Oscar Hammerstein I an early age. His mother died when he was fifteen years old. During his youth, Hammerstein's father wanted him to continue with his education, and to specialize in subjects such as algebra, but Hammerstein wanted to pursue music. After Oscar went skating in a park one day, his father found out and whipped him as punishment; this would spur Hammerstein to run away to North America. After selling his violin, Hammerstein ran away to Liverpool, and from there, took a three-month journey to the United States arriving in New York City in 1864. Hammerstein made ends meet initially by working
Arthur Hammerstein productions were "Luana" and "Ballyhoo" in 1930, which were considered failures. Hammerstein suffered bankruptcy in 1931 due to some musical failures and went into retirement. In 1925-1927 Hammerstein built what is now known as the Ed Sullivan Theater at 1697 Broadway in Manhattan. Hammerstein made an appearance as himself in an episode of the film series "Popular Science" in 1949. He was one of the writers of the song "Because of You," a major hit (#1 for 10 weeks) for Tony Bennett in 1951. Hammerstein wrote the song in 1940. It was used in the film "I Was an American