Early life and education Otto Abels Hauerbach was born on August 18, 1873, in
Salt Lake City, Utah to
Danish immigrant parents. His family's original surname was Christiansen, but shortly after settling in the United States near Salt Lake City in the 1830s, they took Hauerbach, the name of the farm on which they worked, as their new surname. He attended the
Salt Lake Collegiate Institute, transferring to
Knox College, in
Galesburg, Illinois. There he became a friend of poet
Carl Sandburg, joined
Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and graduated in 1895. Knox has since named its 599-seat Harbach Theatre in his honor. Hauerbach started his career teaching English and public speaking at
Whitman College in
Walla Walla,
Washington. They wrote a comic opera together,
The Daughter of the Desert, but no producer was interested in producing the work. Harbach and Hoschna's score was augmented with interpolations, including the popular hit "Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey" by
Albert von Tilzer and Junie McCree. They would collaborate for four more shows until Hoschna died in 1911, aged 35.
Career (1912–1936) Harbach's work with Hoschna had established his reputation as a competent Broadway lyricist and librettist. Producer
Arthur Hammerstein asked Harbach in 1912 to serve as librettist for a new operetta called
The Firefly, to be composed by
Rudolf Friml. Harbach set his libretto in contemporary
Manhattan and
Bermuda, which differed from the typical European setting for operettas. The result was a huge success, with hits such as "Sympathy", "Giannina Mia", and "Love is Like a Firefly". Most of the shows Harbach and Friml wrote ran for more than 200 performances each, which was a successful run for the time period. Harbach also worked on projects with other collaborators during this time. In 1914, he contributed the libretto only to the
Percy Wenrich musical
The Crinoline Girl. He collaborated with composer
Louis Hirsch and scored his biggest success thus far in his career in 1917 with
Going Up. Harbach and Hirsch collaborated on another notable Broadway production in 1920,
Mary. Oscar was an aspiring lyricist and book writer, and Harbach became his mentor. Harbach encouraged Oscar to treat writing for the musical theatre as a "serious art form." Together, they wrote book and lyrics for
Tickle Me (1920),
Jimmie (1920),
Wildflower (1923),
Rose-Marie (1924),
Sunny (1925),
Song of the Flame (1925),
The Wild Rose (1926),
The Desert Song (1926),
Golden Dawn (1927), and
Good Boy (1928). Harbach and Hammerstein's operetta collaboration,
Wildflower (1923), was Harbach's first work with composer
Vincent Youmans. Harbach collaborated again with Youmans, as well as with co-lyricist
Irving Caesar and co-librettist
Frank Mandel on the 1925 hit musical comedy
No, No, Nanette. Harbach first collaborated with Broadway composer
Jerome Kern on
Sunny (1925). They continued to work together on subsequent musicals, including
Criss Cross (1926),
The Cat and the Fiddle (1931), and
Roberta (1933). Broadway historian Thomas S. Hischak states that Harbach's lyrics for Kern were the finest of his career.
The Cat and the Fiddle was especially notable, as Harbach (writing both book and lyrics) and Kern wanted to create a modern operetta set in contemporary Brussels "in which music and story were indispensable to each other." Hits from
The Cat and the Fiddle included "Try to Forget," "
She Didn't Say Yes", "The Breeze Kissed Your Hair", and "The Night Was Made for Love".
Roberta included the hits "
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "
Yesterdays", "You're Devastating", and "The Touch of Your Hand". By the mid-1930s, Harbach's operetta-influenced style was no longer current on Broadway. His final major production was a collaboration with operetta composer
Sigmund Romberg,
Forbidden Melody (1936). In addition to his musical collaborations, Harbach also wrote non-musical farce plays for the Broadway stage. These included ''
Up in Mabel's Room'' (1919), for which he collaborated with new playwright
Wilson Collison from Ohio. ==Impact and legacy==