Oscar Hammerstein II
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (Template:IPAc-en; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in musical theater for nearly 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.
He is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers, as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, whose musicals include Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music. Described by his protégé Stephen Sondheim as an "experimental playwright",<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Hammerstein helped bring the American musical to new maturity by popularizing musicals that focused on stories and character rather than the lighthearted entertainment that the musical had been known for beforehand.
He also collaborated with Jerome Kern (with whom he wrote the 1927 musical Show Boat), Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml, Richard A. Whiting, and Sigmund Romberg.
Early life
[edit]Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was born on West 125th Street in Harlem, New York.<ref>https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/rodgers-and-hammerstein-harlem-ny/</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The son of theatrical manager William Hammerstein and his wife Alice (Template:Née Nimmo).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His grandfather was the German theater impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. His father was from a Jewish family, and his mother was the daughter of British parents.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> He attended the Church of the Divine Paternity, now the Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref>
Although Hammerstein's father managed the Victoria Theatre and was a producer of vaudeville shows, he was opposed to his son's desire to participate in the arts.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
Hammerstein attended Columbia University (1912–1916)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and studied at Columbia Law School until 1917.<ref name="Hischak 2007 9">Template:Harvnb</ref> As a student, he maintained high grades and engaged in numerous extracurricular activities. These included playing first base on the baseball team, performing in the Varsity Show and becoming an active member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity.<ref name="Fordin 1995 26">Template:Harvnb</ref>
After his father's death, in June 1914, when he was 19, he participated in his first play with the Varsity Show, entitled On Your Way. Throughout the rest of his college career, Hammerstein wrote and performed in several Varsity Shows.<ref name="Hischak 2007 9"/><ref name="PBS-broadway/stars">Template:Cite web</ref> Following his graduation, he sat on the judging committee for the show and continued to contribute to several musicals, including Fly With Me, written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref>
Early career
[edit]After quitting law school to pursue theater, Hammerstein began his first professional collaboration, with Herbert Stothart, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> 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 1920.<ref>"Always You Is Amusing", The New York Times, January 6, 1920</ref> In 1921 Hammerstein joined The Lambs club.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Throughout the next forty years, Hammerstein teamed up with many other composers, including Jerome Kern, with whom Hammerstein enjoyed a highly successful collaboration. In 1927, Kern and Hammerstein wrote their biggest hit based on Edna Ferber's bestselling eponymous novel, Show Boat, which is often revived, as it is considered one of the masterpieces of American musical theater. "Here we come to a completely new genre—the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now ... the play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play. Now ... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity."<ref name=history>"American Musical Theatre: An Introduction" Template:Webarchive, theatrehistory.com, republished from Template:Cite book Retrieved December 3, 2008.</ref> Many years later, Hammerstein's wife Dorothy bristled when she overheard someone remark that Jerome Kern had written "Ol' Man River". "Indeed not", she retorted. "Jerome Kern wrote 'dum, dum, dum-dum'. My husband wrote 'Ol' Man River'."<ref>Jones, Dylan, The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music, Picador Press, 2012, p. 99</ref>
Other Kern–Hammerstein musicals include Sunny, Sweet Adeline, Music in the Air, Three Sisters, and Very Warm for May. Hammerstein also collaborated with Vincent Youmans (Wildflower), Rudolf Friml (Rose-Marie), and Sigmund Romberg (The Desert Song and The New Moon).<ref>Biography, Songwriters Hall of Fame Template:Webarchive songwritershalloffame.org</ref>
Rodgers and Hammerstein
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Hammerstein's most successful and sustained collaboration began when he teamed up with Rodgers to write a musical adaptation of the play Green Grow the Lilacs.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Rodgers' first partner, Lorenz Hart, originally planned to collaborate with Rodgers on this piece, but his alcoholism had spiraled out of control, rendering him incapacitated.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> Hart was also not certain that the idea had much merit, and the two therefore separated.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The adaptation became the first Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, titled Oklahoma!, which opened on Broadway in 1943.<ref name=":0" /> It furthered the revolution begun by Show Boat, by thoroughly integrating all the aspects of musical theater, with the songs and dances arising out of and further developing the plot and characters.<ref name="history" />
