Meredith Willson

Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson[1] (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American flutist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and writer. He is perhaps best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 1957 hit Broadway musical The Music Man[2] and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (1951). Willson wrote three other Broadway musicals and composed symphonies and popular songs. He was twice nominated for Academy Awards for film scores.

This article is about the composer and musician. For other people with a similar name, see Meredith Wilson.

Meredith Willson
Meredith Willson 1961
Willson in 1961
Born
Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson

(1902-05-18)May 18, 1902
Mason City, Iowa, U.S.
DiedJune 15, 1984(1984-06-15) (aged 82)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Flutist
  • composer
  • conductor
  • playwright
  • bandleader
  • author
Years active1921−1982

Early life

Willson was born in Mason City, Iowa,[2] to Rosalie Reiniger Willson and John David Willson. He had a brother two years his senior, John Cedrick, and a sister 12 years his senior, children's writer Dixie Willson.[3] Willson attended Frank Damrosch's Institute of Musical Art (which later became the Juilliard School) in New York City. He married his high-school sweetheart, Elizabeth "Peggy" Wilson, on August 29, 1920; they were married for 26 years.[4]

As a child, Willson played the bass drum for a Salvation Army band.[5] He became a flute and piccolo virtuoso accomplished enough to become a member of John Philip Sousa's band (1921–1924)[6] and later the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini (1924–1929). He then moved to San Francisco, California, as the concert director for radio station KFRC, and then as a musical director for the NBC radio network in Hollywood.[7] His on-air radio debut came on KFRC in 1928 on Blue Monday Jamboree.[8]

Hollywood

Willson's work in films included the score for Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score), and arranging music for the score of William Wyler's The Little Foxes (1941) (Academy Award nomination for Best Music Score of a Dramatic Picture).

Willson in 1937

During World War II, Willson worked for the United States' Armed Forces Radio Service. His work with the AFRS teamed him with George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Bill Goodwin. He worked with all three as the bandleader, and a regular character, on the Burns and Allen radio program. He played a shy man always trying to get advice on women. His character was ditzy as well, basically a male version of Allen's.

In 1942, Willson had his own program on NBC. Meredith Willson's Music was a summer replacement for Fibber McGee and Molly.[9] Sparkle Time, which ran on CBS in 1946–47, was Willson's first full-season radio program.[10][11]

Returning to network radio after WWII, Willson created the Talking People, a choral group that spoke in unison while delivering radio commercials. In 1950 he became the musical director for The Big Show, a 90-minute comedy-variety program hosted by actress Tallulah Bankhead and featuring some of the world's best-known entertainers. Willson became part of one of the show's very few running gags, beginning replies to Bankhead's comments or questions with "well, sir, Miss Bankhead". He wrote the song "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" for the show. Bankhead spoke the lyrics over the music at the end of each show. He also worked on Jack Benny's radio program, and hosted his own program in 1949. For a few years in the early 1950s, Willson was a regular panelist on the Goodson-Todman game show The Name's the Same; he recalled later that he did the show for the steady Goodson-Todman salary, which he was saving toward his Broadway musical project.

In 1950, Willson served as musical director for The California Story, California's centennial production at the Hollywood Bowl. Working on this production, Willson met writer Franklin Lacey, who proved instrumental in developing the storyline for a musical Willson had been working on, soon to become The Music Man. The California Story was followed by two more state centennial collaborations with stage director Vladimir Rosing: The Oregon Story in 1959 and The Kansas Story in 1961.

Broadway

Willson's most famous work, The Music Man, premiered on Broadway in 1957, and was adapted twice for film (in 1962 and 2003). He called it "an Iowan's attempt to pay tribute to his home state". It took Willson eight years and 30 revisions to complete the musical, for which he wrote more than 40 songs. The show, starring Robert Preston and Barbara Cook, was a resounding success, running on Broadway for 1,375 performances over three and a half years. The cast recording won the first Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album (Broadway or TV). The show subsequently had a national tour and international productions. It was produced at New York City Center in 1980 with Dick Van Dyke in the titular role and Meg Bussert as Marian. The first Broadway revival opened in 2000 at the Neil Simon Theatre with Craig Bierko as Harold Hill and Rebecca Luker as Marian. The production ran for 699 performances. A second Broadway revival premiered on February 10, 2022, at the Winter Garden Theatre, starring Hugh Jackman as Harold and Sutton Foster as Marian. In 1959, Willson and his second wife Ralina "Rini" Zarova recorded an album, ... and Then I Wrote The Music Man, in which they review the history of, and sing songs from, the show.[12] In 2010, Brian d'Arcy James and Kelli O'Hara played Willson and Rini in an off-Broadway entertainment based on that album.[13]

