Meredith Willson Hollywood Did Wilson write music for any movies? His work in films included composing the score for Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score), What other movies did he compose for? and arranging music for the score of William Wyler's The Little Foxes (1941) (Academy Award nomination for Best Music Score of a Dramatic Picture). Did he win any awards? ) (Academy Award nomination for Best Music Score of a Dramatic Picture). What other movies or songs did he win awards for? Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score),
Did he have a work or personal relationship with anyone in Hollywood?
Did  Meredith Willson have a work or personal relationship with anyone in Hollywood?
His work in films included composing the score for Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score), and arranging music for the score of William Wyler's The Little Foxes (1941) (Academy Award nomination for Best Music Score of a Dramatic Picture).  During World War II, he worked for the United States' Armed Forces Radio Service. His work with the AFRS teamed him with George Burns, Gracie Allen and Bill Goodwin. He would work with all three as the bandleader, and a regular character, on the Burns and Allen radio program. He played a shy man, always trying to get advice on women. His character was ditsy as well, basically a male version of Gracie Allen's character.  In 1942, Willson had his own program on NBC. Meredith Willson's Music was a summer replacement for Fibber McGee and Molly. Sparkle Time, which ran on CBS in 1946-47, was Willson's first full-season radio program.  Returning to network radio after WWII, he created the Talking People, a choral group that spoke in unison while delivering radio commercials. He also became the musical director for The Big Show, a prestigious comedy-variety program hosted by actress Tallulah Bankhead and featuring some of the world's most respected entertainers. Willson himself became part of one of the show's very few running gags, beginning replies to Bankhead's comments or questions with "well, sir, Miss Bankhead . . ." Willson wrote the song "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" for the show. Bankhead spoke the lyrics over the music at the end of each show. He also worked on Jack Benny's radio program, and hosted his own program in 1949. For a few years in the early 1950s, Willson was a regular panelist on the Goodson-Todman game show The Name's the Same.  In 1950 Willson served as Musical Director for The California Story, the Golden State's centennial production at the Hollywood Bowl. Through working on this production, Willson met writer Franklin Lacey who proved instrumental in developing the story line for a musical Willson had been working on, soon to be known as The Music Man. The California Story spectacular was followed by two more state centennial collaborations with stage director Vladimir Rosing: The Oregon Story in 1959 and The Kansas Story in 1961. CANNOTANSWER
In 1950 Willson served as Musical Director for The California Story, the Golden State's centennial production at the Hollywood Bowl.
Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American flutist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and author. He is best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 1957 hit Broadway musical The Music Man and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (1951). Willson wrote two other Broadway musicals and composed symphonies and popular songs. He was twice nominated for Academy Awards for film scores.

Early life
Willson was born in Mason City, Iowa, to Rosalie Reiniger Willson and John David Willson. He had a brother two years his senior, John Cedrick, and a sister 12 years his senior, children's author Dixie Willson. Willson attended Frank Damrosch's Institute of Musical Art (which later became the Juilliard School) in New York City. He married his high-school sweetheart, Elizabeth "Peggy" Wilson, on August 29, 1920; they were married for 26 years.

The young Willson became a flute and piccolo virtuoso, and was accomplished enough to become a member of John Philip Sousa's band (1921–1924) and later the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini (1924–1929). He then moved to San Francisco, California, as the concert director for radio station KFRC, and then as a musical director for the NBC radio network in Hollywood. His on-air radio debut came on KFRC in 1928 on Blue Monday Jamboree.

Hollywood
Willson's work in films included the score for Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score), and arranging music for the score of William Wyler's The Little Foxes (1941) (Academy Award nomination for Best Music Score of a Dramatic Picture).

During World War II, Willson worked for the United States' Armed Forces Radio Service. His work with the AFRS teamed him with George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Bill Goodwin. He worked with all three as the bandleader, and a regular character, on the Burns and Allen radio program. He played a shy man always trying to get advice on women. His character was ditzy as well, basically a male version of Allen's.

In 1942, Willson had his own program on NBC. Meredith Willson's Music was a summer replacement for Fibber McGee and Molly. Sparkle Time, which ran on CBS in 1946–47, was Willson's first full-season radio program.

Returning to network radio after WWII, Willson created the Talking People, a choral group that spoke in unison while delivering radio commercials. In 1950 he became the musical director for The Big Show, a 90-minute comedy-variety program hosted by actress Tallulah Bankhead and featuring some of the world's best-known entertainers. Willson became part of one of the show's very few running gags, beginning replies to Bankhead's comments or questions with "well, sir, Miss Bankhead". He wrote the song "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" for the show. Bankhead spoke the lyrics over the music at the end of each show. He also worked on Jack Benny's radio program, and hosted his own program in 1949. For a few years in the early 1950s, Willson was a regular panelist on the Goodson-Todman game show The Name's the Same; he recalled later that he did the show for the steady Goodson-Todman salary, which he was saving toward his Broadway musical project.

