Early in his career, Romberg was employed by the Shubert brothers to write music for their musicals and revues , including several vehicles for Al Jolson. For the Shuberts, he also adapted several European operettas for American audiences, including the successful Maytime and Blossom Time His three hit operettas of the mids, named above, are in the style of Viennese operetta, but his other works from that time mostly employ the style of American musicals of their eras.
He also composed film scores. Influenced by his father, Romberg learned to play the violin at six, and piano at eight years of age. He enrolled at Osijek gymnasium in , where he was a member of the high school orchestra. He eventually founded his own orchestra and published a few songs, which, despite their limited success, brought him to the attention of the Shubert brothers , who in hired him to write music for their Broadway theatre shows.
That year he wrote his first successful Broadway revue , The Whirl of the World. He then contributed songs to several American musical adaptations of Viennese operettas, including the successful The Blue Paradise Even more successful was the musical Maytime , in Both involved love across generations and included nostalgic waltzes, along with more modern American dance music. Romberg wrote another Jolson vehicle in , Bombo. Romberg also wrote a number of film scores and adapted his own work for film.
These performances are now prized by record collectors. Naxos Records digitally remastered the recordings and issued them in the U. They cannot be released in the U. Much of Romberg's music, including extensive excerpts from his operettas, was released on LP during the s and s, especially by Columbia, Capitol, and RCA Victor.
There have also been periodic revivals of the operettas. Romberg married twice. Little is known about his first wife, Eugenia, who appears on a federal census form as being Austrian.
