Oscar Hammerstein II
For work done with Richard Rodgers, see Rodgers and HammersteinOscar Hammerstein II (
July 12,
1895 –
August 23,
1960) was an
American writer, producer, and (usually uncredited) director of musicals for almost forty years.
Born in
New York City, his father, William, was from a non-practicing
Jewish family; his mother, née Alice Nimmo, was the daughter of Scottish immigrants and their children were raised as Christians.
The most famous "Hammerstein" of American history is actually the second "Oscar Hammerstein". The first (with whom he is often confused) was his grandfather, the great
opera impresario and theater builder
Oscar Hammerstein I, one of the most remarkable, and most famous, personalities of his time. Although his father managed the highly successful Victoria Theatre for his father and was an innovative producer of vaudeville (he is generally credited with inventing the pie-in-the-face routine), he was against his son's desire to participate in the arts. Hammerstein II therefore entered
Columbia University under their pre-law program and it wasn't until his father's death on June 10, 1914 that he went on to participate in his first play with the
Varsity Show entitled
On Your Way. Throughout the rest of his college career the younger Hammerstein wrote and performed in several
Varsity Shows. After quitting law school to pursue theater, Hammerstein II began his first real collaboration with
Herbert Stothart,
Otto Harbach, and
Frank Mandel. He began as an apprentice, and went on to form a 20 year collaboration with Harbach. Out of this collaboration came his first musical,
Always You, for which he wrote the book and lyrics. It opened on
Broadway in 1921. Throughout the next forty years of his life, he would team with many others including a successful collaboration with composer
Jerome Kern producing such musicals as
Sweet Adeline,
Music In the Air,
Three Sisters,
Very Warm for May, and their biggest hit,
Show Boat, in 1927.
Show Boat, often revived, is still considered to be one of the masterpieces of the American musical theatre. Other collaborators include
Vincent Youmans with
Wildflower,
Rudolf Friml with
Rose Marie, and
Sigmund Romberg with
Desert Song and
New Moon.
Hammerstein II's most successful and sustained collaboration however, came in
1943 when he teamed up with
Richard Rodgers to write a musical adaptation of the play
Green Grow the Lilacs. Rodgers' first partner,
Lorenz Hart, was originally going to join in the collaboration but was too deeply entrenched in alcoholism to be of any use. The result of this new collaboration was
Oklahoma!, a show which revolutionized the American musical theatre by tightly integrating all the aspects of musical theater, with the songs and dances arising out of the plot and characters. It also began a partnership which would produce such classic Broadway musicals as
Carousel,
South Pacific,
The King and I,
Me & Juliet,
Pipe Dream,
Flower Drum Song, and
The Sound of Music as well as the musical film
State Fair and the television musical
Cinderella. Hammerstein also produced the book and lyrics for
Carmen Jones, an adaptation of
Georges Bizet's opera
Carmen with an all-black cast.
Oscar Hammerstein II is today considered one of the most important figures in the history of American musical theater. He was probably the best "book writer" in Broadway history - he made the story, not the songs or the stars, central to the musical, and brought it to full maturity as an art form. His reputation for being "sentimental," is based largely on the movie versions of the musicals, especially
The Sound of Music. As recent revivals of
Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The King and I in London and New York, show, Hammerstein could be very tough-minded indeed. Oscar Hammerstein believed in love; he did not believe that it would always end happily.
Hammerstein is the only person named Oscar ever to win an Oscar (
Academy Award). He won two Oscars for best original song - in 1941 for "The Last Time I Saw Paris" in the film
Lady Be Good, and in 1945 for "It Might As Well Be Spring" in
State Fair.
Hammerstein died of
stomach cancer at the age of 65- shortly after the opening of
The Sound of Music on Broadway- ending one of the most remarkable collaborations in the history of the American musical theatre. The final song he wrote was "
Edelweiss" which was added during rehearsals near the end of the second act. To this day, many think it is an Austrian folk song. Sadly, he never lived to see
The Sound of Music made into the 1965 film adaptation which became internationally loved, won the
Academy Award for Best Picture, and became perhaps his most well-known legacy.
Universally mourned, with the lights of
Times Square and London's
West End being dimmed in recognition of his contribution to the musical, he was interred in the
Ferncliff Cemetery in
Hartsdale, New York.
Hammerstein's name is often mispronounced as "ham-err-steen" Hammerstein himself, however, pronounced it as "ham-err-styne"
*
The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization*
Musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein*
Oscar Hammerstein's Gravesite
