March 8: Dorothy Fields

Dorothy Fields, who wrote lyrics for more than 400 songs for Broadway and Hollywood, became the first woman inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on this date in 1971. The daughter of vaudeville comedian Lew Fields (of Weber & Fields fame), Fields got going at the age of 23 by teaming up with Jimmy McHugh to write “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby,” “Exactly Like You,” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” She also teamed up with Jerome Kern to write the songs for Swing Time (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), one of which, “The Way You Look Tonight,” won a 1936 Academy Award. Fields had a 50-year career that hardly flagged. Among her other hit Broadway songs are “I’m in the Mood for Love,” “Big Spender,” and “Pick Yourself Up.”

“Nothing’s impossible I have found/for when my chin is on the ground/I pick myself up dust myself off/Start all over again.” —Dorothy Fields