy Fields and the American Musical By Charlotte Greenspan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010; pp. xx 288, 22 illustrations. $27.95 cloth.
In his foreword to Pick Yourself Up: Dorothy Fields and the American Musical, Geoffrey Block, editor of Oxford University Press's Broadway Legacies series, notes the anonymity of lyricists who are not part of famous musical theatre partnerships such as Rodgers and Hammerstein (xi) Dorothy Fields's lyrics are memorable enough that President Obama quoted "Pick Yourself Up" from Swing Time during his inaugural address, but Fields herself is so anonymous that neither Obama nor those reporting on the address recognized or cited her as its lyricist (xii) More than a biography, musicologist Charlotte Greenspan's monograph seeks to rescue Fields from anonymity and offer readers a history of American stage and film musicals through the career of a lyricist whose collaborators are a "who's who" of Broadway and Hollywood. Fields's lyrics and libretti form a rich body of work through which to study the musical, and her versatility demonstrates the form's dynamism from the 1920s through the 1970s. Fields was the daughter of vaudevillian Lew Fields, and the sister of writers Joseph and Herbert Fields, making show business a family business for the "Fabulous Fieldses." In her book's first three chapters, Greenspan offers a thorough discussion of Lew Fields's Lower East Side childhood and his later success as a performer and impresario. Subsequent chapters chart Dorothy Fields's development as a lyricist and librettist contributing songs to Broadway revues, Harlem's Cotton Club, and Hollywood musicals before she reestablished herself in New York as a lyricist and librettist of book musicals. Chapters 5 through 8 chronicle Fields's lengthy collaboration with composer Jimmy McHugh, with whom she wrote hits such as "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "I'm in the Mood for Love," and "I Feel a Song Coming On." The songwriting team's work on both coasts illustrates Broadway and Hollywood's close relationship in the 1920s and 1930s, and Greenspan effectively contrasts Fields's Broadway career with the security of Hollywood's contract system. Greenspan also provides much insight into the highs and lows of Fields's brother Herbert's Broadway career as a librettist, including his collaborations with Rodgers and Hart. Dorothy's own early failures highlight a radically different climate on Broadway than the one that exists there today. Both brother and sister continued to be employed despite their contributions to flop musicals, and as is
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