Sound of reason biography

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Synopsis

Along with Jerome Kern, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers was a pioneer in crafting what became the quintessential American musical, integrating stories from books and plays and creating seamless storytelling from speech to song.

He also innovated the business end of show business, allowing writers to keep control of their creations. Rodgers won every major award possible in his field, and it is safe to say that at any point in time, one of his musicals is being reproduced somewhere in the world, and that someone is humming one of his famous songs.

Early Life

Prolific composer Richard Charles Rodgers was the second son born to physician Dr.

William Rodgers and his wife, Mamie, on June 28, , when they were staying at a friend's summer house near Arverne, in Queens, New York. Not long after, the family moved to Upper Manhattan, coincidentally mere blocks away from Richard's future songwriting partners, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hamm