A lady known as Paris, Romantic and Charming Has left her old companions and faded from view Lonely men with lonely eyes are seeking her in vain Her streets are where they were, but there's no sign of her She has left the Seine The last time I saw Paris, her heart was warm and gay, I heard the laughter of her heart in every street café The last time I saw Paris, her trees were dressed for spring, And lovers walked beneath those trees and birds found songs to sing. I dodged the same old taxicabs that I had dodged for years. The chorus of their squeaky horns was music to my ears. The last time I saw Paris, her heart was warm and gay, No matter how they change her, I'll remember her that way. I'll think of happy hours, and people who shared them Old women, selling flowers, in markets at dawn Children who applauded, Punch and Judy in the park And those who danced at night and kept our Paris bright 'til the town went dark.

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.