From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Robert Meredith Willson {18 May 1902 - 15 June 1984) was an American composer and playwright, best known as the writer of The Music Man.
Born in Mason City, Iowa, Willson attended Damrosch Institute (later The Juilliard School) in New York City. A flute an piccolo player, Willson was a member of John Philip Sousa's band (1921 - 1923) and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (1924 - 1929. Willson then moved to San Francisco, California as the concert director for KFRC, and then as a musical director for the NBC radio network in Hollywood. As a film composer, Willson was twice nominated for an Academy Award. During World War II, he worked for the United States' Armed Forces Radio Service. Willson's most most famous work, The Music Man, premiered on Broadway in 1957 and was adapted twice for film (in 1962 and 2003); he referred to the play as "an Iowan's attempte to pay tribute to his home state."