William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this was a "show, that, like Show Boat, became a milestone, such that subsequent historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theater began to identify eras according to their relationship to Oklahoma!"<ref>Everett, William A. and Laird, Paul R. (2002), The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, Cambridge University Press, p. 124, Template:ISBN</ref> After Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form—with such masterworks as Carousel, The King and I and South Pacific. "The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided the necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own".<ref name=history/>
The partnership went on to produce not only the aforementioned, but also other Broadway musicals such as Allegro, Me and Juliet, Pipe Dream, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music, as well as the musical film State Fair (and its stage adaptation of the same name), and the television musical Cinderella, all featured in the revue A Grand Night for Singing. Hammerstein also wrote the book and lyrics for Carmen Jones, an adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, with an all-black cast that became a 1943 Broadway musical and a 1954 film, starring Dorothy Dandridge.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Advocacy
[edit]An active advocate for writers' rights within the theater industry, Hammerstein was a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. In 1956, he was elected as the eleventh president of the nonprofit organization.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He continued his presidency at the Guild until 1960; he was succeeded by Alan Jay Lerner.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Personal life
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Hammerstein married his first wife, Myra Finn, in 1917; the couple divorced in 1929.<ref name="PBS-broadway/stars" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He married his second wife, the Australian-born Dorothy (Blanchard) Jacobson (1899–1987), in 1929.<ref name="JoanCookNYTimes">Template:Cite news</ref> He had three children: William Hammerstein (1918–2001)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Alice Hammerstein Mathias (1922–2015)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> by his first wife, and James Hammerstein (1931–1999)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> by his second wife, with whom he also had a stepson, Henry Jacobson, and a stepdaughter, Susan Blanchard.<ref name="JoanCookNYTimes" /> His son William married the screenwriter Jane-Howard Hammerstein.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Hammerstein died of stomach cancer on August 23, 1960, at his home Highland Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, aged 65,<ref>"Oscar Hammerstein II Is Dead", The New York Times, p. 1, August 23, 1960</ref> nine months after the opening of The Sound of Music on Broadway.<ref name="TimeCorliss">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The final song he wrote was "Edelweiss", which was added near the end of the second act during rehearsal.<ref>Maslon, Lawrence. The Sound of Music Companion (2007), p. 177, Simon and Schuster, Template:ISBN</ref><ref>"Oscar Hammerstein II" Template:Webarchive rnh.com, accessed November 2011</ref> The lights of Times Square were turned off for one minute,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and London's West End lights were dimmed in recognition of his contribution to the musical.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was cremated, and his ashes were buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A memorial plaque was unveiled at Southwark Cathedral, England, on May 24, 1961.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
After Hammerstein's death, The Sound of Music was adapted as a 1965 film, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.<ref name="TimeCorliss" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Reputation
[edit]Hammerstein was one of the most important "book writers" in Broadway history—he made the story, not the songs or the stars, central to the musical and brought musical theater to full maturity as an art form.<ref name="PBS-broadway/stars"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to Stephen Sondheim, "What few people understand is that Oscar's big contribution to the theater was as a theoretician, as a Peter Brook, as an innovator. People don't understand how experimental Show Boat and Oklahoma! felt at the time they were done. Oscar is not about the 'lark that is learning to pray'—that's easy to make fun of. He's about Allegro", Hammerstein's most experimental musical.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
His reputation for being sentimental is based largely on the movie versions of the musicals, especially The Sound of Music, in which a song sung by those in favor of reaching an accommodation with the Nazis, "No Way to Stop It", was cut. As recent revivals of Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The King and I in London and New York show, Hammerstein was one of the more tough-minded and socially conscious American musical theater artists. According to Richard Kislan, "The shows of Rodgers and Hammerstein were the product of sincerity. In the light of criticism directed against them and their universe of sweetness and light, it is important to understand that they believed sincerely in what they wrote."<ref>Template:Harv</ref> According to Marc Bauch, "The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are romantic musical plays. Love is important."<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
