Kitty Hollywood - The Music Man - 1962

"The Music Man" is another one of those films that goes far far beyond rational emotion for me. Its place in my heart is firm and immovable. And honestly, not all that many people understand. The most common question I get when I talk about this seems to be 'why do you love such a weird film?' The best answer I can give is - don't all weird things deserve love from someone? To me, this film is like that shy girl in the corner of the room who everyone avoids. Then, one day, that girl locks eyes with someone over a joke, and they suddenly realise she is HILARIOUS.

This film, likewise, is HILARIOUS. It mocks the bajiminy out of small-town folk but does it with the utmost love and tenderness. Creator Meredith Willson based 'The Music Man' on his own experiences of growing up in Mason City Iowa, and only someone who knows that kind of life like the back of his hand could simultaneously roast it and love it so splendidly.

Robert Preston was not a dead cert for the role, not by any means. He had been an actor in Hollywood for quite some time, but never a lead actor. He was The Best Friend Who Got Killed kind of an actor in films such as Beau Geste and North-West Mounted Police.

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Beau-Geste-Ray-Milland-Gary-Cooper-Robert-Preston-1939-Posters_i9338486_.htm

So - he went on the stage. He was successful there and when the opportunity arose, he auditioned for The Music Man. He had some musical knowledge behind him, and the added attraction of not being so full of himself as a musical performer that he couldn't be given direction. He got the role.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/461970874250856821/

It was such a huge success at the time. The Korean War was over, the world was changing left right and centre and then this show appeared - this show that celebrates Home Town America and Apple Pie and Chickens That Lay Double-Yoked Eggs. It struck a chord with the theatre going public. You know, West Side Story was nominated for Tony Awards the same year as The Music Man. Two musicals from completely different worlds. The Music Man trounced West Side, and yet West Side is much more famous today.

Many many different companies clamoured for the rights to adapt the musical. At one point in time it looked like there would be a television special of the show, but very fortunately that fell through. Such a tremendous amount of money and time and effort went into the making of this film, and it all paid off, in my opinion. This is one of the last great musicals, before they had to be left alone for a really long time so that the world could work out a way to process them again.

More about the cast. Shirley Jones is one of my favourite musical performers of the period. She is beautiful, both to look at and to listen to. I always get that 'Oh good, it's you and not Vera-Ellen' feeling when I see her. You know, she went to Broadway with the blessings of her parents to try to make it big when she was around 18 years old. She ended up catching the eye of Rodgers and Hammerstein and became the only singer to be put under personal contract by them. She had already starred in 'Oklahoma', 'Carousel' and then very determinedly in 'Elmer Gantry', playing a prostitute and winning a Best Supporting Oscar.

http://backlots.net/2013/08/28/summer-under-the-stars-blogathon-shirley-jones-in-elmer-gantry-1960/

She is sublime in 'The Music Man'. Her work with Pert Kelton, Robert Preston and Ron Howard, in particular, is just a delight to watch. She sings in 'Being in Love' 'but someday, why couldn't there be, just once, somebody being in love with me?' and I say to you right now, who wouldn't be in love with Shirley Jones? She, of couse, went on to steal a nation's heart in 'The Partridge Family'. She married Jack Cassidy  before getting the role, and then later, completely independently, David Cassidy, her stepson, was also given his role on the show. I had no idea that they were real life Stepmother and Stepson. Goes to show you how much I know.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/396668679650675533/

I also love Shirley Jones because she is able to pull off This Hat. I mean - DAMN.

 

And this dress.

I have spent many many hours trying to work out which dress I like best in 'The Music Man' and believe me, there are many to chose from. Logic dictates that I ought to like the most party-fied dress the best, but I still stop at this one. There is just something so awesome about the colours, the pompoms and her eye makeup all going on here. It was all meant to be. She became pregnant whilst making this film, and by the time it got around to these scenes, she was around 6 months pregnant, according to her. During the scene on the footbridge,

apparently she was so pregnant that when she and Robert Preston embraced, he got booted in the stomach by her unborn son. He was rather shocked, previously being unaware of her pregnancy. I have stared and stared at her, and I can't tell she is pregant - apart from a lovely full face. So I say points to you, Dorothy Jeakins costume designer - you did a bangup job.

Mason City Iowa outdid itself celebrating the premiere of this film.

The town had a massive festival. Warner Bros, admittedly, provided them with a cash injection, but there were 100 marching bands, a massive parade, more ice-cream and apple pie and festival business than you can possibly imagine, and Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Morton da Costa and Meredith Willson himself there. I kind of miss this notion. I can't imagine many places doing this these days (with the vaguely rememberd exception of Auckland and the Lord of Rings Trilogy...)

Watch it. Watch it for its wacky supporting cast, for the extra-ordinary amount of toe-tapping tunes that you realise somehow you have known all your life, for the beauty of the dresses and the sheer dynanism of Preston's performance. Just watch it.