Son of SDMBMG - The Music Man

Meredith Willson’s The Music Man is the story of a con man who, as Harold Hill puts it near the end of the movie, “got his foot caught in the door” when his seduction of Marion, the town librarian, turns into true romance. This is one of my (many) favorite musicals, with a lively cast of characters and a plot which is uncomplicated by any attempt to be serious, yet still touches many common themes.

The Music Man was originally written for the stage, but financing difficulties led to it being sold to CBS in 1955 as a one-time special telecast, with Ray Bolger to play Harold Hill. The deal fell through, however, and in 1957 it finally opened on Broadway. The lead was turned down by Dan Dailey, Phil Harris, Danny Kaye, and Gene Kelly before being offered to Robert Preston. It was his first musical role, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the part now. In fact, when Warner Brothers bought the rights to the movie, they wanted to cast Frank Sinatra or Cary Grant, but director Morton DeCosta and Meredith Willson both insisted, “No Preston, no movie.” (It was also said that when Cary Grant was asked to play the part, he not only turned it down, but added that if they didn’t cast Preston he wouldn’t even watch it.)

As was common, many of the Broadway cast were also in the movie. Shirley Jones was one of the exceptions, and I think she was an excellent choice. Her and Preston work well together, both physically and vocally. I personally also like the way she plays the scene with the anvil salesman, alternately seducing and fending him off - to the tune of the tango her mother is playing on the gramophone. Three months into production, she found out she was pregnant; when she confided this to DeCosta he asked that she not tell anyone, and they worked around it with costuming. However, it soon became an open secret. During filming of the kiss on the bridge, Robert Preston suddenly pulled back and said, “What was that!” when the baby kicked him. (Years later, when Patrick Cassidy introduced himself to Preston, Preston commented, “Yes, I know. We’ve already met.”)

Robert Preston has always been one of my favorite actors. He charms his way through the show with the ease and slickness of a born con man. Not particularly known for his singing voice, he still does a very credible job with the songs, particularly with “Trouble” which he rattles off with a rapid-fire delivery. And when I was re-watching it yesterday, I got a little misty during the scene when he admitted to Winthrop that he was a liar and a low-down cheat, then said, “I always think there’s a band, kid.”

There was some discussion in the Guys and Dolls thread about the theme of redemption, which of course also applies to this movie, with its story of a con man who is converted by the love of a woman. But I suspect the Harold Hill (or Gregory, as Marcellus calls him - one wonders if he ever told Marion his real name) would never be truly reformed. Of course, in the world of Hollywood musicals, such a thought is inconceivable, as we are to assume that they settle down to a blissful life together. But maybe, just maybe, Harold and Marion find that blissful life on the road, selling boys’ bands.

I love the musical since I was in it during my college days. Great songs and story, and a general loving nostalgia for the period (as opposed to, say, Grease, which really is contemptuous of the period it’s portraying).

BTW, the Cary Grant story is from My Fair Lady, not The Music Man.

As for Hill – note that he really isn’t much of a con man. Everyone who paid him money got what they paid for: instruments and band uniforms. Just not a band teacher.

Willson’s score is terrific and he uses some very interesting concepts, like “Rock Island,” which imitates the sound of a train through speech. It’s also one of the few musicals where one person wrote the book, music, and lyrics (Frank Loesser also did it for Most Happy Fella) and one of the few not adapted from another source.

The movie works so well because Decosta directed not only the film, but also the Broadway show (very unusual – Bob Fosse did it for Sweet Charity, but few others). He knew what worked and had the sense to keep it. It’s probably the most faithful adaptation of a Broadway musical to film.

Preston had a very limited vocal range, but was a good enough actor to work his way through his songs. OTOH, “Goodnight My Someone” requires a pretty good range from the singer. And though he made the role his own, Craig Bierko did a fine job in the revival.

One little note: this is the only musical with a song covered by the Beatles: 'Til There Was You.

Ah, I had conflated the Cary Grant stories in my mind…should have looked it up.

I think this is also one of the few Hollywood musicals based on a Broadway musical that used all (and only) the same songs. “Shipoopi” was moved to a later point in the story, but that’s about the only change.

My father once made a pretty good off-the-cuff argument that this was the most “American” musical, even beating Oklahoma! for theme and setting, and for the score being built around a faux-Sousa march instead of a love song.

Shirley Jones now seems such an obvious choice for Marian, but she actually hadn’t done a musical since the now-forgotten Never Steal Anything Small and had won an Oscar for her performance as Lulu in Elmer Gantry.

Comparing the 1962 version against the 2003 TV remake shows just how extraordinary Robert Preston’s performance was. While Kristin Chenowith’s Marian could hold her own with Jones, Matthew Broderick’s Harold pales in comparison to Preston.

One of my first evenings out as an almost grown-up was to take a female classmate to a lecture by Meredith Wilson at the university in Iowa City. We walked fifteen blocks from her house to the student union. That was in the fall of 1958 and The Music Man was a hot item.

Wilson was a charming lecturer but about all I really remember is that he had been a piccolo player with one of the John Phillip Sousa bands (referred to in the 76 Trombones song) and the Goodnight My Someone and another song in the play were the same tune with different tempos.

All the locals get a huge kick out of the Iowa Stubborn song (we can stand touching noses for a week at a time and never see eye to eye). A lovely and charming play and a great favorite for local theater groups.

I’ve often thought of Robert Preston in this role as one of the original rap stars. Listen to “We Got Trouble” and tell me he’s not rapping.

