Trouble in River City

Waverly to Mason City, Iowa. Thursday and Friday, July 8-9, 2021

Yup, I’m one of those Music Man freaks. Hard to explain, my ongoing fascination with a musical released 59 years ago, based on a Broadway play five years earlier, corny, dated, chauvinistic, glorifying a sleazeball con man. Every July my family would gather around the TV to watch it, and we loved to sing along. My mother particularly liked Marian the Librarian. Later, in a show of terminal nerdliness, I memorized the entire lyrics to Ya Got Trouble. Also the opening number, Rock Island, on the train, often cited as one of the first rap songs.

Meredith Willson wrote it as a valentine to Mason City, which he left at 17 to attend Juilliard, under difficult circumstances. He never returned, but always had a soft spot for his hometown. The movie’s premiere there was a gala event that rivaled the premiere of Gone With the Wind, and attracted marching bands from all over the country. It was on my way, and I had to see it, this inspiration for River City.

After averaging 30 miles for the last three days, I finally had good weather, and it was time to make tracks. I hadn’t had a 70 mile day for weeks, and found myself repeatedly stopping for coffee, as the previous cup wore off. Hmm. This is addictive behavior. I’ll need to detox myself in River City. Thunderstorms were predicted all day Friday, so it made sense to go all the way Thursday and find a cheap motel right by Music Man Square. Without the burdens of heat and wind, it was easy to be captivated by the gentle undulations of the Iowa corn fields, and be awed by dozens of huge wind turbines, not spinning today.

Didn’t get in until 10, and the caffeine kept me up until 2:30. The EconoLodge was pretty seedy, but quiet, and the bed was good. I was charmed by the ancient company logo in the shower,

the super cool license plate map on the wall,

the snarky sign on the counter, and the $25 ice bucket!

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The “river” of River City, supposedly the Mississippi in the movie, was actually Willow Creek.

The museum didn’t open until 1 PM, and started with a tour of Willson’s house.

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His family (the unusual spelling of Willson is Welsh) had money from the California gold rush, and his father was an attorney, so they built one of the nicer houses in town, with five bedrooms, and with indoor plumbing, unusual in 1895. Meredith was the youngest child, and at 14 1/2 pounds was the largest baby ever born in Iowa at that time. The father paid no attention to his son, and later abandoned the family to marry another woman, so his childhood was not happy. However, he was an obvious prodigy, and was sent to Juilliard at the age of 17. He was a renowned flute and piccolo player, composed many radio and movie scores, took 8 years to complete The Music Man, also wrote the Unsinkable Molly Brown and It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. JFK asked him to compose the theme for his President’s Council for Physical Fitness, so he gave us Go, You Chicken Fat, Go.

The town reveres his memory, and built Music Man Square behind the house,

with a recreation of the streetscape for the movie (which of course was filmed in Hollywood).

It was all very tastefully done, there was also a nice museum with a “making of” video narrated by Shirley Jones, who was secretly pregnant during the filming (the fetus, the future Patrick Cassidy, gave Robert Preston a good swift kick when they were embracing on the footbridge; this was how Preston found out).

I was enchanted, spent hours there, and watched the rest of the movie on my iPad. It brought back so many happy family memories.

It was pouring all day, I was glad to have an otherwise “down day” at this motel. Also helpful because I was battling caffeine withdrawal, with headache and hypersomnia. Hopefully, I will be “dried out” enough to hit the road tomorrow.

Distance 70 miles, 3,608 total. Time 10 hours with stops. Elevation gain 1,062 feet.

©️ 2021 Scott Luria