In 1950, Willson served as musical director for The California Story, California's centennial production at the Hollywood Bowl. Working on this production, Willson met writer Franklin Lacey, who proved instrumental in developing the storyline for a musical Willson had been working on, soon to become The Music Man. The California Story was followed by two more state centennial collaborations with stage director Vladimir Rosing: The Oregon Story in 1959 and The Kansas Story in 1961.

Broadway
Willson's most famous work, The Music Man, premiered on Broadway in 1957, and was adapted twice for film (in 1962 and 2003). He called it "an Iowan's attempt to pay tribute to his home state". It took Willson eight years and 30 revisions to complete the musical, for which he wrote more than 40 songs. The show was a resounding success, running on Broadway for 1,375 performances over three and a half years. The cast recording won the first Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album (Broadway or TV). In 1959, Willson and his second wife Ralina "Rini" Zarova recorded an album, ... and Then I Wrote The Music Man, in which they review the history of, and sing songs from, the show. In 2010, Brian d'Arcy James and Kelli O'Hara played Willson and Rini in an off-Broadway entertainment based on this album.

Willson's second musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, ran on Broadway for 532 performances from 1960 to 1962 and was made into a 1964 motion picture starring Debbie Reynolds. His third Broadway musical was an adaptation of the film Miracle on 34th Street, called Here's Love. Some theater buffs recall it as a quick failure, but it actually enjoyed an eight-month run on Broadway in 1963-64 (334 performances). His fourth, last, and least successful musical was 1491, which told the story of Columbus's attempts to finance his famous voyage. It was produced by the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera in 1969, but not on Broadway.

Other works

Classical music
Willson's Symphony No. 1 in F minor: A Symphony of San Francisco and his Symphony No. 2 in E minor: Missions of California were recorded in 1999 by William T. Stromberg conducting the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. Other symphonic works include the O.O. McIntyre Suite, Symphonic Variations on an American Theme and Anthem, the symphonic poem Jervis Bay, and Ask Not, which incorporates quotations from John F. Kennedy's inaugural address. In tribute to the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA), Willson composed In Idyllwild for orchestra, choir, vocal solo and Alphorn. Willson's chamber music includes A Suite for Flute.

Television specials
In 1964, Willson produced three original summer variety specials for CBS under the title Texaco Star Parade. The first premiered on June 5, 1964, and starred Willson and his wife Rini. It featured guest stars Caterina Valente and Sergio Franchi, and a production number with Willson leading four military bands composed of 500 California high school band members. The second special starred Debbie Reynolds singing selections she had introduced in Willson's production The Unsinkable Molly Brown. On July 28, Willson and Rini hosted the third special, which featured a Willson production number with 1,000 Marine Corps volunteers from Camp Pendelton. Guest stars were Vikki Carr, Jack Jones, Frederick Hemke, and Joe and Eddie.

Popular songs
Willson wrote a number of well-known songs, such as "You and I", a No. 1 hit for Glenn Miller in 1941 on the Billboard charts. It was also recorded by Bing Crosby, and by Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra on vocals.

Three songs from The Music Man have become American standards: "Seventy-Six Trombones", "Gary, Indiana", and "Till There Was You", originally titled "Till I Met You" (1950).

Other popular songs by Willson include "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (published as "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas"), "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You", and "I See the Moon". He wrote the University of Iowa's fight song, "Iowa Fight Song", as well as Iowa State University's "For I for S Forever". He also wrote the fight song for his hometown high school "Mason City, Go!" He honored The Salvation Army with a musical tribute, "Banners and Bonnets".

An oddity in Willson's body of work is "Chicken Fat", written in 1962. In school gymnasiums across the nation, this was the theme song for President John F. Kennedy's youth fitness program. It was time to get the country's youth into shape, and Willson's song had youngsters moving through basic exercises at a frenetic pace: push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, torso twists, running in place, pogo springs, and plenty of marching. With an energetic lead vocal by Robert Preston, orchestral marching band, and full chorus, it was recorded during sessions for the Music Man film. Two versions of the song exist: a three-minute, radio-friendly length, and a longer, six-minute version for use in the gymnasium. In 2014, a re-recording of "Chicken Fat" was used in a television commercial for the iPhone 5S.

In 1974, Willson offered another marching song, "Whip Inflation Now", to the Ford Administration, but it was not used.

Autobiography
Willson wrote three memoirs: And There I Stood With My Piccolo (1948), Eggs I Have Laid (1955), and But He Doesn't Know the Territory (1959).

Personal life

Willson was married three times. He was divorced by his first wife, Elizabeth, as reported in a news dispatch of March 5, 1947. They apparently had no contact after the divorce, and in his three memoirs Elizabeth is never mentioned, although he surprised her by sending her roses on August 20, 1970, which would have been their 50th wedding anniversary.

