I watched the movie version of the classic musical “The Music Man” recently. I watch it about once a year just to keep my energy up. The Star is Robert Preston and gosh, does he bring up the memories. I saw him starring live in the stage play of “The Music Man” at the Chicago Shubert Theater back in 1959. I lived in Detroit back then and this was my first trip to Chicago as a railroad claim agent. I had a bit of investigating to do on an employee injury and two lawyers to visit there. I had just been married in 1954 and by 1959 we already had three children. I skipped lunch and managed to afford the cheapest seat in the theater. It was my first Broadway play and I was really excited. Some of those sitting around me were making comments about how they should have brought oxygen because we were so high up in that huge theater just a few rows from the ceiling, but oh, the music was so grand that it reached way up there from the stage and grabbed a holt a me and showed me that there was a whole new world out there that I had so far overlooked.
We had a Shubert Theater just a good city block from my office back in Detroit and I never thought of attending it. My musical taste was pretty well limited to big bands and jazz.
I still had a whole lot of growing up to do and a whole lot of responsibilities but I do believe that watching Robert Preston and his crew there at that theater that night was a real step in the right direction.
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