Manny About Town
“Miami Beach Rumba” Writer Still Going Strong

By Manny Meland

“I started out to go to Cuba
 Soon I was in Miami Beach
 There not so very far from Cuba
 Oh what a rumba they teach”

---“Miami Beach Rumba”, Irving Fields, 1948 

Irving Fields and Peppy Fields were brother and sister. Both were in show business. She was a local comedienne and radio broadcaster. He was an accomplished piano player and had gained fame for writing the “Miami Beach Rumba”. 

Irving Fields

In 1968, Peppy Fields was hosting a variety show at the Roosevelt Theatre on Arthur Godfrey Road here in Miami Beach. She invited me to visit her back stage. There she asked me if I could book her brother Irving at a club in one of my family hotels. I gave him a gig at the Atlantis Hotel and at the Capri Hotel.

He always began his show by announcing that in 1948, RCA Victor produced his Miami Beach Rumba. They sold two million records. Fifteen years later, he recorded “Bagels and Bongos”, which met with mild success. He is still playing clubs in New York, the Catskills and other cities doing his Jewish/Cuban fusion act

Peppy continued her radio program for a number of years. Sadly, in the 1970s, she lost a leg to diabetes and a severe infection that followed led to her demise.