Akademik

(1847-1919)

   Born in Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein I ran away from his Prussian home in 1863 and worked in a cigar factory on his arrival in the United States, because he could not find employment as a musician. An enterprising young man, Hammerstein developed several improvements in manufacturing cigars that merited patents. The income gave him the leisure to write several one-act plays, which were produced by the Germania Theatre. He also earned the resources to build several theatres, beginning with the Harlem Opera House in 1889. Careless management cost him this theatre, but Hammerstein soon built several others, including the lavish Manhattan Opera House, where his successful operatic productions led the Metropolitan Opera to buy him out. He also built the Olympic Theatre, the Columbus Theatre, and the Republic Theatre, earning the label "The Father of Times Square." With the opening of Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre, he was forced to present variety entertainments when the Theatrical Syndicate blocked his attempts to produce legitimate theatre. Under the management of his son, Willie, the Victoria became the top venue for vaudeville in the United States between 1904 and 1915. Hammerstein also wrote a few musicals, including Santa Maria (1896), In Greater New York (1897), and War Bubbles (1898). His most successful production was the first Broadway staging of the enduring Victor Herbert operetta, Naughty Marietta (1910). Hammerstein's other son, Oscar Hammer-stein II* (1895-1960), became one of the most significant figures in 20th-century musical theatre.