February 22, 2021 Another milestone for Barbara Schock as we posted her 350th Sandburg's Hometown the first week of February 2021, exactly eight years ago, February 4, 2013, when it all began!
Thank you, Barbara Schock, for sharing your extraordinary gift of these vignettes of Galesburg & 19th century American history.
Otto Harbach By Barbara Schock
The theater in the Fine Arts Center at Knox College is named
for Otto A. Harbach. He graduated in 1895 and went on to be a well-known
librettist and songwriter. Otto Harbach was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, August 14,
1873. His parents had emigrated from Denmark in 1863. The family was musically
inclined and Otto learned to play his father’s violin. One of his teachers, who was a graduate of Knox College,
encouraged Otto to enroll in the school but he had little money. To pay for his
train fare to Galesburg, he accompanied a shipment of sheep to Omaha, Nebraska.
He later said he had to throw away his suit because it was “too sheepish.”
During his college years, he cared for cows, horses and pigs belonging to
faculty members, to earn his room and board. During his college course, Harbach had great success as an
orator. He considered a career in law, but didn’t have the financial
wherewithall to continue his studies. He taught oratory and English at Whitman
College in the state of Washington, while also earning a Master’s degree from
Knox College. In 1901 Harbach moved to New York City to attend Columbia
University. He had decided to become a college English professor. Due to some eye problems because of the large amounts of
reading required he changed course and began a career in advertising. He also
tried newspaper reporting. During this time he met Karl Hoschna and they began
collaborating on songs for vaudeville acts. This was so successful that Harbach
decided to make it his full-time work. In the next thirty years, beginning in 1907, Harbach wrote
about forty plays and collaborated with Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert, Sigmund
Romberg, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II and others. He also wrote about a
thousand songs. Carl Sandburg and Otto Harbach didn’t meet until 1939. The
Knox Club of New York was having a party at Delmonico’s. Harbach had written a
one-act play titled “The Baffling Eyes of Youth.” It contained a scene in which
ghosts of Newton Bateman and Abraham Lincoln had a conversation about Sandburg’s
biography of Lincoln. Apparently, it stirred much sentiment within the Sandburg
breast. Otto Harbach was a strong supporter of Knox College and over
the years contributed a considerable amount of money to the school. The
Register-Mail reported at the time of his death that he had given $81,000
(nearly three-quarters of a million dollar in today’s money). Harbock was an
honorary trustee and often returned to Galesburg for commencement and other
functions. He last visited the campus in 1958 to participate in the
Lincoln-Douglas Debate Centennial. Otto Harbach died January 24, 1963, in his home in Manhattan
at the age of 89. Some of the songs Harbach wrote may still be in the farther
reaches of your memory: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “Cuddle Up a Little Closer,”
“Girl of My Dreams,” “The Night Was Made for Love” and “Indian Love Call.”
Other Links Otto Harbach (Songwriter's Hall of Fame)
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