WATCH NOW: Meredith Willson, Mason City s Music Man globegazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from globegazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Des Moines Register
Editor s note: This story by Register reporter Tom Longden is part of the Register s Famous Iowans project.
Meredith Willson is Iowa s best-known Music Man and wrote the Tony-winning Broadway musical that is a perennial favorite. The Music Man opened Dec. 19, 1957, to rave reviews, and Willson said he felt like he was starting a new career at age 55. I m trying to equate sentimentalism and theatricalism, he explained in describing his melodic story about an Iowa town called River City in 1912.
He based the production on memories of his hometown of Mason City.
Willson was the son of John David and Rosalie Reininger Willson and grew up with two siblings at 314 S. Pennsylvania Ave. He started taking piano lessons at 7 before switching to the flute.
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