I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn't write anything without hope in it.

The York Theatre Company in New York City is the Administrator of the award. Laird wrote that this was a "show that like 'Show Boat' became a milestone so that later historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theatre would begin to identify eras according to their relationship to 'Oklahoma. Several albums of Hammerstein's musicals were named to the "Songs of the Century" list as compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) the National Endowment for the Arts and Scholastic Corporation:
The Sound of Music — # 36
Oklahoma! — # 66
South Pacific — # 224
The King and I — # 249
Show Boat — # 312


Awards and legacy
Hammerstein won two Oscars for best original song—in 1941 for "The Last Time I Saw Paris" in the film Lady Be Good and in 1945 for "It Might as Well Be Spring" in State Fair.

Hammerstein was the lyricist and playwright in his partnerships; his collaborators wrote the music. : /ˈhæmərstaɪn/; July 12 1895 – August 23 1960) was an American librettist theatrical producer and (usually uncredited) theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song.