SHEP FIELDS

given name Shep Feldman

birthdate Sep 12, 1910 Shep Fields, 1977. Courtesy of The Associated Press.

birthplace Brooklyn, NY

education Erasmus High School, Brooklyn, NY; attended St. John’s University Law School,

Brooklyn, NY, for a year

membership Local 802, American Federation of Musicians, New York City, NY

father Jack Feldman, ran Queen Mountain House resort in Catskills, NY, d.1929

brother Freddie Feldman, aka “Freddie Fields,” an agent-producer, b.Jul 12, 1923; d.Dec 11, 2007,

lung cancer

sister Cis (Mae) Feldman Ryerson

brother Edward “Eddie” Feldman

brother Elliot Feldman

first wife Evy Feinstein Levy Fields

daughter JoAnna Fields

stepson Jerry Levy

granddaughter Laurie A. Levy

second wife Zook Kline

date of death Feb 26, 1981

place of death Los Angeles, CA

cause of death heart attack

“I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” He was a part-time law student who played the saxophone and clarinet, but became a popular

bandleader for almost 30 years.

The idea for his group’s distinctive sound, known as “Rippling Rhythm,” came when, while

taking a break in an Illinois drugstore, he heard and watched his wife blowing on a straw into a

soda.

Not long after that, he began blowing into a straw in a glass filled with water—over the radio,

on most of the hundreds of recordings which his band made, and in-person at ballrooms and

hotels.

Among the highlights of his career were being featured in the film “The Big Broadcast of 1938,”

which starred W.C. Fields and Bob Hope, and conducting his orchestra at the Academy Awards

ceremony in Los Angeles in 1939.

Publicity photo of Shep Fields for motion picture “The Big Broadcast of 1938.”

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures, a ViacomCBS Company, Los Angeles, California.

Actually, Fields’ first break came around 1932, when he was invited to become conductor for

the Veloz and Yolanda dance team. They toured “any of the smart hotels and dine and dance

spots” along the eastern seaboard including Boston, New York City City, Atlantic City, and Miami.

They even traveled to Canada and Argentina.

Fields’ first coast-to-coast radio broadcast was said to have taken place over WGN in Chicago

on May 30, 1935, when he opened with Veloz and Yolanda at the Empire Room of the Palmer

House.

On his own and signed to Bluebird Records in 1936, Fields’ band was in the company nearly

every month for the first two years of his contract.

Shep Fields: one man, two bands, and three different Bluebird Records labels, 1937-44.

Courtesy of Sony-BMG Music, New York City.

“We were lucky from the very beginning,” he once commented.

Members of his band included, at various times, trumpeters Lou Halmy, Bernie Privin, and

Larry Orenstein [ Neill ]; trombonist Jack Jenney (on an April 1, 1940 record date); saxophonists

Romeo Penque, Babe Fresk, and (future comedian) Sid Caesar; guitarist-vocalist Hal Derwin; and

vocalists Bob Goday and (future actor) Ken Curtis.

Fields abandoned the “Rippling Rhythm” in 1941, in favor of an all-reed band, praised by critics

for being novel and intriguing. The group, billed as “Shep Fields and his New Music,” continued to

record for Bluebird and made a USO trip to Europe in the summer of 1945, but not long

afterwards, he reverted to his original music policy.

Shep Fields shows fellow bandleader Tex Beneke what rippling rhythm sounds like.

The photo was taken by William Gottlieb at Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York on May 16, 1947.

Courtesy of the William P. Gottlieb Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

In 1955, Fields settled in Houston, Texas, working as a disc jockey and occasionally leading a

band at, for instance, The Shamrock Hotel in town.

More recordings took place, for MGM, Golden Crest, Jubilee, and Dot.

Shep Fields in 1962.

He officially retired from bandleading in August 1963, and became an agent along side his

brother, Freddie, who had three years earlier formed with David Begelman one of the industry’s

most influential talent agencies, Creative Management Associates. (Freddie even admitted that its

initials, C.M.A., were purposefully an anagram of their competitor, the Music Corporation of

America, or M.C.A.).

In 1977, Shep Fields acted as Executive Producer for a motion picture that was a project of his

his brother, titled “Citizens Band.” It deals with how “C.B.” (that is, citizens band radio) affects the

lives of people in a small town.

That same year, he also made a brief return to music in 1977, lending his name for some new

records commissioned by Reader’s Digest. Of course, each of those selections opened with the

“Rippling Rhythm” effect.

sources:

“Big-band leader Shep Fields dies,” Chicago Tribune, Feb 24, 1981, p.A7.

“Fields to Open On WGN From Palmer House: Batoneer Plays with Veloz-Yolanda,”

Chicago Daily Tribune, May 26, 1935.

Margalit Fox. “Freddie Fields, Hollywood Talent Agent, Dies at 84,” New York Times,

Dec 13, 2007.

Charles Garrod. Shep Fields And His Orchestra (Zephyrhills, FL: Joyce Record Club, 1987).

Richard Lamparski. “Shep Fields” in Whatever Became of … ?: Third Series (New York City:

Crown Publishers, 1970), pp.96-97.

“On this Day in History: September 12: His Rippling Rhythm Was Unique,” Brooklyn [ NY ]

Daily Eagle, Sep 12, 2007.

“Rippling Rhythm Orchestra Leader Shep Fields Dies at 70,” Los Angeles Times, Feb 24, 1981,

p.C6.

Brian Rust. The American Dance Band Discography 1917-1942 (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington

House Publishers, 1975), pp.514-520.

“Shep Fields Retires as Bandleader,” Los Angeles Times, Aug 9, 1963, p.11.

“Shep Fields’ Rippling Rhythm Will Return to W-G-N-MBS Dec. 14,” Chicago Daily Tribune,

Dec 5, 1937, p.W8.

Leo Walker. “Shep Fields” in The Big Band Almanac (Pasadena, CA: Ward Ritchie Press, 1978),

pp.126-127.