Medford mail tribune., August 24, 1958, Image 37

Rodgers says, "but it isn't really true.
There's a great deal more to writing a
song than just putting the notes down
on paper. I may have done months of
work on it before I get to that stage.
Take 'Bali H'ai' from 'South Pacific,' "
for example. It's true that just a few
minutes after Oscar delivered the lyr
ics I had completed the song. But we
had discussed it for eight months. I
knew the title. I knew the situation in
which it was to be sung. I had been
working on it mentally for months, so
naturally it was easy to set down."
Things have always been easy for
Dick Rodgers. There was only one
brief period in his life when he knew
failure. That was immediately after he
left Columbia University when he and
Lorenz Hart couldn't find any takers
for their songs. But since the first
Rodgers and Hart show, "Garrick
Gaieties," was produced in 1925, Dick
Rodgers has been one of America's
foremost composers.
When Larry Hart died shortly be
fore they were to start work on "Ok
lahoma!" Rodgers turned to Hammer
stein, an old friend for whom he had
great respect. Neither the respect nor
the friendship has diminished over the
15 years of their partnership.
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11 just to bring up the curtain in 'Okla-
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' he does practically all of his creative
work in a second-Moor study.
He frequently struggles with lyrics,
working them over and over until he
gets exactly the effect he wants. He
spent most of a day composing a
single line, "The corn is as high as an
elephant's eye," for "Oklahoma!"
Hammerstein has a highly devel
oped social consciousness, as reflected
in such lyrics as "You've Got to Be
Taught," "All Kinds of People,"
"What's the Use of Wonderin'?" and
"You'll Never Walk Alone." He wept
recently when he turned on a radio
and unexpectedly heard "The March
of the Siamese Children" from "The
King and I" a Rodgers melody he
must have heard a thousand times.
Lj ammehstein also has a great many
' ' outside activities which he
takes seriously: he's president
of the Authors League of America
and a member of the Council of the
Dramatists' Guild and the Writers'
Board for World Government.
Unlike Rodgers, Hammerstein's ca
reer has been full of ups and downs.
A member of an old and distinguished
theatrical family and the theater's
leading lyricist in the early '30s with
such hits as "Show Boat," "Rose
Marie," and "The Desert Song"
R & H have supervised their motion-picture
properties as carefully as
their stage plays, even though the
medium is not as familiar to them.
Excluding "South Pacific," which was
just opening in movie houses as this
was written, Rodgers feels that "The
King and I" came through best on the
screen. It was also the most success
ful financially of the R & H movies.
In a hectic and frequently neurotic
business, Rodgers and Hammerstein
operate in an oasis of sanity and sin
cerity. They never refuse an audition
to anyone; they answer letters and re
turn phone calls; they work in an
atmosphere of quiet professional com
petence; their personal habits are
moderate neither man smokes and
both drink sparingly, if at all. They've
never had a serious argument and
probably never will. And they are re
markably humble. After many years
of solid successes, Rodgers still quali
fied the opening date of "Flower Drum
Song" with "if we get it to New York."
"Nothing is really predictable in this
business," he continued, "not even
the songs. Sometimes we think we can
anticipate the ones that are going to
be hits, but often we get fooled. We
wrote 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin '
Rodgers was married to Dorothy
Feiner in 1930. The Rodgerses have
two daughters, Mary and Linda, both
married. They also have four grand
children, a family home in Southport,
Conn., and an apartment in mid-town
Manhattan where Dick stays fre
quently when he is working in the
city. Although his Manhattan office
contains a grand piano, he does all his
composing at home.
"My piano sits right out in the living
room, in the middle of the traffic flow.
That never bothers me. In fact, I used
to try out some of my tunes on the
girls when they were small."
Rodgers works with tremendous
power of concentration and normally
writes the music to fit Hammerstein's
lyrics. But this isn't always the case.
For example, "Younger Than Spring
time," the haunting love song from
"South Pacific," was a melody he had
played for several years for his chil
dren. When Hammerstein heard it, he
insisted it be written into the show.
Hammerstein, seven years older
than his partner, is a considerable
contrast to Rodgers in physical ap
pearance as well as in personal char
acteristics. Tall, big-boned, with a
seamed face beneath a close-cropped
crew cut, Hammerstein is formidable
in appearance but gentle, soft-spoken,
and much more reserved than Rodg
ers. He spends most of his time on
his farm near Doylestown, Pa., where
Hammerstein hit a ten-year dry spell
that ended wherf he teamed with Rod
gers for "Oklahoma!" in 1943.
The Hammersteins, who were mar
ried in 1929, have five children, two
each from previous marriages plus
their son, Jimmy.
Both Rodgers and Hammerstein are
tireless perfectionists. Road companies
are formed and rehearsed under their
direct supervision and are checked
periodically by them. When the na
tional company of "South Pacific" was
nearing its Chicago run, Rodgers
searched the country for a theater
similar in size to the one they would
use in Chicago, found one in Minne
apolis, and booked the show there for
a week while he personally worked
with the cast to adjust their perform
ance to the theater's size.
"When we have a show running in
New York," Rodgers says, "I watch a
performance at least once a week. If
the show loses any of its spontaneity,
we rehearse until we find it again."
Of all their work together, the part
ners are happiest with "Carousel."
"It's the most mature of our plays in
both subject matter and realization,"
says Rodgers.
just to bring up the curtain in 'Okla
homa!' Some of it was even sung off
stage without accompaniment. Same
way with 'You'll Never Walk Alone'
in 'Carousel.' It was sung by a minor
character in a situation hardly con
ducive to making it a popular favorite.
Yet both of these songs turned out to
be hits. On the other hand, I think one
of my best melodies is 'I Have
Dreamed' from "The King and I.' It
was never a hit and was cut out of
the movie completely."
But these things are all part of the
business and both men accept such
problems philosophically. They were
disappointed in the failure of "Al
legro" to capture popular fancy, and
had high hopes for "Pipe Dream," too.
But even R & H "failures" are suc
cesses by normal standards. So re
spected are they in the business that
the yardstick by which their works
are measured is often in a class by it
self. This is one of the penalties of the
great success they have enjoyed. But
it doesn't weigh on them. Not a bit.
Parodying one of his own lyrics,
Hammerstein summed it up, "We're
in love with a wonderful theater."
Family Weekly, August 24,