Hammerstein, Oscar Andrew. The Hammersteins: A Musical Theatre Family. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal, 2010. Print.
On a cold January morning in 1864, an exhausted, grimy sixteen-year-old boy named Oscar Hammerstein stepped off a small rowboat and onto the muddy banks of Manhattan’s Lower West Side.
He carried with him only a lice-ridden wool blanket, the rank-smelling clothes on his back, and an address in his head. Passing gas street lamps pasted with Civil War draft-deferment reward offerings and broadsides for the latest theatrical amusements, he made his way to a boardinghouse on Greenwich Street that welcomed Germans. Having no money, he put his blanket up as collateral and secured himself a tiny room for the night. He climbed up the stairs to his room and collapsed.
No doubt he dreamed of his one treasured possession: his love for opera.
Description:
Thus, with the trans-Atlantic arrival in New York City of Oscar Hammerstein I and his "lice-ridden blanket" begins the golden era of musical theatre in the United States. His life as well the careers of his son, Willy Hammerstein, and that of his grandson, the better known Oscar Hammerstein II, are wonderfully recounted in The Hammersteins: A Musical Theatre Family, written by Oscar Andrew Hammerstein, great-grandson of the first Oscar.
Bursting with unique photos of people, buildings, posters, and musical paraphernalia, this elegant book painstakingly narrates the lives of these three important figures in American theater and music. A detailed description emerges of the eras of these men, other important figures in theatre, and the ongoing competition to capture audiences among vaudeville, opera, serious drama, and musical comedy. In short, The Hammersteins is a fascinating history of theatre in America as seen through the eyes, letters, productions, and reviews of its major contributors.
Oscar Hammerstein, the immigrant, started as a broom-sweeper in a cigar factor at $2 per week where, in his spare time, he created tobacco-related inventions and patented them, from cigar rollers to silver cases. These devices financed his dreams to create opera and vaudeville houses in New York City.
He created the Harlem Opera House and also the Columbus Theater, and later in midtown, the Manhattan Opera House ("an Arabic hallucination of spires, minarets, and tiles") to compete with the grand Metropolitan Opera House. He also constructed the Victoria Theater with its rooftop beer garden, ice rinks, and live cows for fresh milk.
Great insider stories abound in The Hammersteins. Oscar Hammerstein I bet a well-known composer $100 that he could write a comic opera in two days. Given the title for the new operetta, musical score paper, a quill, ink, and a piano, with a guard outside the door to prevent any outside influences, Hammerstein cranked out The Koh-i-noor [Hope] Diamond which ran for 12 weeks at his theatres.
His four sons were taken out of school to work for him in various aspects of theater management. Booking of variety acts went to his son Willy, Oscar Hammerstein II's father.
There also are plenty of anecdotes involving Willy and the acts he hired and advised, including Flo Ziegfeld, W.C Fields, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Buster Keaton, Houdini, and Mae West. Willy was credited with encouraging Will Rogers to try talking to audience during his lasso act, and suggesting that Charlie Chaplin throw pies.
Young Oscar II, Willy's son, started as a stage manager supervising production of shows, even acting as the personal assistant to Mae West. He wrote first show 1920 and had his first great success with Rose-Marie and its hit, “Indian Love Call."
Readers can watch his successes and failures unfold on the stage in collaboration with Rudolf Friml, Jerome Kern, Flo Ziegfeld, Sigmund Romberg and, of course, Richard Rogers. The Hammersteins is at its finest as it describes how theatrical shows get produced, how long they run, why they succeed or fail, and what lessons were learned.
Hammerstein II's greatest contribution to musical theatre is his use of meaningful songs to advance the story, rather than other composers who simply inserted random music unrelated to the plot. His Show Boat, "inarguably the most important and influential play in the history of American musical theatre" is the first example of this technique to hit the stage.
It is fascinating reading to hear about the inspiration, planning, writing, previews, reviews, and success/failures of Hammerstein's many creations. His most famous successes include:
- Oklahoma (choreographed by Agnes De Mille, played five years on Broadway, won a special Pulitzer, and was the first musical original cast album recorded on a 78 record);
- Carmen Jones (updated opera Carmen but with an all-Black cast);
- Carousel (with a 7.5 minute operatic song);
- State Fair (his only work exclusively for the Hollywood screen);
- South Pacific (with Mary Martin washing her hair in each of over 1,900 performances);
- The King and I (Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence);
- Flower Drum Song (set in San Francisco's Chinese community);
- Sound of Music (1,442 performances, 5 Tonys, and one of the most popular films in history)
Happy reading.
Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com
Brockes, Emma. What Would Barbra Do? How Musicals Changed My Life
Really delightful, clever reviews of a huge number of musicals from an author who admits, as a child, to watching Mary Poppins twice a week for three years with a friend.
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