Meredith Willson was an American accomplished performer, composer, songwriter, conductor, musical director, radio performer, and playwright. His most memorable appearance in Mason City occurred in June 1962 at the premiere of the movie version of The Music Man, his hit Broadway musical that had been inspired by fond memories of the community, reconfigured as “River City” on stage.
Background
Meredith was born on May 18, 1902, in Mason City, Iowa, United States; the son of John David and Rosalie (Reiniger) Willson. He retained a strong affection for his hometown throughout his life. He returned to visit it many times and frequently talked about it on the popular radio musical programs that he directed during the 1930s and 1940s.
Willson’s parents instilled high expectations and a strong work ethic in their children. The eldest, Lucille (“Dixie”), became a noted author and screenwriter, and the second, Cedric, had a highly successful career as a civil engineer. Meredith, who learned how to play the piano from his mother, was early attracted to a musical career. His outsize and constantly sunny personality impressed people as much as his musical talent, contributing mightily to his success.
Meredith repeatedly spoke about his family upbringing and school days in Mason City with great enthusiasm and affection, almost never noting any dark or negative elements, is odd since his mother and father were highly incompatible, polar opposites in temperament and personality, and constantly at odds with each other. Rosalie (Reiniger) Willson, the most important influence on young Meredith, was strongly religious and musically inclined and was devoted to her children, her church, and her community. John Willson, a successful lawyer and also a talented musician, was more interested in baseball and games than in church activities. Somewhat aloof, he especially shut out his younger son, who believed his father had never wanted him to be born. Meredith never succeeded in winning the father’s love that he so craved.
Education
Willson got out of town the first chance he had, leaving Mason City after graduating from high school in 1919 to go to New York, where he enrolled at the Institute of Musical Art, later renamed the Juilliard School, in New York City, New York, United States.
In 1920 Meredith obtained a position as principal flutist in John Philip Sousa’s band. After three years of touring with Sousa, he spent five years with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini and other conductors. His career began to branch out as he filled in as guest conductor for the American Philharmonic Orchestra in Seattle in 1929. Later he served stints with symphony orchestras in San Francisco and Los Angeles and composed symphonies that premiered in 1936 and 1940. The 1930s found him mostly serving as musical director for a variety of NBC radio programs on the West Coast. He also composed movie scores for The Great Dictator (1940) and The Little Foxes (1941). During World War II, his growing reputation elevated him to the head of the music division of the Armed Forces Radio Service, keeping him in Hollywood for the duration of the war.
By the late 1940s, Willson had risen to the top of an industry that was in swift decline. Several of his songs had become hits, including “You and I,” “Two in Love,” and “May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You.” The last served as the theme song for NBC’s last major radio variety program, The Big Show, which Willson directed from 1950 to 1952. Sometime during that period, after urging from friends such as Frank Loesser and Cy Feuer, Willson started writing a musical play about his hometown. Hitting Broadway in December 1957, after more than five years of work and dozens of rewrites, The Music Man played 1,375 performances, becoming one of the most popular musicals of all time. The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960) and Here’s Love (1963) followed, with less success.
In addition to memorializing his hometown in The Music Man, Willson wrote lyrical ballads about his home state of Iowa, fight songs for his high school team as well as for the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, and booster songs for President John F. Kennedy’s physical fitness campaign and President Gerald Ford’s anti-inflation effort. He also wrote three autobiographical volumes and a novel. He died in Santa Monica, California, in 1984.
Quotations:
"You pile up enough tomorrows and you'll be left with nothing but a bunch of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering".
"Never let the demands of tomorrow interfere with the pleasures and excitement of today".
"Regarding The Music Man, Jay Nordlinger wrote: The Music Man (for which Willson also wrote the lyrics) is an astonishing creation. It came in a spurt of brilliance. It is shot through with originality, verve, and why not go all the way?-genius. People love it, can't get enough of it, can't stop performing it-and they are not wrong. For closing in on a half-century now, The Music Man has been performed continually, in every American city, town, and village, and in other parts of the world as well, not excluding Peking".
"Speaking of River City in The Music Man & his home town, Mason City, Iowa: I didn't have to make up anything. I simply remembered Mason City as closely as I could".
"Where is the good in goodbye?"
"Most playwrights go wrong on the fifth word. When you start a play and you type 'Act one, scene one,' your writing is every bit as good as Arthur Miller or Eugene O'Neill or anyone. It's that fifth word where amateurs start to go wrong".
"A man can't turn tail and run just because a little personal risk is involved. What did Shakespeare say? "Cowards die a thousand deaths, the brave man... only 500"?"
"I haven't seen Iowa people get so excited since the night Frank Gotch and Strangler Lewis lay on the mat for three and a half hours without moving a muscle".
"There were birds in the sky, but I never saw them winging, No I never saw them at all, Until there was you".
"Regarding the current Broadway revival of The Music Man, Jay Nordlinger wrote: There will always be those who sniff that the show is "feel good"-but, oh, it feels good to feel good. And the main reason The Music Man feels so good is that it is good-a great American musical".
From the explanatory notes that Willson wrote to accompany his symphony, A Symphony of San Francisco: "Generally speaking, the first movement is intended to convey pioneer courage, loyalty, strength of purpose and freedom." The trumpet motive in the closing Allegro "is a call of defiance to the very elements themselves that had the temerity to dispute the spiritual strength and courage of the golden city of the West'.
Membership
Meredith was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, American Guild Authors and Composers, American Federation television and Radio Artists.
Interests
Piano
Connections
After divorcing his first wife in 1947, Meredith married Ralina Zarova, an actress and singer, the following year. Two years after her death of cancer in 1966, he married his former secretary, Rosemary Sullivan. He had no children.
Father:
John David Reynolds Willson
Mother:
Rosalie Eliza Reiniger Willson
Spouse:
Rosemary Patricia Sullivan Willson
ex-spouse:
Elizabeth Wilson Van Bomel
ex-spouse:
Rini Zarova Willson
Sister:
Dixie Lucile Willson
Brother:
John Cedric Rex Willson
References
The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa
Iowa has been blessed with citizens of strong character who have made invaluable contributions to the state and to the nation. In the 1930s alone, such towering figures as John L. Lewis, Henry A. Wallace, and Herbert Hoover hugely influenced the nation’s affairs.