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Biography of Oscar Clendenning Hammerstein, IIName: Oscar Clendenning Hammerstein, IIBirth Date: July 12, 1895 Death Date: August 23, 1960 Place of Birth: New York, New York, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: songwriter Oscar Clendenning Hammerstein, II Oscar Clendenning Hammerstein II (1895-1960) was perhaps the most influential lyricist and librettist of the American theater. Major musicals for which he wrote the lyrics include Showboat, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music.Oscar Clendenning Hammerstein II was born into a great theatrical family on July 12, 1895, in New York City. His grandfather, Oscar I, was an opera impressario and showman. His father, William, was the manager of Hammerstein's Victoria, one of the most famous vaudeville theaters of its day. His uncle, Arthur, was a well known producer. All were famous in their own right, but all would be eclipsed by the success of Oscar II, the third generation theater Hammerstein. Oscar, or "Ockie" (his lifelong nickname), dabbled in theatrical activities as a youth, but when it came time for a career choice his father pushed him away from the theater. Oscar went to Columbia University in …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…Myra Finn and James by Dorothy Blanchard Jacobson. On September 1, 1960, at 9 p.m., the lights were extinguished on Broadway in memory of Oscar Hammerstein II, the "man who owned Broadway." Further Reading Getting To Know Him (1977) by Hugh Fordin is the first authorized biography of Hammerstein. Fordin was given exclusive use of Hammerstein's archives and the right to tape the personal recollections of family and colleagues. Hammerstein's contribution to musical history is traced in David Ewen, All the Years of American Popular Music (1977) and Frederick Nolan, The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein (1978). Stanley Green's The Rodgers and Hammerstein Story (1963) treats the careers of these two men separately and their actual 18 years collaboration.Citron, Stephen, The wordsmiths: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd and Alan Jay Lerner, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Fordin, Hugh, Getting to know him: a biography of Oscar Hammerstein II, New York: Da Capo Press, 1995. |