Also, Buddy Hacket’s character is named Marcellus, and so is Ving Rhames’ character in Pulp Fiction. Somehow, that’s weird.

Awesome show. One of my favorites.

The first of two once-in-a-lifetime roles for Robert Preston – the other, of course, being Toddy in Victor/Victoria (another film that would have worked well with our “men reevaluating their lives” theme).

I think I’m too bitter and cynical for this movie to make it onto my top 10 list, but it sure is a lot of fun. I love the opening on the train – nice setup for the story.

Before I say anything else, I must address this comment.
Shirley Jone’s song of hopeless romance, “Being in Love” only kept the bridge from Barbara Cook’s “My White Knight”, and while they could, if you played around with the timing a bit, be sung together, they are very different songs. While Barbara sings mostly of her dream fella, Shirley laments her failed crushes over the years.
I’ll be back after I read the rest of the thread

“pales” barely describes it. 1st - the part is written as a baritone, and Broderick is most definitely a tenor. 2nd - Harold has to be almost macho in appearance in order to carry off the con - he must be suave, and he must appear to be trustworthy. Broderick is none of these things.

I believe you’re thinking of the Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You combo earlier in the plot than 76/Goodnight. That sort of musicality - singing two different songs together and it coming out melodic instead of cacaphonic - is called a quodlibet. (off topic - the Jewish version of Rock Of Ages works with Deck the Halls - try it sometime)

I adored Preston in V/V.

Ok - me and The Music Man are like this ::locks two fingers together:: I have seen the movie a gazillion times, have seen several stage productions, from grade school (which I wasn’t in) to summer camp (which I was) to community theatre, and on Broadway starring Craig Bierko. But I had a hard time watching him because he managed to vocally reproduce Preston in almost every way. So my brain couldn’t reconcile the sound that belonged to a slightly beefy man coming out of the slender figure on stage.

I first saw the movie - or rather was taken to it by my parents - at a drive in movie theatre in Florida in the early 60s. Mom said I fell asleep during “Marion the Librarian” and didn’t wake up until the finale. I love to sing a long with it, and at one time was able to sing both Marion’s and Mama’s (complete with Brogue) parts in “Piano Lesson” (I had better breath control then)

Hadn’t she been in the movie versions of Oklahoma! and Carousel long before doing Music Man? She was the ingenue of choice for musicals at that time.

Buddy Hacket - meh - Stubby Kaye would have been better.

Shipoopi is the one song I don’t really like. It’s catchy and the choroegraphy is lively, but the song is meaningless and does not advance the plot. Neither, for that matter, does “Sadder But Wiser Girl”

As for whether Harold’s name is really Greg, or if it’s really something else and he had changed it just before meeting Marcellus - He’s a con man - of course he changes his moniker depending on the scam.

On the whole - this is definitely in my top ten movie musicals (the order of which changes depending on my mood).
eta - Willson had sais at one time that the plot was loosely based on a con artist who came to his home town when he was a little older than Winthrop. But it did not have the same happy ending.

One of my finest memories is a warm summer evening. My mom and I took the bus downtown and ate at King Fong’s Chinese restaurant (my first Chinese food) and saw the MUsic Man at the Orpheum Theater. After the movie, we took the bus back to our neighborhood and got ice cream cones to eat on the walk back from the bus stop (my first pistachio ice cream)

It was forty seven years ago. I was eight years old. I remember this night like it was yesterday. Mom passed away nine years ago. I still think of her every time I watch the movie, and maybe it is the wine, but sometimes the screen blurs…

If I’m recalling correctly, after Marcellus calls Harold “Greg”, Hill says “I’m using my real name now” or words to that effect.

BTW, does anyone else think that the good people of River City thought that little Winthrop was actually Marian’s son, not Mrs. Paroo’s?

No, he does not. He says some more like “Shhh. It’s Hill now - Professor Hill” and shows Marcellus his travel case. And they get into a discussion of the last time he called himself “Professor” and what changes he’s made to the scam.

I don’t think they did. He’s about six? Marian is supposed to be barely into her twenties - (even though she looks more like 30 to me) Papa Paroo probably passed away when Winthrop was 18 months or so - hence the “not understanding” why his father is gone. They would have seen Mama pregnant with Winthrop and they would have known. They may have thought Marian was fooling around with “Old Miser” Madison, and that she is far too progressive in her taste in literature, but they would have shunned her, not merely gossipped about her, if she had gotten pregnant with Madison’s baby out of wedlock

Great honk! It’s a great musical. I much prefer it to Oklahoma, which IMO, takes itself waaaay too seriously most of the time. Ye gods!

You watch your phrasology, missy!

Never been a big fan of this show, but I haven’t seen it for years. My store doesn’t have it on disc, but I’ve ordered a copy. Hopefully it’ll be in in time for me to rewatch and reconsider it for this thread.

Yes it’s rapping. “The Simpsons” did a great parody of this musical with the monorail episode. When I watched it in Colombia with Spanish voice overs, it was hard to explain the joke.

Oh - thanks.

I thought the Paroos were relatively new to town and thus that Winthrop was born before they got there, but as the earlier correction shows, it’s been too long since I’ve seen the show or the movie, so I’m probably wrong about that too.

Love the show anyway…

As Marian tells Harold at one point, Papa Paroo was best friends with “Uncle Maddy” as Marian calls “Old Miser” Madison

eta - forgive me if I sounded anything other than explanatory (er, uh, you know what I mean) but I wanted to clarify

friend anyrose,

Ronnie Howard and I are the same age. He was eight when he played Winthrop

ah, Okay so the age gap between him and Marian was even smaller than I’d thought