Willson's second musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, ran on Broadway for 532 performances from 1960 to 1962 and was made into a 1964 motion picture starring Debbie Reynolds. His third Broadway musical was an adaptation of the film Miracle on 34th Street, called Here's Love. Some theater buffs recall it as a quick failure, but it actually enjoyed an eight-month run on Broadway in 1963-64 (334 performances). His fourth, last, and least successful musical was 1491, which told the story of Columbus's attempts to finance his famous voyage. It was produced by the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera in 1969, but not on Broadway.[14]

Other works

Classical music

Willson's Symphony No. 1 in F minor: A Symphony of San Francisco and his Symphony No. 2 in E minor: Missions of California were recorded in 1999 by William T. Stromberg conducting the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. Other symphonic works include the O.O. McIntyre Suite, Symphonic Variations on an American Theme and Anthem, the symphonic poem Jervis Bay, and Ask Not, which incorporates quotations from John F. Kennedy's inaugural address. In tribute to the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA), Willson composed In Idyllwild for orchestra, choir, vocal solo and Alphorn. Willson's chamber music includes A Suite for Flute.

Television specials

In 1958, Willson appeared on the televised panel game show I've Got a Secret. His secret was that he "wrote the new Salvation Army theme song." Willson wrote the song, "With Banners and Bonnets They Come", especially for The Salvation Army.[5] The song was a direct reference to The Salvation Army's use of uniforms, flags, and symbols to "love the unloved".[15] In the television special, Willson conducted the New York Staff Band while a Salvation Army officer, Olaf Lundgren, sang the song.[5]

In 1964, Willson produced three original summer variety specials for CBS under the title Texaco Star Parade. The first premiered on June 5, 1964, and starred Willson and his wife Rini. It featured guest stars Caterina Valente and Sergio Franchi, and a production number with Willson leading four military bands composed of 500 California high school band members.[16] The second special starred Debbie Reynolds singing songs she sang in the 1964 movie version of Willson's Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown.[17] On July 28, Willson and Rini hosted the third special, which featured a Willson production number with 1,000 Marine Corps volunteers from Camp Pendelton. Guest stars were Vikki Carr, Jack Jones, Frederick Hemke, and Joe and Eddie.[18]

Willson wrote a number of well-known songs, such as "You and I", a No. 1 hit for Glenn Miller in 1941 on the Billboard charts. It was also recorded by Bing Crosby, and by Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra on vocals.

Three songs from The Music Man have become American standards: "Seventy-Six Trombones", "Gary, Indiana", and "Till There Was You", originally titled "Till I Met You" (1950).

Other popular songs by Willson include "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (published as "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas"), "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You", and "I See the Moon". He wrote the University of Iowa's fight song, "Iowa Fight Song", as well as Iowa State University's "For I for S Forever". He also wrote the fight song for his hometown high school "Mason City, Go!"

An oddity in Willson's body of work is "Chicken Fat", written in 1962. In school gymnasiums across the nation, this was the theme song for President John F. Kennedy's youth fitness program.[19][20] It was time to get the country's youth into shape, and Willson's song had youngsters moving through basic exercises at a frenetic pace: push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, torso twists, running in place, pogo springs, and plenty of marching. With an energetic lead vocal by Robert Preston,[19] orchestral marching band, and full chorus, it was recorded during sessions for the Music Man film. Two versions of the song exist: a three-minute, radio-friendly length, and a longer, six-minute version for use in the gymnasium.[19] In 2014, a re-recording of "Chicken Fat" was used in a television commercial for the iPhone 5S.[21]

In 1974, Willson offered another marching song, "Whip Inflation Now", to the Ford Administration.[22][23]

Autobiography

Willson wrote three memoirs: And There I Stood With My Piccolo (1948), Eggs I Have Laid (1955), and But He Doesn't Know the Territory (1959).[24]

Personal life
Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6411 Hollywood Boulevard

Willson was married three times. He was divorced by his first wife, Elizabeth, as reported in a news dispatch of March 5, 1947. They apparently had no contact after the divorce, and in his three memoirs Elizabeth is never mentioned, although he surprised her by sending her roses on August 20, 1970, which would have been their 50th wedding anniversary.[25]

Willson married Ralina "Rini" Zarova, a Russian opera singer, on March 13, 1948. She died on December 6, 1966. Willson married Rosemary Sullivan in February 1968.[4][26][27] For years he lived in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, California; he was fondly remembered by friends and neighbors as a warm and gregarious host who loved nothing more than to play the piano and sing at parties. He often gave guests autographed copies of his album Meredith Willson Sings Songs from The Music Man. In 1982, he and Rosemary appeared in the audience of The Lawrence Welk Show.

Willson returned several times to his hometown for the North Iowa Band Festival,[28] an annual event celebrating music with a special emphasis on marching bands. Mason City was the site of the 1962 premiere of the motion picture The Music Man, hosted by Iowa Governor Norman Erbe, which was timed to coincide with the festival. Like his character Harold Hill, Willson led the "Big Parade" through the town, and the event included special appearances by the film's stars Shirley Jones and Robert Preston. The Master of Ceremonies, Mason City Globe-Gazette editor W. Earl Hall, was a statewide radio personality and friend of many decades.

