Benny Fields
| Benny Fields | |
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Fields in 1946
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| Born |
June 14, 1894 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Died | August 16, 1959 (aged 65) New York City, New York |
Benny (Bennie) Fields (born: Benjamin Geisenfeld) (June 14, 1894 – August 16, 1959) was a popular singer of the early 20th century, best known as one-half of the Blossom Seeley-Benny Fields vaudeville team.
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fields began his career in Chicago, as a singer in Al Tierney's cafe on 22nd Street. The tall young man had a gentle, easygoing way with a song, and held the listeners' rapt attention with tunes like "Melancholy Baby." Singer Blossom Seeley, touring in vaudeville, found Fields in 1921 and hired him to sing—offstage—in accompaniment to her solo numbers, Fields's voice gradually got more attention until he became a partner in the act. The couple was married in 1922-a year after he was hired by Seeley. Fields's laid-back stylings complemented Seeley's vivacious beltings beautifully, and Seeley and Fields became very successful on stage and in recordings. In the late 1920s Warner Bros. filmed their songs and comic patter for Vitaphone short subjects. On radio, Fields was heard on The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air and other shows.
Fields and Seeley were well-paid, saving and investing wisely. The couple believed they had no financial worries until the stock market crash of 1929 wiped out everything they had worked for. Vaudeville went into a steep and rapid decline at about the same time as the stock market. Fields and Seeley struggled until he launched a solo career in New York in 1933. Times were hard enough for the couple to file for bankruptcy in New York State in 1936.
After Fields became an established star in his own right, Seeley retired in 1936 to simply be Mrs. Benny Fields. He appeared occasionally in films, most notably in The Big Broadcast of 1937, but remained a New York-based performer. He filmed four songs (including two of the Big Broadcast numbers) for Soundies in 1941.
In 1936, he recorded 4 sides for Decca and in 1937, he recorded 8 sides for Variety.
Benny Fields made a surprise comeback in 1944. The low-budget PRC studio mounted its most ambitious production around Fields, and hired the imaginative Joseph H. Lewis to direct it. The finished musical, Minstrel Man, was a credit to the star, director and studio. Reviewers were delighted by Fields's naturalistic performance—one critic described him as "a talent, voice, and personality the screen's been too long without." Minstrel Man was a personal triumph for Fields, and PRC had planned to follow it up with a true-life film biography of Seeley and Fields. The story would not be told until 1952, however, in the Paramount film Somebody Loves Me (1952) with Betty Hutton and Ralph Meeker. Blossom Seeley came out of retirement during the filming of the movie.
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