Full Name Saul Feldman Name Shep Fields | Occupation Bandleader Cause of death Heart attack Spouse Zook Kline | |
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Born September 12, 1910 ( 1910-09-12 ) Brooklyn, New York, United States Known for Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra Siblings Freddie Fields, Edward Fields Similar People Shirley Ross, Freddie Fields, Bob Hope, Bill Clifton | ||
Shep Fields Orchestra Bob Goday - The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down 1937
Shep Fields (September 12, 1910 – February 23, 1981) was the band leader for the "Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm" orchestra during the Big Band era of the 1930s.
Contents
- Shep Fields Orchestra Bob Goday The Merry Go Round Broke Down 1937
- Shep fields south of the border 1939
- Biography
- Band
- Recordings
- Live broadcasts
- Filmography
- References
Shep fields south of the border 1939
Biography
He was born Saul Feldman in Brooklyn, New York, on September 12, 1910, and his mother's maiden name was Sowalski. Edward Fields, a carpet manufacturer, and Freddie Fields were his brothers. Their father died at the age of 39.
He played clarinet and tenor saxophone in bands during college. In 1931 he played at the Roseland Ballroom. By 1933 he led a band that played at Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel. In 1934 he replaced the Jack Denny Orchestra at the Hotel Pierre in New York City. He left the Hotel Pierre to join a roadshow with the dancers Veloz and Yolanda. In 1936 he was booked at Chicago's Palmer House, and the concert was broadcast on radio.
Fields was at a soda fountain when his wife was blowing bubbles into her soda through a straw, and that sound became his trademark that opened each of his shows. A contest was held in Chicago for fans to suggest a new name for the Fields band, in keeping with the new sound. The word "rippling" was suggested in more than one entry, and Fields came up with "Rippling Rhythm."
In 1936 he received a contract with Bluebird Records. His hits included "Cathedral in the Pines", "Did I Remember?", and "Thanks for the Memory". In 1937 Fields replaced Paul Whiteman with the radio show The Rippling Rhythm Revue with Bob Hope as the announcer. In 1938, Fields and Hope were featured in his first feature-length motion picture, The Big Broadcast of 1938.
In 1941 Fields revamped the band into an all-reeds group, with no brass section, known as Shep Fields and His New Music, featuring vocalist Ken Curtis. From February, 1943 to August, 1944, guitarist Joe Negri worked with the band. Fields reverted to "Rippling Rhythm" in 1947.
The group disbanded in 1963. He moved to Houston, Texas where he worked as a disc jockey. He later worked at Creative Management Associates with his brother Freddie Fields in Los Angeles. He died on February 23, 1981 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from a heart attack. He was buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery in New York.