Harbach, Otto

Harbach, Otto [né Hauerbach] (1873–1963), librettist and lyricist. Born in Salt Lake City to Danish immigrant parents, he taught English and public speaking after graduating from Knox College, then came to New York in 1901 to work towards a doctorate at Columbia. But he abandoned his studies and took up journalism before he began to collaborate with composer Karl Hoschna in 1902. Their first success was Three Twins (1908), a huge success whose hit song was “Cuddle Up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine.” Thereafter, he collaborated with Hoschna on five more musicals, most memorably Madame Sherry (1910). Following Hoschna's death, Harbach worked with Rudolf Friml on The Firefly (1912), High Jinks (1913), and Katinka (1915). With Louis Hirsch he wrote Going Up! (1917) and Mary (1920). In 1923 he joined forces with his young protégé Oscar Hammerstein, Vincent Youmans, and Herbert Stothart to write Wildflower, then in 1924 worked with Hammerstein, Stothart, and Friml to create the biggest musical success of the 1920s, the operetta Rose‐Marie. Harbach's next effort was the greatest musical comedy hit of the era, No, No, Nanette (1925), although the lyrics for that show's most popular songs were by Irving Caesar. In that same year he worked with Jerome Kern and Hammerstein on Sunny and with Hammerstein, Stothart, and George Gershwin on Song of the Flame. With Hammerstein and Sigmund Romberg he created The Desert Song (1926). His last successful collaborations were with Kern: The Cat and the Fiddle (1931) and Roberta (1933). In all, he helped write over thirty musicals. Harbach's work was sometimes assailed as heavy‐handed and humorless but at best was fresh and even poetic. He was also one of the first librettists who attempted to integrate song and story, something his pupil Hammerstein would later accomplish with others.