Something Wonderful by Todd S. Purdum

Author:Todd S. Purdum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

CHAPTER 8

Catastrophic Success

There’s a vast difference between being what’s known as a “Businessman” with capital letters and being a fool. And I don’t think I’m a businessman, nor, I must admit, do I think I’m a fool. I put my business in the hands of people who know how to handle it.

Richard Rodgers

The commercial success of The King and I meant that Rodgers and Hammerstein once again had back-to-back hits running on Broadway, with South Pacific still packing them in at the Majestic, and Brynner and Lawrence doing capacity business at the St. James. It meant, too, that Dick and Oscar had reached the stage in their partnership at which they were just as apt to be celebrated for the remarkable feats they had already accomplished, as for any achievement they might yet turn out to top themselves. One such occasion was a two-part tribute to Oscar on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town television program on CBS. Rodgers and Hammerstein had been guests on Sullivan’s very first show in 1948 and made frequent appearances thereafter. It had provided superb, free, nationwide publicity that cemented Dick and Oscar in the public mind as an inseparable team. Now, in the second installment of the Hammerstein tribute show, on Sunday, September 16, 1951, Oscar insisted that there was no magic formula for success in the theater. “The next five plays we write could well be flops,” he said.

He offered a heartfelt tribute to his partner. “This fella Dick to whom I keep referring—he’s my collaborator,” Hammerstein said. “In the eight years of our association, we’ve never disagreed about anything at all. It sounds too good to be true, but it is true, and I’m reporting it here for the record. I think good things should be reported just as well as bad things. A cynic might say that, of course we have a happy partnership because we’ve had so much success. But I suggest that part of our success has been due to the fact that we have a happy partnership. I’ve never sat in a room with Dick and told him how grateful I am to be working with him. I think I’d be too self-conscious to do that.” Here Oscar permitted himself a sly smile and went on, “But somehow or other, standing up here, being looked at and listened to by a good proportion of this country’s population, I’m not self-conscious at all. And I find it a great and easy pleasure to publicly announce that I’m proud and happy and lucky to have him.”

At this, Sullivan welcomed Dick himself to the stage. Rodgers stuck out his hand in the self-conscious manner of a man averse to any public display of affection or emotion. He then stammered awkwardly for a moment, shifting his weight, searching for words, and looking at his feet, before finally blurting out, “I think he’s the greatest.”

It was a revealing moment, reflecting in its way the complexities that lay beneath the surface of the partners’ public facade.

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