Wilson married Ralina "Rini" Zarova, a Russian opera singer, on March 13, 1948. She died on December 6, 1966. Willson married Rosemary Sullivan in February 1968. For years he lived in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, California; he was fondly remembered by friends and neighbors as a warm and gregarious host who loved nothing more than to play the piano and sing at parties. He often gave guests autographed copies of his album Meredith Willson Sings Songs from The Music Man. In 1982, he and Rosemary appeared in the audience of The Lawrence Welk Show.

Willson returned several times to his hometown for the North Iowa Band Festival, an annual event celebrating music with a special emphasis on marching bands. Mason City was the site of the 1962 premiere of the motion picture The Music Man, hosted by Iowa Governor Norman Erbe, which was timed to coincide with the festival. Like his character Harold Hill, Willson led the "Big Parade" through the town, and the event included special appearances by the film's stars Shirley Jones and Robert Preston. The Master of Ceremonies, Mason City Globe-Gazette editor W. Earl Hall, was a statewide radio personality and friend of many decades.

Willson was a member of the National Honorary Band Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi.

Willson died of heart failure in 1984 at the age of 82. His funeral in Mason City included mourners dressed in Music Man costumes and a barbershop quartet that sang "Lida Rose". Willson is buried at the Elmwood-St. Joseph Municipal Cemetery in Mason City.

Legacy

On June 23, 1987, Willson posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan.
In 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring Willson.
Willson's boyhood home in Mason City, Iowa, is part of "The Music Man Square", which opened in 2002. His widow, Rosemary, was a donor to the square.
 His alma mater, the Juilliard School, dedicated its first and only residence hall to Willson in 2005.
"Till There Was You" from The Music Man was a favorite of the Beatles, and their recording of it was issued on their second UK and US albums With the Beatles and Meet the Beatles!. They performed the song during their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
 Willson's papers can be found at the Great American Songbook Foundation.

Bibliography
Willson, Meredith. And There I Stood with My Piccolo. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press, 1948, 2009.
Willson, Meredith. Eggs I Have Laid, Holt, 1955.
Willson, Meredith. But He Doesn't Know the Territory. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press 1959, 2009. Chronicles the making of The Music Man.

Notes

References
 Skipper, John C. (2000),  Meredith Willson: The Unsinkable Music Man Savas Pub. Co, 
 Oates, Bill (2005), Meredith Willson-America's Music Man, Author House,

External links

Official Website

NAXOS listing
MTI Shows biography
Song Writers Hall of Fame listing
Des Moines Register bio
Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom – June 23, 1987
Univ. of Iowa Special Collections, Papers of W. Earl Hall (dating from 1917–1969)
 Appearance of Willson as guest on Make the Connection show, Sept. 1, 1955?

1902 births
1984 deaths
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century classical composers
American classical composers
American classical flautists
American film score composers
American male classical composers
American memoirists
American musical theatre composers
American musical theatre lyricists
Broadway composers and lyricists
Capitol Records artists
Distinguished Service to Music Medal recipients
Grammy Award winners
Juilliard School alumni
American male film score composers
Musicians from Iowa
People from Mandeville Canyon, Los Angeles
People from Mason City, Iowa
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
RCA Victor artists
Songwriters from Iowa
Tony Award winners
American male songwriters
Charlotte Kirk (born Charlotte Sophie Dyke; 16 June 1992) is a British actress.

Career
Kirk attended the Italia Conti School of Acting, and participated with The Miskin Theatre and Jigsaw Performing Arts. Kirk appeared in commercials for Nintendo Wii and Orange Telecom. Kirk has worked with photographer Patrick Demarchelier.

In 2013, Kirk was cast in the film Nicole and O.J. by director Joshua Newton, who described Kirk as his former girlfriend. In 2018, she co-wrote and acted in The Reckoning, directed by Neil Marshall, to whom she became engaged.

Personal life
Kirk lives with director Neil Marshall in Los Angeles. As a young girl, she was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.

She has been involved in multiple affairs with television and film studio executives. In March 2019, Kirk was tied to the resignation of Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara.

