By William “Skip” Deegans
This 1959 photo shows Hillsboro native and author, Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, with American lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Buck set up Welcome House International, an adoption agency for Asian children (later known as Pearl Buck International). Buck and Hammerstein had organized a benefit preview performance of the musical play, Gypsy, staring Ethel Merman at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia. Little did Buck’s charity’s benefactors know that the play they were about to see would become one of the most successful Broadway plays ever.
While Hammerstein was not involved in Gypsy, he did convince a reluctant Stephen Sondheim to become the composer. Since its run on Broadway in 1959, Gypsy has had four revivals, but arguably Ethel Merman’s performance has yet to be matched. Hammerstein died in 1959, and Buck died in 1973. Her Doylestown home and her birthplace home in Hillsboro are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Each home is open to the public.
Sources: The Daily Intelligencer (Doylestown, PA), University of Pennsylvania.
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