Willson was a member of the National Honorary Band Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi.

Willson died of heart failure in 1984 at the age of 82. His funeral in Mason City included mourners dressed in Music Man costumes and a barbershop quartet that sang "Lida Rose".[29] Willson is buried at the Elmwood-St. Joseph Municipal Cemetery in Mason City.[30]

Legacy
Meredith Willson's boyhood home
Statue of Willson at Music Man Square

Bibliography
  • Willson, Meredith. And There I Stood with My Piccolo. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press, 1948, 2009.
  • Willson, Meredith. Eggs I Have Laid, Holt, 1955.
  • Willson, Meredith. But He Doesn't Know the Territory. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press 1959, 2009. Chronicles the making of The Music Man.

Notes
  1. Randel, Don Michael (1996). The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Belknap Press. p. 989.
  2. Colin Larkin, ed. (2002). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music (Third ed.). Virgin Books. pp. 500/1. ISBN 1-85227-937-0.
  3. "Meredith Willson Biographical Timeline". Visitmasoncityiowa.com (archive from February 29, 2012, accessed December 27, 2017).
  4. Meredith Willson Biography (1902–1984) filmreference.com, accessed December 15, 2008
  5. "I've Got a Secret (12/24/1958) Meredith Willson". YouTube. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  6. The Springfield, Mo., Leader February 3, 1924, p.9, listed Willson as a solo flute performer for a Sousa Band concert at Springfield's Shrine Mosque in February 1924
  7. "Meredith Willson (1902-1984)". Sfmuseum.org. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  8. "Music – As Written". Billboard. April 17, 1948. p. 34. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  9. "On The Air". The Circleville Herald. June 19, 1942. p. 5. Retrieved April 6, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  10. Skipper, John C. (2000). Meredith Willson: The Unsinkable Music Man. Da Capo Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 9781882810789. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  11. Oates, Bill (2005). Meredith Willson – America's Music Man: The Whole Broadway-Symphonic-Radio-Motion Picture Story. AuthorHouse. p. 85. ISBN 9781420835250.
  12. "...and Then I Wrote The Music Man". Castalbums.org, accessed August 10, 2011
  13. Haun, Harry. "A Keen Reprise of 'The Music Man' and His Mrs." Archived September 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Playbill.com, June 17, 2010, accessed August 10, 2011
  14. Suskin, Steven. Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers (2000, 3rd Edition), Oxford University Press US, ISBN 0-19-512599-1, p. 271
  15. Willson, Meredith. "Banners and Bonnets". indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org. Plymouth Music Co., Inc. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  16. "Television: Jun. 5, 1964." Time Magazine, New York
  17. "Debbie Guest on Parade." (June 8, 1964). Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, FL
  18. "Star Parade, Beauty Show Will Be On." (July 26, 1964). The Modesto Bee, Modesto, CA
  19. "The Federal Government Takes on Physical Fitness". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. p. 2. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
  20. Oates, p. 164
  21. Yagoda, Ben (June 13, 2014). "Chicken Fat song: Apple iPhone 5s commercial uses Kennedy-era exercise anthem". Slate.com. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
  22. Bridges, Linda; Coyne, John R. Jr. (April 13, 2007). Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780471758174 – via Google Books.
  23. Saphir, Ann (September 16, 2014). "A Fed dove does Broadway". Reuters. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
  24. Ihler, Marlo. "About the Playwright: The Music Man | Utah Shakespeare Festival". Utah Shakespeare Festival. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  25. Skipper, John C. Meredith Willson; the Unsinkable Music Man (El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Publishing, 2000), pp. 87, 89. ISBN 1882810783.
  26. Oates, p. 170
  27. Greasley, Philip A. (2001), Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, p. 536, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-33609-0
  28. "North Iowa Band Festival". Archived from the original on August 17, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  29. Traubner, Richard. "The Music Man," Playbill (1988).
  30. "Historical Highlights". Masoncity.net. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  31. "Home". December 8, 2008. Archived from the original on December 8, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  32. She was born March 10, 1921, and died January 25, 2010, in Los Angeles. She was a native of Michigan.
  33. "Juilliard Second Century Fund Announced", Juilliard.edu, October 2005
  34. "Meredith Willson Papers – GASF Archives". Songbook.accesstomemory.org. Retrieved August 31, 2018.

References
  • Skipper, John C. (2000), Meredith Willson: The Unsinkable Music Man Savas Pub. Co, ISBN 1-882810-78-3
  • Oates, Bill (2005), Meredith Willson-America's Music Man, Author House, ISBN 978-1-4208-3525-0
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