On this day in Old New York

Abraham Yates Jr. Born Today

8/23/2015

Abraham Yates, Jr. Taken from http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm

On this day, August 23rd, 1724 Abraham Yates Jr. was born in Albany, New York, the son of Christoffel Yates and Catelyntje Winne.

He was the chairman of the Albany Committee of Correspondence from 1774 to 1776. Yates was also a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 and was its chairman in 1776 and 1777.

He was a delegate for New York to the Congress of the Confederation in 1787 and 1788 as well as a New York State Senator from 1777 to 1790, and a member of the Council of Appointment in 1777-78 and 1784.

Yates was a presidential elector in 1792, and cast his votes for George Washington and George Clinton.

0 Comments

Oscar Hammerstein Born

7/12/2015

0 Comments

Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin and Oscar Hammerstein II, seated in back is Helen Tamiris, they are watching hopefuls who are being auditioned on stage of the St. James Theatre [...] / World Telegram photo by Al Aumuller. 1948. Courtesy Miscellaneous Items In High Demand, Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-126707

On this day, July 12, in 1895, Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein, better known as Oscar Hammerstein II, was born in New York.

Hammerstein came from strong theatrical stock, his grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I built the Hammerstein Ballroom as the Manhattan Opera House, and his father, William Hammerstein, managed the Victoria Theater for Oscar I.

Hammerstein attended Columbia University, graduating, and then attending Columbia Law School which he quit in 1917 for theatrical pursuits.

Hammerstein collaborated for 20 years with Otto Harbach, opening his first musical on Broadway, Always You in 1921. During this period he also collaborated with others, and created a number of notable works including, Show Boat, and Sweet Adeline.

In 1943, the first production of what would be Hammerstein's most famous collaboration, with Richard Rogers, opened, Oklahoma! The two would eventually collaborate on other classics of musical theater such as Carosel, The King and I, The Sound of Music, and South Pacific. They would also produce these and other shows on Broadway.

On August 23, 1960, Hammerstein died as a result of stomach cancer, at his Doylestown, PA home, at 65 years old, just after The Sound of Music opened on Broadway. The lights in Times Square were turned off for one minute, and in the West End of London, the lights were dimmed in recognition of Hammerstein's revolution of musical theater. His ashes were interred in Ferncliff Cemetary in Hartsdale, New York.

0 Comments

Abraham Yates Jr. Born Today

Oscar Hammerstein Born

On this day in Old New York

Archives

Categories