Oscar Hammerstein I managed Oscar's Victoria Theatre, and Willie's son Oscar Hammerstein II was one of Broadway's most influential lyricists and bookwriters, as well as a director and producer. Oscar Hammerstein I Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 18461 August 1919) was a German-born businessman, theater impresario, and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was the grandfather of American lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II and the father of theater manager William Hammerstein and American producer Arthur Hammerstein. Oscar Hammerstein I was born in Stettin (capital of the
Oscar Hammerstein I own. Infamously, he compared paying his daughters to "the eccentricities and actions of the late lamented King Lear." Hammerstein contracted kidney problems and paralysis, eventually permanently falling into a coma. He died in 1919 in Lenox Hill Hospital at Park Avenue and 77th Street in Manhattan. His contractual ban on presenting opera was due to expire in 1920; at his death he was busy planning his return to the opera stage. A 1910 song by Jack Norworth entitled "For Months and Months and Months" references Hammerstein himself, during the first verse. The Manhattan Opera House was bid for $145,000 by