Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 1846 – 1 August 1919) was a German-born businessman, theater impresario, and composer in New York City.

After Oscar went skating in a park one day, his father found out and whipped him as punishment, goading Hammerstein to flee his family.

With the proceeds from the sale of his violin, Hammerstein purchased a ticket to Liverpool,[1] from which he departed on a three-month-long cruise to the United States, arriving in New York City in 1864.

Hammerstein made ends meet initially by working at a cigar factory on Pearl Street.

Hammerstein's best-known contribution to the cigar-making process was adding an air-suctioning component to cigar rollers.

He became wealthy industrializing cigar manufacturing, and his tobacco fortune provided the money he used to pursue his theater interests.

"[5] In 1895 he opened a fourth venue, the Olympia Theatre, on Longacre Square, where he presented a comic opera that he wrote himself, Santa Maria (1896).

While it was positively received by The New York Times, Hammerstein's personal experience was less than peaceful, with the production being plagued by cost overruns with the cast and scenery.

Since the star soprano Nellie Melba was disenchanted with the Metropolitan, she deserted it for Hammerstein's company, rescuing it financially with a successful season.

Hammerstein became famous during his opera years for putting noticeably large budgets out for his productions, Santa Maria being one example.

[9]Hammerstein's high-quality productions were ultimately too expensive to sustain, and by his fourth opera season, he was going bankrupt.

Hammerstein's son Arthur negotiated a payment of $1.2 million from the Metropolitan in exchange for an agreement not to produce grand opera in the United States for ten years.

On 28 April 1910, Hammerstein officially ended producing opera, opting to solely focus on dramatic productions.

Melvina's parents, Henrietta and Simon Jacobi, were Jews from Bavaria (possibly Grünstadt) who settled in New Orleans, Louisiana and, later, Montgomery, Alabama.

Late in his career, Hammerstein experienced numerous legal setbacks, most of them pertaining to ownership of his opera houses, which he endured stoically.

The payments were given to them by the Equitable Trust Company securely in exchange for stock shares in Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre.

Infamously, he compared paying his daughters to "the eccentricities and actions of the late lamented King Lear.

Arthur continued the family business as an opera and Broadway producer, director, theater owner, and songwriter.