According to The Rodgers and Hammerstein Story by Stanley Green,
For three minutes, on the night of September first, the entire Times Square area in New York City was blacked out in honor of the man who had done so much to light up that particular part of the world. From 8:57 to 9:00 p.m., every neon sign and every light bulb was turned off and all traffic was halted between 42nd Street and 53rd Street, and between eighth Ave and the Avenue of the Americas. A crowd of 5,000 people, many with heads bowed, assembled at the base of the statue of Father Duffy on Times Square where two trumpeters blew taps. It was the most complete blackout on Broadway since World War II, and the greatest tribute of its kind ever paid to one man.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Major works
[edit]| Year | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| 1943 | Oklahoma! | |
| 1945 | Carousel | |
| 1945 | State Fair | |
| 1947 | Allegro | |
| 1949 | South Pacific | |
| 1951 | The King and I | |
| 1953 | Me and Juliet | |
| 1955 | Pipe Dream | |
| 1957 | Cinderella | |
| 1958 | Flower Drum Song | |
| 1959 | The Sound of Music |
Songs
[edit]According to The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II, edited by Amy Asch, Hammerstein contributed the lyrics to 850 songs,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> including "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" and "Make Believe" from Show Boat;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> "Indian Love Call" from Rose-Marie;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> "People Will Say We're in Love"Template:Citation needed and "Oklahoma" (which has been the official state song of Oklahoma since 1953) from Oklahoma!;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> "If I Loved You" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel, "Some Enchanted Evening", from South Pacific; "Getting to Know You"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and "Shall We Dance" from The King and I; and the title song as well as "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from The Sound of Music.Template:Citation needed
Several albums of Hammerstein's musicals were named to the "Songs of the Century" list as compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Corporation:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- The Sound of Music — # 36
- Oklahoma! — # 66
- South Pacific — # 224
- The King and I — # 249
- Show Boat — # 312
Awards and nominations
[edit]- Oscar Hammerstein is the only person in history named Oscar to have won an Oscar.
- In 1950, the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- In 1981, The Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theater Studies at Columbia University was established with a $1 million gift from his family.<ref>"Columbia Names Stein To Theater Post", The New York Times, February 13, 1983</ref>
Legacy
[edit]His advice and work influenced Stephen Sondheim, a friend of the Hammerstein family from childhood. Sondheim has attributed his success in theater, and especially as a lyricist, directly to Hammerstein's influence and guidance.<ref name="PBS-broadway/stars"/>
The Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theater is presented annually. The York Theatre Company of New York City is the administrator of the award.<ref>York Theatre history yorktheatre.org, accessed December 8, 2008</ref> Past awardees are composers such as Stephen Sondheim and performers such as Carol Channing.<ref>Gans, Andrew."Rivera, Vereen, Hirsch, Huffman and More to Salute Walton June 6" Playbill, May 31, 2005</ref>
Oscar Hammerstein was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]Further reading
[edit]External links
[edit]Template:Spoken Wikipedia Template:Commons category Template:Wikiquote Template:Portal
- Template:IBDB name
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- Musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II at RNH Official Site
- Oscar Hammerstein II interviewed by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview March 15, 1958
- Oscar Hammerstein II Collection at the Library of Congress
- Template:LCAuth
- Oscar Hammerstein II recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
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- Oscar Hammerstein II
- 1895 births
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- 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
- American Episcopalians
- American musical theatre librettists
- American musical theatre lyricists
- American people of English descent
- American people of German-Jewish descent
- American people of Scottish descent
- American theatre managers and producers
- Broadway composers and lyricists
- Broadway theatre producers
- Best Original Song Academy Award–winning songwriters
- Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery
- Columbia College (New York) alumni
- Columbia Law School alumni
- Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania
- Deaths from stomach cancer in the United States
- Grammy Award winners
- Hammerstein family (show business)
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
- Pulitzer Prize winners
- Songwriters from New York (state)
- Tony Award winners
- Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters