Oklahoma (Rodgers and Hammerstein song) Oklahoma (Rodgers and Hammerstein song) "Oklahoma" is the title song from the Broadway musical "Oklahoma!", named for the setting of the musical play. The music and lyrics were written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The melody is reprised in the main title of the 1955 film version and in the overtures of both film and musical productions. In 1953, the Oklahoma legislature chose it as the state song of Oklahoma, replacing a less well-known song, "Oklahoma - A Toast", that had been adopted in 1935. Midway through the second act of the play, after the principals Curly and
Elaine Hammerstein opposite William Haines. With the latter film, the studio tried to promote Hammerstein and Haines as a couple, however, in real life, Haines was a gay man. Hammerstein wed James Walter Kays in Los Angeles, California, on June 10, 1926. Kays was a Los Angeles fire commissioner and had also served as finance director for the California Democratic Party. Upon her marriage, Hammerstein retired from acting. Her last film appearance is in the Columbia Pictures drama "Ladies of Leisure" (1926). In August 1948, while returning from a trip to the Mexican border town of Tijuana, the Kays and three friends