Jennifer Russell recounts the life and career of composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright Meredith Willson, from his early years in the marching band of John Phillip Sousa and the New York Philharmonic under Toscanini, through his West Coast years in radio and film, through his years on Broadway and as a composer of classical music. In the course of this she will give special attention, naturally (!), to his magnum opus, his extraordinary 1957 musical The Music Man.