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"The Music Man" is a charming story about two men named Meredith Wilson - both drawn to a lovely lady named Marian, who would have been 94 today.
But there's something that many people don't know about the character Marian: she was based on someone from Utah.
The Utah Shakespeare Festival has produced "The Music Man" for its 50th anniversary season. Local actor Brian Vaughn brings "music man" Harold Hill to life on the stage, and only learned of the connection recently.
"Right when we started rehearsals, somebody said, ‘You know, the inspiration for Marian the Librarian is from Utah' and I said, 'You've got to be kidding me, I had no idea,'" he said.
How the connection came to be is a bit complicated.
Meredith Wilson wrote the book, music and lyrics for the 1957 play and 1962 film, both based on his boyhood in Mason City, Iowa.
The real Marian was born in Utah and educated at BYU. She married a different Meredith Wilson, who became president of two universities in Oregon and Minnesota. But many people mixed up the composer Meredith Wilson with the academic Meredith Wilson.
Betsy Bennion, Granddaughter of Marian Wilson "It started because they would start getting each other's mail or they would get mail from friends of theirs," said the real Marian's granddaughter, Betsy Bennion.
"My grandfather would get a letter saying, 'I'd no idea you'd taken up musicals on the side. So, they became aware of each other and decided they should meet."
The couples became so close that the composer Wilson invited the academic Wilsons to visit him and his wife in Southern California.
"He was just teasing with my grandmother [Marian] and said, 'you know, Marian [the character] is named after you.' I think she was a little suspicious because Marian rhymes with librarian, but she was honored that he would tell her that."
In the play, librarian Marian Paroo quickly becomes "music man's" love interest, and is the subject of many lines in the play, like the number "Marian the Librarian":
"I love you madly, madly madam librarian, Marian..."
Betsy and her sisters, one of whom is also named Marian, fondly remember how much their grandparents loved each other. Their (academic) grandfather teared up every time he watched "The Music Man".
"You know, I did hear grandfather, once in awhile, say 'Marian the Librarian,'" Bennion said.
She also said there may have been other 'Marians' who inspired Meredith Wilson. There is also a Marian Seeley of Provo who apparently met Wilson during World War II, when she was a medical records librarian.
Either way, it's all about the Utah connection.
