Oscar Hammerstein

Hammerstein, Oscar (1847–1919), manager. Born in Berlin, he ran away from home in 1863 and immigrated to America. Unable to employ his musical training, he accepted work with a cigar manufacturer. His alert, inventive mind quickly saw ways to mechanize many of the laborious operations, and his patents soon made him wealthy. Hammerstein then wrote several one‐act musicals for New York's Germania Theatre, and his success prompted him to become manager of the Stadt Theatre. In 1889 he built his first theatre, the Harlem Opera House but soon lost it because of his reckless management. Much of his history would be a sad repetition of this building and then losing of playhouses, including the Columbus Theatre, the Manhattan, the Olympia, and the Republic. For a time his most successful venture was the Victoria, which briefly served as New York's leading vaudeville theatre. Attractions were booked by his son William, who found a special success with such freak acts as the Cherry Sisters. Oscar also wrote a number of musicals, which he produced, including Santa Maria (1896), In Greater New York (1897), and War Bubbles (1898). However, his most successful Broadway production was Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta (1910). But for his obsession with opera, which caused several of his Broadway enterprises to fail, he might have been a more important figure in popular musical theatre. Biography: Oscar Hammerstein I, Vincent Sheean, 1956.