50 Fun Facts About The Music Man

Which British band recorded Till There Was You, the ballad from The Music Man, on their second album?

The Beatles learned it from Peggy Lee's cover, and Paul McCartney did not find out until much later that it came from a stage show. Willson's widow said his estate earned more from their recording than from the original production.

Which child star of a hit 1960s sitcom played Marian's shy brother Winthrop in the 1962 film The Music Man?

Ron Howard, billed as Ronny, was already playing Opie on The Andy Griffith Show when he was cast as Winthrop. He grew up to direct Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind.

Which future late-night host wrote The Simpsons episode Marge vs. the Monorail as a parody of The Music Man?

Conan O'Brien based the monorail huckster Lyle Lanley on Harold Hill and has called The Music Man his favourite musical. The episode's big song was modelled on Hill's sales-pitch number.

Which now-classic musical, opened nearly three months earlier, lost the 1958 Best Musical Tony to The Music Man?

West Side Story went home without the top prize as The Music Man took five Tonys, including Best Musical, and ran for 1,375 performances on Broadway.

What newly delivered item does Harold Hill claim will corrupt River City's boys in The Music Man?

A pool table had just arrived at the town billiard parlour, which the mayor himself owned. Hill's cure for the supposed moral danger was, conveniently, a boys' band.

Which song from The Music Man shares its melody with Marian's gentle waltz Goodnight, My Someone?

Seventy-Six Trombones is the same tune as the lullaby, played faster and in march time. Near the end of the musical, lines from the two songs are sung in alternation.

Which actress was pregnant while filming her role as Marian the librarian in the 1962 film The Music Man?

Shirley Jones was expecting during the shoot, so the costume designers had to adjust her dresses several times to hide it. She had recently won an Oscar for Elmer Gantry.

Which Australian film star played Harold Hill opposite Sutton Foster in the 2022 Broadway revival of The Music Man?

Hugh Jackman opened the revival in February 2022, weeks after his own positive COVID-19 test had forced it to suspend performances. It earned six Tony nominations and won none.

Harold Hill of The Music Man claims a 1905 degree from a conservatory in which Indiana city, founded only in 1906?

Gary did not exist until 1906, which is how Marian catches Hill in the lie. Instead of exposing him, she hands him the incriminating page from the Indiana State Educational Journal.

Which animated sitcom staged a lavish stadium version of Shipoopi from The Music Man as a touchdown celebration?

Family Guy had Peter Griffin conduct the New England Patriots and the whole stadium through the number in the episode Patriot Games. The scene became one of the most popular videos on YouTube.

Which actor won a Tony as Harold Hill in The Music Man on Broadway and kept the part for the 1962 film?

Robert Preston won the first of his two Tonys as Hill, and twenty years after the film he earned an Oscar nomination for Victor/Victoria.

Which Hollywood star turned down the 1962 film The Music Man, insisting no one could match its Broadway lead?

Cary Grant told studio boss Jack Warner he would not even bother to see the film unless the stage star kept the part.

Which company's wagon delivers the band instruments to an excited River City in a rousing number from The Music Man?

Wells Fargo arrives just as Marian is about to hand the mayor evidence against Harold Hill. Seeing her silent brother burst into song over his new horn changes her mind.

In The Music Man, what makes Marian's young brother Winthrop so reluctant to speak when Harold Hill arrives?

His lisp keeps Winthrop almost silent until his new band instrument arrives and he bursts into song. Willson built the character from a lisping child who sang one verse in an early draft.

Which instrument does shy Winthrop receive when the boys' band order finally reaches River City in The Music Man?

Cornet in hand, the boy who barely spoke suddenly cannot stop talking about his new instrument. Seeing the change in her brother, Marian decides not to expose Harold Hill.

What does Harold Hill call his method of teaching River City's boys to play without practising in The Music Man?

The Think System asks the boys simply to imagine a tune over and over until they can play it. It lets Hill, who is faking his musical expertise, avoid ever giving a real lesson.

Which bickering River City body does Harold Hill turn into a barbershop quartet in The Music Man?

The school board keeps demanding Hill's credentials, and each time he starts the four of them singing in harmony and slips away.

Which title does con man Harold Hill of The Music Man give himself, printed on his suitcase?

Professor is pure invention, like the conservatory diploma Hill boasts about. His rivals on the road know him only as a swindler who takes the money and vanishes.

Where are Charlie Cowell and his fellow travelling salesmen gossiping about Harold Hill as The Music Man opens?

On a train leaving Rock Island, Illinois, the salesmen debate whether modern conveniences are making their job harder. Hill is a fellow passenger and steps off at River City.

Harold Hill's swindle in The Music Man is to take payment for band instruments and what else, then skip town?

Uniforms and instruments are sold on the promise of lessons that never come, since Hill is no musician. In River City he lingers too long and falls for the librarian.

Which actor played Harold Hill opposite Kristin Chenoweth in the 2003 television film of The Music Man?

Matthew Broderick led the remake, first shown on ABC as an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, with Victor Garber as River City's mayor.

Which television comedy star toured America as Harold Hill and brought The Music Man back to New York in 1980?

Dick Van Dyke's tour, staged by the choreographer Michael Kidd, finished with a run of just 21 regular performances at New York City Center.

Which film, winner of seven Oscars that night, beat the 1962 film The Music Man to Best Picture?

Lawrence of Arabia took Best Picture and Best Director for David Lean. The Music Man went home with a single Oscar from its six nominations.

Which comedian played Harold Hill's old sidekick and led the Shipoopi number in the 1962 film The Music Man?

Buddy Hackett was not known as a dancer, so the film's choreographer had to turn him into one for the big number. He later voiced Scuttle the seagull for Disney.

