Romberg, Sigmund (1887–1951), composer. The Hungarian was slated to become an engineer, but when he was sent to Vienna, he took work at the Theatre‐an‐der‐Wien and studied with Richard Heuberger. Coming to America in 1909, Romberg accepted odd jobs until he could establish his own small dance band and publish some songs, which came to the attention of the Messrs. Shubert, who signed him as their house composer in 1914. His first song hit was “Auf Wiedersehn,” which was one of his additions to Eysler's score for
The Blue Paradise (1915). In 1916 alone he wrote music (mostly tinny ragtime melodies) for at least six Shubert shows, but he did not begin to gain real recognition until he was allowed to compose a score entirely in his own middle‐European idiom for
Maytime (1917), followed by his redactions of Schubert melodies for
Blossom Time (1921). Romberg enjoyed four huge successes in the 1920s:
The Student Prince (1924),
The Desert Song (1926),
My Maryland (1927), and
The New Moon (1928). With the coming of the Great Depression and the rise of Nazism, the vogue for German‐style operettas waned, and Romberg had little success in the 1930s. However, he scored a final success in 1945 with a bit of nostalgic Americana,
Up in Central Park. After Romberg's death his underrated score for
The Girl in Pink Tights (1954) was offered to Broadway. In all he composed songs for nearly sixty Broadway musicals. Romberg was often accused of borrowing themes from classic compositions, and his music often seems less original and less passionate than that of his principal rival, Rudolf
Friml. Nevertheless, the pair was almost solely responsible for the great outpouring of gorgeous, memorable melodies in the final American heyday of traditional operetta. Biography:
Deep in My Heart, Elliott Arnold, 1949.
