Oscar Hammerstein I, 1895-1915: His creation and development of New York's Times Square theatre district.
Item
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Title
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Oscar Hammerstein I, 1895-1915: His creation and development of New York's Times Square theatre district.
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Identifier
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AAI9908300
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identifier
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9908300
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Creator
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Carroll, John F.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Jane Bowers
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Date
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1998
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater | Architecture | Music
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Abstract
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This dissertation discusses independent theatre entrepreneur Oscar Hammerstein I (1847-1919), whose accomplishments included the creation and development of New York City's new theatre district above Longacre Square. His theatrical career, from 1888-1915, was marked by a series of innovations demonstrating Hammerstein's pioneering influence on the transformation of New York's cultural landscape, leading to the city's recognition as the nation's center for legitimate theatre productions and for the era's most popular performing art, vaudeville.;After building three theatres in suburban Harlem, Hammerstein moved to New York's Rialto and opened his first Manhattan Opera House in 1892. A year later, the theatre became the New Koster and Bial's Music Hall and Hammerstein became the city's most innovative vaudeville manager. After terminating his partnership with Koster and Bial in 1895, Hammerstein built the Olympia. For forty years, this remarkable structure, housing four performance spaces capable of seating six thousand patrons, marked the origin of the Times Square theatre district.;In 1899, Hammerstein built the Victoria Theatre at Seventh Avenue and Forty-second Street. Victoria Theatre and its unique rooftop venue, the Paradise Gardens, became the "mecca" for "big time" vaudeville in the middle decade of vaudeville's fifty-year reign as the most popular performing art. Hammerstein's Theatre Republic, opened in 1900, was the first of the famed Forty-second Street playhouses. Unable to pursue his vision to make this venue America's first "national" theatre, Hammerstein advanced the cause of the commercial theatre's independents by leasing it to David Belasco. In 1904 Hammerstein built his second Forty-second Street playhouse and named it in honor of his first tenant, comedian Lew Fields, who used the theatre to launch his career as an independent producer and musical comedy star.;Just as the majority of Hammerstein's theatres redefined New York's cultural boundaries, his programming set new standards by utilizing all the performing arts to augment his presentations of entertainments designed primarily for nonelitist audiences.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