Which Iowa town, the birthplace of Meredith Willson, was the model for the setting of The Music Man?

Mason City hosted the 1962 film's premiere during its annual band festival, with the stars taking part. Willson based many of the characters on people he had observed there.

Whose famous touring band did Meredith Willson join in 1921, decades before he wrote The Music Man?

John Philip Sousa's band kept Willson on the road for three years, after which he moved to the New York Philharmonic.

What does Charlie Cowell, the rival salesman out to expose Harold Hill in The Music Man, sell for a living?

Anvils are the trade of Cowell, who was run out of an Illinois town after Hill conned its people. In the film's finale he drops his sample case on his own toe.

Marian's widowed mother, an early admirer of Harold Hill in The Music Man, is an immigrant from which country?

Ireland is her homeland, and Hill talks up a great Irish trumpeter he calls O'Mendez. The real Rafael Méndez was six years old when the story is set.

What surname do Marian the librarian, her mother and her young brother Winthrop share in The Music Man?

Paroo belongs to the only trained musician in River City, which makes Marian the one person able to expose Harold Hill. Willson modelled her on a librarian he met during World War II.

Which soprano won a Tony as the original Marian when The Music Man opened on Broadway in 1957?

Barbara Cook took the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, one of five the show won, and sang on the cast album that topped the Billboard chart for twelve weeks.

Which English actress played the mayor's haughty wife, Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn, in the 1962 film The Music Man?

Hermione Gingold had already won a Golden Globe for Gigi, and in River City she leads the gossiping ladies' number alongside Mary Wickes.

Which real quartet, international champions in 1950, sang as River City's feuding officials in The Music Man?

The Buffalo Bills created the roles on Broadway in 1957 and were among the few original cast members kept for the 1962 film.

Which Beethoven piece do River City's boys scrape through at the climax of The Music Man, saving Harold Hill?

Minuet in G is played with very limited skill, yet the parents in the audience are enraptured by the sight of their children making music, and Hill is spared.

At which River City courting spot does Marian meet Harold Hill and sing Till There Was You in The Music Man?

The footbridge is a place Marian has never before visited with a man. There she admits she has known of Hill's deception all along and kept quiet.

Which musical, later a Debbie Reynolds film, did Meredith Willson write as his Broadway follow-up to The Music Man?

The Unsinkable Molly Brown ran for 532 Broadway performances from 1960, well short of the 1,375 that The Music Man managed.

Which former accomplice of Harold Hill has gone straight and settled in River City when The Music Man begins?

Marcellus Washburn warns Hill that the town librarian is the one person who could expose him, then helps with the scheme anyway. He also leads the dance number Shipoopi.

Which patter song in The Music Man began as a long speech that Meredith Willson nearly cut from the script?

Ya Got Trouble grew out of dialogue about the dangers facing River City's parents, which Willson noticed already sounded like a lyric. It is the number in which Harold Hill whips the town into a moral panic.

Which new song did Meredith Willson write for the 1962 film The Music Man to replace most of My White Knight?

Being in Love kept only the middle verse of the stage ballad it replaced. Nearly every other song from the Broadway show reached the screen in full.

Which instrument did Meredith Willson, creator of The Music Man, play in the New York Philharmonic under Toscanini?

Flute and piccolo were Willson's instruments, and he was a virtuoso on both. He called his 1948 memoir And There I Stood with My Piccolo.

Which future Hollywood star made his Broadway debut as young Winthrop in the 1980 revival of The Music Man?

Christian Slater was a child actor fresh from the soap opera Ryan's Hope when he took the part, long before he starred in Heathers.

In which Billy Wilder film is Jack Lemmon's character stood up outside a Broadway performance of The Music Man?

The Apartment has Lemmon's office clerk handed two tickets by his boss, only for his date to leave him waiting outside. The film went on to win five Oscars, including Best Picture.

The 1962 film The Music Man won its only Oscar, from six nominations, in which category?

Adapted score, officially Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment, went to composer Ray Heindorf, while the film's Best Picture nomination came to nothing.

Which River City troublemaker does Harold Hill pair off with the mayor's daughter Zaneeta in The Music Man?

Tommy Djilas is first seen pulling a prank at a town gathering, yet Hill persuades him to work as his assistant.

Which actress, the original Alice Kramden of The Honeymooners, played Marian's mother in the 1962 film The Music Man?

Pert Kelton had created the mother on Broadway in 1957, a comeback after Hollywood blacklisting interrupted her career and led to her leaving The Honeymooners.

Which director staged The Music Man on Broadway in 1957 and then produced and directed the 1962 film himself?

Morton DaCosta had done the same double with Auntie Mame, directing the Broadway hit and then its 1958 film.

Which choreographer made her Broadway directing debut in 2000, the year she staged The Music Man with Craig Bierko?

Susan Stroman both directed and choreographed the revival, which ran for 699 performances at the Neil Simon Theatre with Rebecca Luker as Marian.

At which Broadway theatre did The Music Man open in December 1957 and play for nearly three years?

The Majestic housed the show until it moved to The Broadway Theatre to finish its run of 1,375 performances in April 1961.

Which university's marching band joined junior high pupils to fill the parade finale of the 1962 film The Music Man?

USC supplied its marching band, the Spirit of Troy, though junior high students from Southern California made up most of the ranks. The scene took two days to shoot.

Which Hollywood leading man starred as Harold Hill when The Music Man reached London's Adelphi Theatre in 1961?

Van Johnson led the first British production, which began in Bristol before its London transfer and ran for 395 performances at the Adelphi.

Which actor took over as Harold Hill for 18 months when the original star left Broadway's The Music Man in 1959?

Eddie Albert held the role until June 1960, when the original star came back for two weeks until Bert Parks could take over and finish the run.