Meredith Willson
Meredith Willson | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson May 18, 1902 Mason City, Iowa, U.S. |
Died | June 15, 1984 Santa Monica, California, U.S. | (aged 82)
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1921−1982 |
Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson
Early life
Willson was born in
As a child, Willson played the bass drum for a
Hollywood
Willson's work in films included the score for
During
In 1942, Willson had his own program on NBC. Meredith Willson's Music was a summer replacement for Fibber McGee and Molly.[10] Sparkle Time, which ran on CBS in 1946–47, was Willson's first full-season radio program.[11][12]
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
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,
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.[15]
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
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.[6] The song was a direct reference to The Salvation Army's use of uniforms, flags, and symbols to "love the unloved".[16] In the television special, Willson conducted the New York Staff Band while a Salvation Army officer, Olaf Lundgren, sang the song.[6]
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
Popular songs
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 "
In 1974, Willson offered another marching song, "Whip Inflation Now", to the
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).[25]
Personal life
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.[26]
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.
Willson returned several times to his hometown for the North Iowa Band Festival,
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".[30] Willson is buried at the Elmwood-St. Joseph Municipal Cemetery in Mason City.[31]
Legacy
- On June 23, 1987, Willson posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan.
- In 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring Willson.
- Willson's boyhood home in Mason City, Iowa, is part of "The Music Man Square", which opened in 2002.[32] His widow, Rosemary, was a donor to the square.[33]
- His alma mater, the Juilliard School, dedicated its first and only residence hall to Willson in 2005.[34]
- "Till There Was You" from The Music Man was a favorite of the Beatles, and their recording of it was issued on their second UK and US albums With the Beatles and Meet the Beatles!. They performed the song during their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
- Willson's papers can be found at the Great American Songbook Foundation.[35]
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
- ^ Randel, Don Michael (1996). The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Belknap Press. p. 989.
- ^ ISBN 1-85227-937-0.
- ISBN 978-0-19-755473-9. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
- ^ "Meredith Willson Biographical Timeline". Visitmasoncityiowa.com (archive from February 29, 2012, accessed December 27, 2017).
- ^ a b Meredith Willson Biography (1902–1984) filmreference.com, accessed December 15, 2008
- ^ a b c "I've Got a Secret (12/24/1958) Meredith Willson". YouTube. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
- ^ 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
- ^ "Meredith Willson (1902-1984)". Sfmuseum.org. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
- ^ "Music – As Written". Billboard. April 17, 1948. p. 34. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
- ISBN 9781882810789. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
- ISBN 9781420835250.
- ^ "...and Then I Wrote The Music Man". Castalbums.org, accessed August 10, 2011
- ^ 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
- ISBN 0-19-512599-1, p. 271
- ^ Willson, Meredith. "Banners and Bonnets". indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org. Plymouth Music Co., Inc. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
- Time Magazine, New York
- St. Petersburg, FL
- Modesto, CA
- ^ a b c "The Federal Government Takes on Physical Fitness". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. p. 2. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
- ^ Oates, p. 164
- ^ Yagoda, Ben (June 13, 2014). "Chicken Fat song: Apple iPhone 5s commercial uses Kennedy-era exercise anthem". Slate.com. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
- ISBN 9780471758174– via Google Books.
- ^ Saphir, Ann (September 16, 2014). "A Fed dove does Broadway". Reuters. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ Ihler, Marlo. "About the Playwright: The Music Man | Utah Shakespeare Festival". Utah Shakespeare Festival. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
- ISBN 1882810783.
- ^ Oates, p. 170
- ISBN 0-253-33609-0
- ^ "North Iowa Band Festival". Archived from the original on August 17, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
- ^ Traubner, Richard. "The Music Man," Playbill (1988).
- ^ "Historical Highlights". Masoncity.net. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
- ^ "Home". December 8, 2008. Archived from the original on December 8, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
- ^ She was born March 10, 1921, and died January 25, 2010, in Los Angeles. She was a native of Michigan.
- ^ "Juilliard Second Century Fund Announced", Juilliard.edu, October 2005
- ^ "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
External links
- Official Website
- Meredith Willson at IMDb
- Meredith Willson at the Internet Broadway Database
- NAXOS listing
- MTI Shows biography
- Song Writers Hall of Fame listing
- Des Moines Register bio
- Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom – June 23, 1987
- Univ. of Iowa Special Collections, Papers of W. Earl Hall (dating from 1917–1969)
- Appearance of Willson as guest on Make the Connection show, Sept. 1, 1955?