195 Quiz Answer

“The Music Man” was a highly successful Broadway musical with book, music and lyrics by Meredith Willson (and starring Robert Preston), which went on to both film and TV adaptations.

(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "T" is for "Travis")

Here’s this week’s Berownial quiz question.  I wrote the following scenelet, thinking it might remind you of a production that was a hit musical which then became a hit movie.  What was its name?

A town meeting, years ago.

“Can you hear me all right, in the back of the hall there?  Then I hereby declare this meeting open.”

“We can hear you okay, Paul.  I want to begin with something important, something that affects…”

“Wait a minute, Jed.  Sit down.  We’ve got to do this right, follow our rules of order.  First off, we need to have the reading of the minutes of the last meeting.”

“Mr. Chairman!  I move and second that we postpone or just skip the minutes reading.   We have something more important…”

“You can’t second your own motion, Jed!  All right, we’ll assume it’s been seconded.  What is it you’re so fired up about?”

“Mr. Chairman, I speak as a proud member of our proud community, a town that has summed up, and I may even say epitomized, what the American dream has come to mean for generations of citizens.  When language takes flight and one speaks of the land of the free and the home of the brave, we might well be talking of our very own municipality…”

“Uh, Jed, you said you had something important to bring up.  Could you be a bit more specific and zero in on just what it is?”

“Of course, Mr. Chairman.  I speak of a very present danger, a crisis.  We have to be wary of outsiders, Paul, coming into our fair town, bringing with them newfangled ideas and some curious projects they want to foist on us.” 

“You’re speaking of Mr. Travis, right?  Well, he arrived recently in town and he has presented some interesting musical ideas for our local young folks but I don’t see this as a crisis.”

“You don’t?  You may not be aware of just how negative an impact music has on younger generations today and how it affects their lives; it can be a kind of drug to them.  This Travis character wants to organize our kids, get them all steamed up about forming musical groups that will inevitably drive their parents, as well as the rest of us, out of our minds.”

“Well, Jed, I guess I don’t agree that getting children to learn more about music is ‘unscrupulous.’  I think this could be something our town could be proud of.  On major holidays it would be great to see our kids performing in a musical parade.”

“Oh, don’t get that guy Travis started talking about parades.  You wouldn’t believe the number of trombones he plans to lead with.”

(Also submitted to Sunday Scribblings)