Customer Reviews

And There I Stood with My Piccolo

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This book was just republished, along with Willson's story of how he wrote "The Music Man", "But He Doesn't Know the Territory." I purchased both books as I was preparing a community theatre production of Music Man. I read the Music Man story first, but then read this one and was equally as entertained and impressed with the comfortable and entertaining style of Willson's writing, and the down-to-earth way he describes his early family life in Mason City, Iowa, and his early life in music. He became a flutist and left home to play with John Philip Sousa quite young, and was then the youngest flute player in what became the New York Philharmonic. He carries the reader along to early radio music, to Hollywood and back to New York, and it is a fascinating and amusing look at pioneering communications, Americana, personal stories about small-town-life. It's also interesting to think that this man went on to write one of the great innovative musicals in the history of the genre, The Music Man. The reader can see the seeds of this show forming in the many stories he tells about the characters that inhabit his small town and experiences.

I recently had the opportunity to read the original 1948 edition of Meredith Willson's autobiography and am thrilled to see that this long-difficult-to-find book has now been republished. Willson's upbringing, his career with the famed Sousa Band, his work as an orchestral flutist and piccoloist, and his pioneering work in radio and television are all covered. Willson writes with humor, but always provides a great deal of behind-the-scenes insight into the music industry of first half of the twentieth century. It is easy to see how he was able to make the jump to musical theater in the decade after he wrote this entertaining book. A first-rate autobiography by an important American musician who was much, much more than "just" the author, lyricist, and composer of The Music Man.

Meredith Willson is the one person, so far as I know, who did all of the following for a Broadway show: (1) wrote a literate libretto based on an original story that was not only entertaining but timeless; (2) created love song lyrics that move audiences to tears, as well as comedy song lyrics that bring on laughter despite or because of their intricate language and rhymes; (3) composed immensely enjoyable music that is accessible and masterful. He accomplished all this without for a second becoming pretentious.

This feat is even more astonishing when you consider that, in a life that lasted 82 years, he did this just once, in The Music Man. It was the first of his four musicals and by far his best. If you want to be astonished a little more, consider that at the time of its premiere in 1957 he was 55 years old. How did he come to suddenly produce such a masterwork? What had be been doing up to then?
Luckily for us, Willson's three little autobiographical books, provide many of the answers. The first of them, And There I Stood With My Piccolo (1948) displays his great talent as a writer. In it he tells stories of his Iowa upbringing, giving us some of the ideas and language that would later jell in The Music Man. It's a wonderful book and very highly recommended.

Meredith Willson is your typical "down-home boy makes good" guy. And this is an interesting and informative book on his early life. I bought it because one of my fave movies is "The Music Man" and I wanted to know something about the author. It's well written but you'd think 'ol Mer never did anything evil or exciting. Or maybe 'down home' Iowa boys just had that kind of life. But it was interesting, if you want just the frosting and not the cake. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know about Meredith Willson's early life, his time with Sousa's band and his step into radio. And his "Talking People" idea gives you a glimpse into the opening scene in "The Music Man" and why it was that way.

Ya want a frothy insite into Meredith Willson's early life, this is it. And if you ever make it to Mason City, be sure to see the "76 Trombones" room in "Music Man Square". It actually has '76 trombones attached to the ceiling and a "River City" Main Street, including Harold Hill's music shop.