Pre-Lot Text
Property from the Collection of
RICHARD AND DOROTHY RODGERS
Born in 1909, Dorothy Feiner led a glamorous and privileged life- summers in Europe, art studies in New York and Paris. After attending The Horace Mann School and Wellesley College, she married Richard Rodgers in 1930, sharing a happy, rewarding life with him until his death in 1979. Dorothy Rodgers enjoyed creative and varied careers as a successful interior designer, business entrepreneur, author and inventor. The memorable tunes composed by her husband Richard Rodgers are amont the enduring pleasures of 20th-Century American culture. Over six decades, in a remarkable series of Broadway hits, he wrote the songs that generations of Americans treasure, his first collaboration, of 23 years' duration, was with lyricist Lorenz Hart. Following Larry Hart's death, Rodgers wrote an unmatched string of hits in collaboration with lyricist Oscar Hamerstein II- international triumphs such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I, Me and Juliet, Flower Drum Song and The Sound of Music. The Rodgers and Hammerstein era, golden years for the Broadway musical, lasted from 1943 until Hammerstein's death in 1960. The great, timeless songs from these marvelous shows are beloved by millions. The Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership was the most successful in the history of the American musical and launched a new and lasting genre, the musical play.