...Kirk reportedly began contacting Tsujihara, Packer, and Ratner to pressure them to land her roles in upcoming movies.  Kirk's efforts didn't result in anything substantial, but she did land small roles in the Warner Bros. production "Ocean's 8" and the New Line Cinema production "How to Be Single."  When Tsujihara's actions came to light in 2019, he had little choice but to resign... Kirk also reportedly pressured Millennium Films CEO Avi Lerner to land roles in his productions, including the 2019 remake of "Hellboy" directed by (Neil) Marshall.—Variety

I confirm that I was in a romantic relationship with James Packer in the summer of 2013 and that I was treated with respect by Mr. Packer, and I have no issues with him or claims against him. I further confirm that when the relationship ended I sought the advice of Mr. Tsujihara whom I had been introduced to by Mr. Packer. Mr. Tsujihara never promised me anything. I also confirm that Brett Ratner helped me out of friendship to assist me in getting auditions and trying to help me find an agent, and I have no issues with him or claims against him. I deny that there was any legal settlement or agreement entered into between myself and Brett Ratner in 2016.—Charlotte Kirk, (Vanity Fair)

In 2012, Kirk, then 20 years old, became involved with then-NBCUniversal vice chairman Ronald Meyer, then in his late sixties, meeting at a Hollywood Foreign Press Association event in London. By the end of 2012, she had been in a sexual relationship with Australian billionaire James Packer.

Kirk had an extramarital affair with then-Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara in 2013 and 2014. Tsujihara resigned as CEO of Warner Bros. in March 2019.

In August 2020, she was tied to the resignation of Meyer. Meyer disclosed that he paid Kirk a settlement of $2 million.

In September 2020, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Tsujihara and Meyer may have colluded to cover up the real nature of their relationships with Charlotte Kirk.

On 29 October 2020, Vanity Fair magazine published an article, 'Sex and Texts, Secrets and Lies: How the Charlotte Kirk Saga Blew Up Hollywood' by Mark Seal. The article details a complex story of Kirk's involvement at various levels with several Hollywood executives and producers.

Filmography

Film

References

External links 
 

1992 births
21st-century British women writers
21st-century British screenwriters
Actresses from Kent
British film producers
English screenwriters
People with Asperger syndrome
Living people The phrase "Anyone for tennis?" (also given as "Tennis, anyone?") is an English language idiom primarily of the 20th century. The phrase is used to invoke a stereotype of shallow, leisured, upper-class toffs (tennis was, particularly before the widespread advent of public courts in the later 20th century, seen as a posh game for the rich, with courts popular at country clubs and private estates). It's a stereotypical entrance or exit line given to a young man of this class in a superficial drawing-room comedy.

A close paraphase of the saying, was used in George Bernard Shaw's 1914 drawing-room comedy Misalliance, in which Johnny Tarleton asks "Anybody on for a game of tennis?" (An 1891 story in the satirical magazine Punch put a generally similar notion in the mouth of a similar type of character: "I’m going to see if there’s anyone on the tennis-court, and get a game if I can. Ta-ta!".)

"Anyone for tennis?" is particularly associated with the early career of Hollywood star Humphrey Bogart, and he is cited as the first person to use the phrase on stage. At the start of his career, in the 1920s and early 1930s, Bogart appeared in many Broadway plays in what Jeffrey Meyers characterized as "charming and fatuous roles – in [one of] which he is supposed to have said 'Tennis, anyone?'".

If Bogart ever did speak the line, it would have presumably been in the 1925 play Hell's Bells, set at the Tanglewood Lodge in New Dauville, Connecticut. Bogart claimed that his line in the play was "It's forty-love outside. Anyone care to watch?", and that indeed is what is printed in the script. However, according to Darwin Porter, director John Hayden crossed out that line and replaced it with "Tennis anyone?" before opening night. And several observers have asserted that he did say it, reportedly including Louella Parsons and Richard Watts Jr. Erskine Johnson, in a 1948 interview, reports Bogart as saying "I used to play juveniles on Broadway and came bouncing into drawing rooms with a tennis racket under my arm and the line: 'Tennis anybody?' It was a stage trick to get some of the characters off the set so the plot could continue." But Bogart's usual stance was denial of using that precise phrase ("The lines I had were corny enough, but I swear to you, never once did I have to say 'Tennis, anyone?'"), although averring that it did characterize generally some of his early  roles.

The phrase continued to drift through media in the 20th century and, to a diminished extent, into the 21st, often at random or just because tennis generally is the subject, rather than specifically to invoke or mock vapid toffs. It appears in the lyric of the "Beautiful Girl Montage" in the classic 1952 musical movie Singin' in the Rain,, in the Daffy Duck cartoons Rabbit Fire, Drip-Along Daffy and The Ducksters (1950-1951),, and in the lyric and title of the 1968 song "Anyone for Tennis" by the British rock band Cream, which was the theme song of the film The Savage Seven. William Holden's shallow rich playboy character jokes "tennis, anyone?" when flirting with Joan Vohs's in the 1954 film Sabrina (in which Bogart plays another character). The television series Anyone for Tennyson? (1976–1978) riffs on the name, as does the 1981 stage play Anyone for Denis? "Anyone for Tennis" is the title of the B-side instrumental for Men at Work's 1981 single Who Can It Be Now?. And so forth.

The phrase also occurs in Monty Python's spoof sketch Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days".

References 

English phrases
Tennis culture
Quotations from literature
Metaphors referring to sport