Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American flutist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and author.
He is best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 1957 hit Broadway musical The Music Man.
He wrote two other Broadway musicals and composed symphonies and popular songs.
He was twice nominated for Academy Awards for film scores.
Early life
Willson was born in Mason City, Iowa, 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 author Dixie Willson."
Meredith Willson Biographical Timeline".
Visitmasoncityiowa.com (archive from February 29, 2012, accessed December 27, 2017).
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.Meredith Willson Biography (1902–1984) filmreference.com, accessed December 15, 2008
The young Willson became a flute and piccolo virtuoso, and was accomplished enough to become a member of John Philip Sousa's band (1921–1924) (,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 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.
His on-air radio debut came on KFRC in 1928 on Blue Monday Jamboree.
Hollywood
Willson's work in films included composing 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).
thumb|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 Gracie Allen's character.
In 1942, Willson had his own program on NBC.
Meredith Willson's Music was a summer replacement for Fibber McGee and Molly.
Sparkle Time, which ran on CBS in 1946–47, was Willson's first full-season radio program.
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 in later life 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, the Golden State'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 be known as The Music Man.
The California Story spectacular 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 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).
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."...and Then I Wrote The Music Man".
Castalbums.org, accessed August 10, 2011 In 2010, Brian d'Arcy James and Kelli O'Hara played Willson and Rini in an off-Broadway entertainment based on this album.Haun, Harry.
"A Keen Reprise of 'The Music Man' and His Mrs." .
Playbill.com, June 17, 2010, accessed August 10, 2011
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.Suskin, Steven.
Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers (2000, 3rd Edition), Oxford University Press US, , p. 271 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 also includes A Suite for Flute.
Television specials
In 1964, Willson produced three original summer variety specials for CBS under the title Texaco Star Parade.
The first special premiered on June 5, 1964, and starred Willson and his wife Rini.
It featured guest stars Caterina Valente and Sergio Franchi, and featured a production number with Willson leading four military bands composed of 500 California high school band members."
Television: Jun. 5, 1964."
Time Magazine, New York The second special starred Debbie Reynolds singing selections she had introduced in Willson's production The Unsinkable Molly Brown"Debbie Guest on Parade."
(June 8, 1964).
Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, FL Willson and Rini hosted the third special on July 28, and it 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."
Star Parade, Beauty Show Will Be On."
(July 26, 1964).
The Modesto Bee, Modesto, CA Popular songs
Willson wrote a number of well-known songs, such as "You and I", which was a No. 1 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 composed 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!"
He honored The Salvation Army with a musical tribute, "Banners and Bonnets".
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.Oates, p. 164 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, 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.
In 2014, a re-recording of "Chicken Fat" was used in a television commercial for the iPhone 5S.
In 1974, Willson offered another marching song, "Whip Inflation Now", to the Ford Administration, but it was not used.
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).
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.Skipper, John C. Meredith Willson; the Unsinkable Music Man (El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Publishing, 2000), pages 87 and 89. .
Wilson 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.Oates, p. 170Greasley, Philip A. (2001), Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, p. 536, Indiana University Press,  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 record 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, 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.
Willson, like his character Harold Hill, led the "Big Parade" through the town, and the event included special appearances by stars of the film, 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".Traubner, Richard.
"The Music Man," Playbill (1988).
Willson is buried at the Elmwood-St.
Joseph Municipal Cemetery in Mason City.
Legacy
thumb|Meredith Willson's boyhood home
On June 23, 1987, Meredith Willson was presented, posthumously, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan.
In 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring Meredith Willson.
Willson's boyhood home in Mason City, Iowa, is part of "The Music Man Square", which opened in the spring of 2002.
His widow, Rosemary, was a very generous donor to the square.She was born March 10, 1921, and died January 25, 2010, in Los Angeles.
She was a native of Michigan.
His alma mater, the Juilliard School, dedicated its first and only residence hall to Willson in 2005."
Juilliard Second Century Fund Announced", Juilliard.edu, October 2005
"Till There Was You" from The Music Man was a favorite of the Beatles, and their recording of the song 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.
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
References
Skipper, John C. (2000),  Meredith Willson: The Unsinkable Music Man Savas Pub.
Co,
Oates, Bill (2005), Meredith Willson-America's Music Man, Author House,
External links
Official Website
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?
Category:1902 births Category:1984 deaths Category:20th-century American composers Category:20th-century American male musicians Category:20th-century classical composers Category:American classical composers Category:American classical flautists Category:American film score composers Category:American male classical composers Category:American memoirists Category:American musical theatre composers Category:American musical theatre lyricists Category:Broadway composers and lyricists Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Distinguished Service to Music Medal recipients Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:American male film score composers Category:Musicians from Iowa Category:People from Mandeville Canyon, Los Angeles Category:People from Mason City, Iowa Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:RCA Victor artists Category:
Songwriters from Iowa Category:Tony Award winners Category:American male songwriters
