Oscar Hammerstein II Romberg; but he is best known for his collaborations with Richard Rodgers, as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein which include "Oklahoma!", "Carousel", "South Pacific", "The King and I", and "The Sound of Music". Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was born in New York City, the son of Alice Hammerstein (née Nimmo) and theatrical manager William Hammerstein. His grandfather was the German theatre impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. His father was from a Jewish family, and his mother was the daughter of Scottish and English parents. He was raised Episcopalian. Although Hammerstein's father managed the Victoria Theatre for his father and was
Dorothy Hammerstein being successful there, she went to New York, where she joined the cast of "André Charlot's London Revue of 1924", an English musical starring Beatrice Lillie and Gertrude Lawrence. She toured the United States and Canada for a year as Lillie's understudy. In 1925, she married Henry Jacobson, a New York businessman, with whom she had two children, Henry Jacobson and Susan Blanchard, who would later marry actors Henry Fonda, Michael Wager, and Richard Widmark. While still married to Jacobson, albeit unhappily, Dorothy met Oscar Hammerstein II, whose own marriage was also unhappy. They fell in love, and divorced their