Oscar Hammerstein

Oscar Hammerstein , 1846-1919, German-American operatic impresario. In 1888 he built the Harlem Opera House, and in 1906 the Manhattan Opera House, where he gave noteworthy productions. He brought many fine singers to the United States, and introduced Louise, Pelléas et Mélisande, and Elektra to the American public. In 1910 the Metropolitan Opera Company bought his interests. Upon the failure (1913) of an operatic venture in London, he returned to New York and built the Lexington Theater, where he produced varied entertainments.

Hammerstein, Oscar (1847–1919), New York impresario and builder of theaters, the Harlem Opera House (1888), and the Manhattan Opera House (1892, rebuilt 1906). His productions of new operas, including works by Debussy and Strauss, made him a rival of the Metropolitan Opera Company, which bought his interests (1910) on the condition that he stop producing opera in the U.S. His biography was written (1956) by Vincent Sheean.

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.