Nearly a hundred years ago, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart helped put the "great" in the Great American Songbook, with songs like "My Funny Valentine," "The Lady Is a Tramp," and "Blue Moon."

Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart in 1936. New York World-Telegram/Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/PhotoQuest/Getty

But by the early 1940s, Hart's heavy drinking made him an unreliable partner. So, Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II, and their first production, the landmark musical "Oklahoma!" opened at the St. James Theatre on March 31, 1943.

It was an immediate hit, and that night there was a big party a few doors down at Sardi's, that legendary Broadway watering hole, with its walls hung with the caricatures of famous faces. Lorenz Hart showed up at Sardi's that n

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