New-York tribune., 1919-08-02
one, now known as the New York and

This venture was an absolute failure
and Hammerstein was compelled to
mortgage his furniture to pay the rent
of $35 a month fiat. Nothing daunted.
he built the Victoria, at the corner
of Broadway Seventh Avenue and
Forty second Street. The building was
two stories high when the contractors
refused to continue without further
payment. They finally agreed to go
ger was at his wits end to raise the
money when he met in a streetcar a
chorus girl whom he had employed in
the Olympia. She drew on her saw
in1gs account to help him and he COM
pleted the theatre along with the Re-
public. just behind it. These proved
profitable. After he had built the
Harrs he was soon able to indulge
himself in new Manhattan Opera
House in Thirty-fourth Street.
Discourses on Prose and Poetry
Grand opera was more than a hobby
Tor Hammerstein-it was the breath OF
his existence.
The tobacco business is prose-" he
said. This is poetry. It's more fun to
make Melba sing than to make a cigar"
He sacrificed everything to his one
aim-weath, friends, health and prob
ably life itself; for his decline dated
from the moment that the courts final
ly decided he had forecosed himself
for ten years from reentering the
ooperatic. field in opposition to the
metropolitan by the terms of an agree
ment.
Hammerstein was born in Berlin in
ls4I. Until he was sixteen he re-
cclved good education, studying the
flute, piano and violin among other
things. Being whipped by his father
one day, he sold his violin and ran
away iron. home, crossing to England
in cattleboat and making his way to
Liverpool, where he took passage in
the steerage of q sailing vessel for
America.
He arrived in this country in 1868
The Civil War was in progress. The de-
mand for Northern made cigars was
brisk: Through an advertisement he
found employment, and learned the
trade, working for 50 week. He had
facility in writing and contributed to
the German papers, until in 1870 he
began the publication of "The United
States Tobacco Journal" which after
struggle made money.
Makes His First Fortune
His inventions, of which there were
some sixty in all, gave him capital tc
I.speculate in Harlem real estate and
he soon had fortune.
His first theatrical ventures were as
the silent partner of Adolph Neuen-
dorl, manager Of the old Stadt Theatre,
in the Bowery, for which he wrote
three plays. The two moved up to tho
Germania Theatre, in Fourteenth Greet,
which later became Tony Pastors, and
here they brought over from Germany
Heinrich Conried, young actor who
was years afterward to become the
House and take away Hammcrsteins
tenors, while the latter realiated by
outbidding for sopranos in the merry
opera war.
From this start Hammerstein built
his music hall in Harlem, then turned
his attention to Broadway. He was the
first to introduce to America Yvette
Guilbert with a collection of racy
songs. He put on living pictures, which
hovered in the twilight zone, and
brought over Anna Held, who caused
his production "La Poupee."
He Rivals the METROPOLITAN
The impresario faced much hostil-
ity and skepticism when he opened his
Manhattan Opera House in 1906 as
AiNoi W tHc SicdC NlctIOpOlltdH. II Is
subscriptions amounted to $52 900; his
competitors were $4O0,COO He had a
hard fight the first season, but New
York finally warmed up to him. Signo.
Cleofonte Campanini, as conductor,
and such stars of the opera as Bonci,
DalMores. Bassi, Renaud, Sammarco,
Ancona, Melba and Calve soon at
tracted the audiences. Renaud, in spite
Of his great reputation, opened to a
house of S1,S00, but for his last four
performances total of $4,000 was
taken in. The receipts for the season
were S750,On0, which exceeded expen-
ditures
With Hammerstein firmly intrenched.
a bitter war was waged with the
metropolitan until the impresario was
bought out for something like ST.
100000 in 1910.
B, r. Stotesbury and his associates
IN Philadelphia took over big opera
house the New York man had built in
the Quaker city. The Manhattan Opera
House was given over to vaudeville
and motion pictures.
His London Venture Disastrous
1t was characteristic of the man that
with this money at his disposal he at
once sank it in a new opera venture
which at the outset could have resulted
IA iiO'iiiiS ptt 1dllulS. AOluoI ndU
never been able to support more than
one opera house. Yet in face of all
this Mr.. Hammerstein decided that he
would cross the ocean. The result was
inevitable. He began his campaign
with great blaring of trumpets and
beating of drums. He would give to
the British public for the first time
in its history real grand opera, buJ
the British public did not respond. In
the end he was forced to quit, and
his house was turned over to moving
pictures.
: But his restless spirit could not re-
main content with oblivion, and sudden
ly he astonished his friends by an
nouncing that he was about to build a
new opera house to be devoted to
popular opera in English. Soon, owing
to the establishment of the Century
Opera Compare, he decided to return
to his old fight for high-priced opera in
opposition to the Metropolitan. For a
time it looked as if he would succeed
An injunction put stop to his activi-
ties Beaten and broken-he hearted, he
retreated into his little room over the
Victoria Theatre and the operate
world knew him no more.
He Read the Audiences Mind
Oscar Hammerstein was not without
his faults, which in a smaller man might
have been unforgivable He was an
intense egoist, domineering, ruthless,
unscrupulous when forced into a cor
ner. But he was a man and a genius.
As Snowman, he knew his public,
~.