Talk:Meredith Willson

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Meredith WIllsons[edit]

I have a copy of Meredith Willson talking about the Music Man, telling the story, and singing every song on it. He is accompanied by someone he calls Renny (SP? Renie, pronounced by him as Re-nee).

I am trying to find out who she is .. I have no idea when this tape was made and can only say it really sounds like a tape of a record he may have used to market the show to the movie industry.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.. and a direct reply to Charlie Davenport, CDavenport@Barbershop.org

216.145.240.34 18:24, 8 February 2007 (UTC) Charlie Davenport[reply]

  • Oh, that would be his wife, Rini. A diminutive of some Russian name, as she was Russian. As a tribute to her, he used her name in passing in The Music Man, when Harold Hill refers to "Madame Rini." Dpbsmith (talk) 21:24, 28 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've added to Meredith Willson's credit "For I for S Forever" as a fight song written for Iowa State University to go along with the statement that he wrote the fight song for the University of Iowa.Nathanpitsch 06:27, 1 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Jewish????[edit]

In 2005, User:Yid613 added a number of categories: diff

Certainly, Category:American songwriters and Category:Musical theatre composers are appropriate, but he also added

Category:Jewish Americans

and

Category:Jewish classical musicians

and at some point someone also added

Category:Jewish computers and songwriters

Now, just because he didn't look Jewish and whose name doesn't sound Jewish and grew up in a small town in Iowa in the early 1900s and wrote a wonderful piece of cornfed Iowa Americana certainly doesn't mean he wasn't Jewish. But there were no edit comments for the addition, and I'm pretty sure his nostalgic books (And There I Was With My Piccolo) mention attending church... and Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002, says he was a Congregationalist. Dpbsmith (talk) 21:22, 28 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

All geniuses are honorary Jews. :> Seriously, what a life, what a career! There's a production of The Music Man playing in my town this moment, and there's probably always a production of The Music Man playing somewhere, at every moment. He's the gentile Jerome Robbins. Profhum (talk) 05:41, 14 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ummmm...you're kidding right? Or are you actually a superior-race kind of person? Because i can think of some famous blokes who were like that also... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Susan.dicey.k (talk • contribs) 21:57, 1 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

obscure song[edit]

While attending Woodrow Wilson Jr. High in Des Moines I was told that the school fight song was composed by Meredith Willson. Any idea if that could be true?

Wilson Jr. High has since been demolished. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.17.228.184 (talk) 13:48, 15 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

His name[edit]

Any explanation for his name? The article says he was born Robert Meredith Reiniger. I don't find anything to say where Willson came from. 140.147.236.195 (talk) 15:50, 4 March 2009 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza[reply]

Good catch! Here is a sentence from the Des Moines Register, date unknown: "Willson was the son of John David and Rosalie Reininger Willson and grew up with two siblings at 314 S. Pennsylvania Ave". Here is a line from his biography in the Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, by Philip A. Greasley, p. 536: "Born in Mason City, Iowa, son of John David Willson, a lawyer, and Rosalie (Reiniger) Willson, Meredith Willson played flute..." Looks like "Reininger" was his mother's maiden name and someone put it in as his last name. I'll change the article. (I note the slight difference in spelling his mmn, but that does not change my conclusion.) JeanColumbia (talk) 16:39, 4 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Regarding the name Reiniger: Could Meredith have been born before his parents were married? That would mean his name would have started out Reiniger, and changed automatically with the marriage. (That would be similar to US President Gerald Ford, whose birth name was King.) Could Meredith's mother have been married previously? I cannot find the date of his parent's wedding. Tom NM (talk) 16:43, 8 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Rini" not "Rina"[edit]

I believe his second wife was known as "RIni," not "Rina." The featured album cover corroborates this. Anyone know otherwise, or otherwise object to this change? Azaner (talk) 00:18, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Should be "A" class article, in importance. Call for contributions[edit]

In fact, speaking as a college professor who teaches this field, when this article is fully written, Willson's amazing career will be a doorway into much midcentury American entertainment-- motion pictures, radio, television, Broadway, the musical-- and it would be easy to write, since he has left us three autobiographies. He intersects so many dominant stars of the era, I'm going to Amazon and buy those books. They should be as illuminating as Amanda Vaill's book on Jerome Robbins. He also personifies the change from the America of small towns and farms, to the America of cities and mass communications. Profhum (talk) 05:49, 14 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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