Eggs I Have Laid

Back in print: the playful and personal memoir of Meredith Willson’s creative tribulations and triumphs before The Music Man

Composer, musical director, writer, lecturer, and piccoloist Meredith Willson laid many eggs throughout his career--but not all those eggs would hatch quite so gloriously as his Broadway hit The Music Man. In Eggs I Have Laid, Willson genially chronicles the failures that he faced as he made his place in show business during the pivotal early 1950s, when radio was being overtaken by television.

From Hollywood to New York, London, and Paris, and back to his hometown of Mason City, Iowa, Willson sets each scene vividly, bringing to life his encounters with zeitgeist stars, from collaborators Tallulah Bankhead and Fred Allen to Orson Welles and Carmen Miranda. His signature wit excels as he relates his tales of eggs dropped, notable among them the lavishly produced variety program The Big Show, his ill-fated attempt to be a radio bulwark against the encroaching tide of television.

First published in 1955, Eggs I Have Laid features delightful curiosities, like an eight-page ＂platonic dialogue＂ about quitting smoking and the lyrics to a love song with the occupancy limits of the New York Fire Code as its central metaphor. It is at once a vivid chronicle and a trove of insight from the hilarious, perseverant mind of Meredith Willson.

Meredith Willson (1902-1984) was a popular composer, songwriter, and musician best known for Meredith Willson’s The Music Man and for composing the music for The Unsinkable Molly Brown. He is author of And There I Stood with My Piccolo and ＂But He Doesn’t Know the Territory＂ The Story Behind ＂Meredith Willson’s The Music Man,＂ both published by the University of Minnesota Press.

Mark Cabaniss is a music publisher, broadcaster, producer, speaker, ASCAP award-winning composer, and the national bestselling author of Miracle of The Music Man: The Classic American Story of Meredith Willson.