Otto Harbach

Otto Harbach, author, librettist and lyricist, was born in Salt Lake City on August 18, 1873. His parents, Adolph Julius Hauerbach and Hansena Olsen, were Danes who had converted to Mormonism and migrated to the United States in 1863 (Harbach changed the spelling of his name in 1917). Encouraged by his family, Harbach headed east to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. There he distinguished himself, becoming first the oratorical champion of the college, and then winning the state championship in 1895 in a contest for which William Jennings Bryan was one of the judges. After graduation Harbach accepted a professorship in English at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. In 1901 he arrived in New York to work on a Ph.D. at Columbia, but a lack of funds soon led him to work as a journalist and later as an advertising copywriter.

During his years in New York, Harbach began to think of Broadway as a career and while office work occupied his days, his free time was spent working with Karl Hoschna, his first collaborator, trying to create and sell a musical. It wasn't until 1908, after the success of Three Twins, for which Hoschna was the composer, that Harbach quit his job and devoted himself to writing. Over the course of his career Harbach had more than 50 works produced on Broadway. His contributions were not only memorable lyrics and credible plots, but also a new style of musical, where the songs were an integral part of the story. Among his collaborators were the composers Karl Hoschna, Rudolf Friml, Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans and Sigmund Romberg, and the lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Caesar, Frank Mandel, and John Murray Anderson. Harbach's most well-known works include The Firefly (1912); Mary (1920); Rose Marie (1924); No, No, Nanette (1925); Desert Song (1926) and Roberta (1933);

Harbach worked with major Broadway figures of his day on a creative basis to enhance the profession as a whole through the American Society of Composer's Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Joining as a charter member in 1914, he worked with ASCAP for more than 40 years as a director, and served as president from 1950-1953. 

Harbach married Ella Smith Dougall in Salt Lake City in 1918. They had two sons, Robert and William. The family also included Ella's children from her previous marriage, Bernard and Virginia Dougall. Otto Harbach died in New York in 1963.