(b New York, NY, Sept 8, 1896; d New York, NY, July 30, 1983). American lyricist and librettist. He studied at Columbia University, where he was a contemporary of Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, and served in the US Navy before becoming director of publicity and advertising in 1919 for the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation (from 1924 known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM). He wrote verse in his spare time, and was asked by Jerome Kern to supply the lyrics for Dear Sir (1924). He also worked with Vernon Duke, Jimmy McHugh, and Ralph Rainger. But he is best remembered for the numerous songs he wrote in collaboration with arthur Schwartz , beginning in 1929 with the revue The Little Show (with “I guess I’ll have to change my plan”). Other collaborations with Schwartz include Three’s a Crowd (1930) and The Band Wagon (1931, containing the hit “Dancing in the Dark”). Their professional relationship extended over a period of more than 30 years to the production of the musical ...
Article
Dietz, Howard
Gerald Bordman
revised by Jonas Westover
Article
Hammerstein, Oscar (Greeley Clendenning), II
Thomas Hischak
(b New York, NY, 12 July 1895; d Doylestown, PA, 23 Aug 1960). American lyricist, librettist, producer, and publisher.
Born into a notable theatrical family, his grandfather and namesake was the flamboyant opera impresario Oscar Hammerstein I (1847–1919), who created and lost a handful of opera houses and companies around the turn of the century. Hammerstein studied law at Columbia, where he became involved in the Varsity shows and, after graduation, continued to write songs. By 1919 Hammerstein had left the legal profession and begun to write plays and lyrics full time. His first Broadway musical was Always You (1920) with composer Herbert Stothart and, as would be the pattern throughout his career, Hammerstein wrote both the libretto and lyrics. During the 1920s he contributed to a handful of operettas, most notably Rose-Marie (1924), with composer Rudolf Friml, and The Desert Song...
Article
Leigh, Mitch
Paul R. Laird
[Mitchnick, Irwin ]
(b Brooklyn, NY, Jan 30, 1928). American composer, producer, and director. After earning a BA and MA from the Yale School, where he studied with paul Hindemith , he worked as a jazz musician and from 1954 wrote music for television and commercial jingles, such as “Nobody doesn’t Like Sara Lee.” In 1957 Leigh formed the company Music Makers as a focus for these efforts. He wrote incidental music for two plays, Too Good to be True (1963) and Never Live over a Pretzel Factory (1964), and then composed with the lyricist Joe Darion the score for the Broadway hit Man of La Mancha (1965). Their Tony Award-winning score includes spirited “Spanish” gestures and songs that effectively describe characters and situations. The show itself, which won a Tony Award for Best Musical, ran 2328 performances and has remained popular. Leigh also wrote the scores for ...
