From Meredith Willson’s stories to those that have become books, plays, radio shows, and movies, the story of Mason City is replete with key real-life characters who have rooted themselves in the twists and turns of the home-written and told stories of River City.
I have always wondered about the roots of Professor Harold Hill, the protagonist of “The Music Man” by Willson.
JW Sayles
Submitted
Come and discover, within the framework of the composite character composing Harold Hill, a little bit of the creation that emerges from the Music Man himself.
“I had nothing to make up. I just remembered Mason City as closely as possible.”
“The Great American Songbook Foundation,” archived in “The Center for the Performing Arts” in Carmel, Indiana, houses the personal and professional documents, photos and books of Meredith Willson.
In the 150 linear feet of paper, contained in a wall of large bank boxes, there is a recording of two interviews that speak volumes.
One by the LA Times and one by Atlantic magazine, in which Meredith Willson reveals a piece of the Harold Hill lineage. “There was a guy I heard about from people in town, who sold the idea of a big university, ‘Harvard of the West’ to be built in Mason City, and endowed by the Sons of Union Veterans. It never happened. “
The last sentence isn’t quite accurate, as Meredith, as well as her sister Dixie Willson, were well known to be frequent plotters of any Mason City tale that could embellish a story told. Memorial University completed one of 40 proposed buildings and graduated 40 students in 10 years of constant budget anemia.