Elaine Hammerstein Elaine Hammerstein Elaine Hammerstein (June 16, 1897 – August 13, 1948) was an American silent film and stage actress. Elaine Hammerstein was the daughter of opera producer Arthur Hammerstein and the granddaughter of Oscar Hammerstein I. Her father once remarked he was more interested in his daughter's career than in his own. Hammerstein was Arthur's daughter by his first marriage, to Jean Allison Hammerstein. When the couple divorced, the mother did not ask for permanent custody of Elaine but instead requested that her daughter be allowed to choose for herself when she reached the age of maturity. She appeared in
Rodgers and Hammerstein Favorite Things", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "So Long, Farewell" and "Sixteen Going on Seventeen". "Edelweiss" was the last song that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together. Rodgers and Hammerstein re-worked the musical theatre genre. Early 20th-century musicals, except for the Princess Theatre musicals and a few important examples like Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's "Show Boat", were usually whimsical or farcical, and typically built around a star. Because the efforts of Rodgers and Hammerstein were so successful, many musicals that followed contained thought-provoking plots with mature themes, and in which all the aspects of the play, dance, song, and drama, were combined in