The Wisdom of Oscar Hammerstein - WSJ

The Wisdom of Oscar Hammerstein - WSJ

Peggy Noonan on a long-ago interview with Oscar Hammerstein.

'It's a small thing, a half-hour television interview from 60 years ago, but it struck me this week as a kind of master class in how to be a public figure and how to talk about what matters. In our polarized moment it functions as both template and example.

'In March 1958, the fierce young journalist Mike Wallace... decided to bore in on Oscar Hammerstein II.... Hammerstein was the fabled lyricist and librettist who with composer Richard Rodgers put jewels in the crown of American musical theater--"Oklahoma," "South Pacific," "The King and I," and "Carousel," whose latest Broadway revival is about to open. He was a hero of American culture and a famous success in a nation that worshiped success....

'"I think it's fine that there is a Miss [Ayn] Rand who comes out stoutly for the conservative. I think it's fine that we have all kinds of thinkers in the world. . . . I admit that the majority of writers in this country are on the liberal side."

'But he added, of Rand: "We need her to hold us back, and I think she needs us to pull her forward."...

'Wallace: "The public does rarely get anything but a liberal viewpoint from Hollywood or from television, from Broadway," and the charge can be "safely made that there is a certain intolerance of conservative ideas among liberals."

'Hammerstein, again undefensive: "I think so too."

'What's to be done about it? Nothing, said Hammerstein: "Just be yourself, that's all." If the public likes Miss Rand, "there will be a Miss Rand trend." Let the problem work its way out in a free country....

'Moral modesty and candor are good to see.

'In our public figures, especially our political ones, they are hard to find. I offer Hammerstein's old words as an example--a prompter--of what they sound like.'