Talk:Meredith Willson

message: I have a copy of Meredith Willson talking about the Music Man, telling the story, and singing every song on it. He is accompanied by someone he calls Renny (SP? Renie, pronounced by him as Re-nee).
I am trying to find out who she is .. I have no idea when this tape was made and can only say it really sounds like a tape of a record he may have used to market the show to the movie industry.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.. and a direct reply to Charlie Davenport, CDavenport@Barbershop.org 
216.145.240.34 18:24, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Meredith WIllsons  

message: In 2005, User:Yid613 added a number of categories: diff
Certainly, Category:American songwriters and Category:Musical theatre composers are appropriate, but he also added
:Category:Jewish Americans
and
:Category:Jewish classical musicians
and at some point someone also added
:Category:Jewish computers and songwriters
Now, just because he didn't look Jewish and whose name doesn't sound Jewish and grew up in a small town in Iowa in the early 1900s and wrote a wonderful piece of cornfed Iowa Americana certainly doesn't mean he wasn't Jewish. But there were no edit comments for the addition, and I'm pretty sure his nostalgic books (And There I Was With My Piccolo) mention attending church... and Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002, says he was a Congregationalist. Dpbsmith (talk) 21:22, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jewish???? 

message: While attending Woodrow Wilson Jr. High in Des Moines I was told that
the school fight song was composed by Meredith Willson.  Any idea if
that could be true?
Wilson Jr. High has since been demolished.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.17.228.184 (talk) 13:48, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  obscure song 

message: Any explanation for his name?  The article says he was born Robert Meredith Reiniger.  I don't find anything to say where Willson came from.  140.147.236.195 (talk) 15:50, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Good catch! Here is a sentence from the Des Moines Register, date unknown: "Willson was the son of John David and Rosalie Reininger Willson and grew up with two siblings at 314 S. Pennsylvania Ave". Here is a line from his biography in the Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, by Philip A. Greasley, p. 536: "Born in Mason City, Iowa, son of John David Willson, a lawyer, and Rosalie (Reiniger) Willson, Meredith Willson played flute..."  Looks like "Reininger" was his mother's maiden name and someone put it in as his last name.  I'll change the article. (I note the slight difference in spelling his mmn, but that does not change my conclusion.) JeanColumbia (talk) 16:39, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

text: Regarding the name Reiniger:  Could Meredith have been born before his parents were married? That would mean his name would have started out Reiniger, and changed automatically with the marriage. (That would be similar to US President Gerald Ford, whose birth name was King.) Could Meredith's mother have been married previously?  I cannot find the date of his parent's wedding. Tom NM (talk) 16:43, 8 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  His name 

message: I believe his second wife was known as "RIni," not "Rina."  The featured album cover corroborates this.  Anyone know otherwise, or otherwise object to this change?  Azaner (talk) 00:18, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Rini" not "Rina" 

message: In fact, speaking as a college professor who teaches this field, when this article is fully written, Willson's amazing career will be a doorway into much midcentury American entertainment-- motion pictures, radio, television, Broadway, the musical-- and it would be easy to write, since he has left us three autobiographies. He intersects so many dominant stars of the era, I'm going to Amazon and buy those books. They should be as illuminating as Amanda Vaill's book on Jerome Robbins. He also personifies the change from the America of small towns and farms, to the America of cities and mass communications. Profhum (talk) 05:49, 14 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Should be "A" class article, in importance. Call for contributions 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 4 external links on Meredith Willson. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110915045629/http://www.playbill.com/playblog/2010/06/a-keen-reprise-of-the-music-man-and-his-mrs-with-brian-darcy-james-and-kelli-ohara/ to http://www.playbill.com/playblog/2010/06/a-keen-reprise-of-the-music-man-and-his-mrs-with-brian-darcy-james-and-kelli-ohara/
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081208082905/http://www.themusicmansquare.org/index.htm to http://www.themusicmansquare.org/index.htm
*Added archive https://archive.is/20130121214027/http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/FAMOUSIOWANS/41221047 to http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F99999999%2FFAMOUSIOWANS%2F41221047
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100509100713/http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/MSC/ToMsc200/MsC193/MsC193.htm to http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/MSC/ToMsc200/MsC193/MsC193.htm/
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thread_title:  External links modified