This is the only Oscar ever to win an Oscar
Throughout entertainment history, names like Elvis and Beyoncé have become so synonymous with one person at a time that no last name is needed to understand who they refer to. Even abbreviated nicknames like Sly or Arnie often refer primarily to a specific movie star. Why, then, is a name – for all its famous namesakes – synonymous with a small gold statuette and not with a person? Out of Oscar Isaac To Oscar the naggerIt is noteworthy that a first name so popular in the early 20th century is primarily associated with distinction. One might assume that using such a common name would imply that several Oscars have actually won an Oscar, but amazingly only one, Oscar Hammerstein IItook home the award of the same name, twice!
Ignoring stalled technical details like e.g Oskar Schindler In 1994 he posthumously won the award for best film for telling his life story Steven Spielberg‘S Schindlers List, there’s only one Oscar that actually wins the award, and he’s perhaps best known for his work on a very different film. Coincidentally, this film is also set in WWII Austria and is screened in English! The film was The sound of music and the “Oscar” was an American poet Oscar Hammerstein II. Although The sound of music is probably Hammerstein’s most famous work. You might be surprised to learn that it’s actually not the film that earned him one of his two Oscars for songwriting.
Musical theater was Oscar Hammerstein’s family business
Oscar Hammerstein co-wrote over 850 songs over the course of his 40-year career, earning him not only two Oscars but also several Tony Awards. his grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, was a German theater impresario whose son William also became a theater manager in New York City. Accordingly Hugh FordinIn Hammerstein’s biography, he dropped out of law school to pursue theater and joined the New York Bohemians’ famed Lambs Club. In 1920 Hammerstein’s first musical appeared, Always youPremiered on Broadway, for which he wrote the libretto.
Oscar Hammerstein’s early career is replete with profitable collaborations, including Vincent Youmans, Rudolph FrimlAnd Sigmund Romberg. First his collaboration with the composer Jerome Kern however, his career really took off. Hammerstein wrote the musicals together with Kern Sweet Adeline, Three sistersAnd show boatThe latter, of course, contained the masterpiece “Ol’ Man River”. This song appeared in countless revivals of the musical, including the 1929 film and the 1936 film Paul Robeson sang the song. Robeson himself was later the subject of another Oscar-winning film, Best Short Documentary of 1980 Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist.
Oscar Hammerstein’s first Oscar win was in 1941
In 1938, Oscar Hammerstein was nominated for his first Oscar at the 11th Academy Awards. Best Original Song nominee show song “A Mist Over the Moon” featured in The lady protestsand was written in collaboration with the composer Ben Oakland. Unfortunately for Hammerstein, he hasn’t won his Oscar yet, as the award went to him instead Ralph Rainer And LeoRobin for The great broadcast of 1938‘s song “Thanks for the Memory”. In 1941, however, Hammerstein’s song “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” which he co-wrote with frequent collaborator Jerome Kern, was nominated for the same award for his role in the film lady be good. Needless to say, Hammerstein had finally won his Oscar and was the first (and so far only) to do so.
Rodgers and Hammerstein won Tony Awards for decades
Oscar Hammerstein’s most famous collaboration is undoubtedly his fruitful partnership with the composer Richard Rodgers. The couple, known to the world as “Rodgers and Hammerstein,” first came together to adapt the play Green makes the lilac grow into a musical. In 1943, the adaptation came to the stage under the name Oklahoma! and a film adaptation followed in 1955. In the intervening years, Rodgers and Hammerstein collaborated on several other critically acclaimed projects. carousel [1945eröffnetgefolgtvonAllegro im Jahr 1947 und Südpazifik im Jahr 1949. Südpazifik gewann 1950 die Tony Awards und brachte Rodgers und Hammerstein innerhalb eines Jahres drei Tony Awards für das beste Musical, das beste Buch für ein Musical und den besten Produzenten für ein Musical ein.
Ihr Vermögen hielt bis in die 50er Jahre an Der König und ich im Jahr 1951, was ihnen 1952 einen vierten Tony einbrachte. Ich und Julia 1953 folgten jedoch ihre beiden nächsten Bühnenmusicals, die jedoch für keine Preise nominiert wurden Wunschtraum im Jahr 1955 und Blumentrommellied im Jahr 1958 brachte den Partnern zwei weitere Tony-Nominierungen ein. Oscar Hammerstein gewann seinen letzten Tony im Jahr 1960 für Rodgers und Hammersteins Bühnenmusical von 1959 Der Klang von Musik, das ihnen 1961 auch einen Grammy Award für das beste Musical-Theater-Album einbrachte. Oscar Hammerstein ist also nur einen Emmy vom begehrten „EGOT“-Titel entfernt, was nicht zuletzt auf seine Zusammenarbeit mit Richard Rodgers zurückzuführen ist.
Ein weiterer Oscar-Gewinn im Jahr 1945, dieses Mal mit Rodgers
Early in their partnership, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the music and lyrics for a film entitled state fair. The 1945 film wasn’t adapted into a stage musical until 1996, but it immediately caused a stir at the Oscars. The song “It Might As Well Be Spring” earned Oscar Hammerstein another Oscar, this time with Richard Rodgers. This would be Rodgers’ first and only Oscar win. Hammerstein was nominated twice more, in 1946 and 1951; once for Centennial Summeris All Through The Day, which he co-wrote with and again for Jerome Kern The stripeis “A Kiss To Build a Dream On” with Bert Kalmar And Harry Ruby.
Oscar Hammerstein’s Oscar story continues after his death
Oscar Hammerstein died of stomach cancer in August 1960 at the age of 65. The sound of music had begun its Broadway performances just a few months earlier and was adapted into a starring film in 1965 Julie Andrews And Christopher Plummer. The film was a huge box office success and became the highest-grossing film of 1965. By late 1966, it was surpassing the box office Blown by the wind the highest-grossing film of all time, breaking box office records in nearly thirty countries and grossing $286 million worldwide. Last but not least, the film’s success at the 1966 Oscars, where it was nominated in ten categories and won five, contributed to this.
The most important award, however, is the Oscar for best film. The sound of music won the grand prize and was recognized as a producer Robert Wise the statuette, but it’s clear that without an Oscar in particular, the film might not have won any of its other types of Oscars. The legacy of The sound of musicas well as South Pacific, Oklahoma!or carousel He also proves that Oscar Hammerstein’s influence on theater and cinema will last even after his untimely death. Being the only Oscar ever to win an Oscar, his story is still worthy of this momentous record.
