[1] 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."

[1] Seeley and Fields retired from performing in public, but George Burns fondly recalled a house party he threw in the late 1950s, when he asked the team to do one of their old vaudeville numbers.

Seeley and Fields were rather embarrassed, worrying that their act wouldn't interest the many teenagers in the house, but at Burns's urging they sang—and their old magic captured the hearts of the young audience.

In 1959, Fields asked Ed Sullivan, who was arranging a floor show for the Desert Inn hotel and casino in Nevada, for a spot on the bill for himself and his wife.

Sullivan agreed; the couple played at the Desert Inn for a month, making a comeback with the engagement, which ended two weeks before Fields's death in New York City on August 16, 1959.