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| re: Music Man film question | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 06:55 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Music Man film question - pierce 04:39 am EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| Yes, I was sort of surprised by the question since I never think of all those scenes as taking in the course of a single day. I looked at the published script, and sure enough that's what it says. Thank you for confirming that the film sensibly breaks them up. Still, are we supposed to think even in the film that Hill goes from the "Pick-a-Little" scene to the library? Given that it's still early July and it's already dark in the preceding scene, that library is open kind of late for River City. Anyway, at least we now know where the kids are going at night (rather than getting dandelions picked or pounding the beefsteak): the library! For a town that's supposed to be sort of anti-intellectual, that library is very popular. |
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| re: Music Man film question | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 08:04 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Music Man film question - AlanScott 06:55 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| They do set it up a bit in the film, when Marian comes home at night on July 3rd for Amaryllis' lesson and encounters Harold in the street. Her mother says something like, "Late night at the library?" And she says sonething like "As usual." We tend to think of libraries as public institutions, paid for with taxes and run by city governments. But back in the early century, many were established by philanthropists (like Carnegie or River City's Madison). Some of these ultimately went to municipal backing, but I imagine ones with enough funding continued as private entities. Since "Uncle Maddy" was concerned for the finances of the Paroo family, he left Marian with a good, steady source of income, but she undoubtedly felt she had to work hard to deserve it. Or else she was staying late for the same nefarious purposes as the Continental Congress in 1776. Laura |
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| re: Music Man film question | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 01:24 am EDT 07/06/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Music Man film question - showtunetrivia 08:04 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| LOL (re the Continental Congress). You bring up some good points. Anyway, looking at the published script, it really doesn't make sense. Although the lines you mention are not in the stage script, we have this: Mrs. Paroo: I don't recall the liberry bein' open last Fourth a' July. Marian: It was Mama—all evening. Later in the scene when Winthrop enters, Mrs. Paroo says to him: "Winthrop, it's after dark." So Marian comes home for dinner and to teach Amaryllis and then she goes to the gymnasium for the Fourth of July celebration and then she goes to re-open the library. The script says that scene in the interior of the Madison Gymnasium starts 30 minutes after the end of the scene at the Paroo home. The gymnasium scene goes on a while. The next scene, on the street, is immediately following, and during the scene Marian enters the library, presumably to re-open it (unless there's an assistant librarian we don't otherwise hear about who's kept it open all this time). The next scene, in the library, is again immediately following. What time is it if it was already dark when Winthrop got home a good hour or more earlier? I must admit that I get terribly confused about how the lack of Daylight Savings Time affects all this. I gotta say that MarjorieMae has certainly got us all thinking about this! The 2000 revival did make adjustments so that it wasn't all in one day, which was one of (I guess) a few ways it made adjustments that brought it closer to the film, or so I think people said at the time. I wasn't that aware of the differences. |
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| re: Music Man film question | |
| Last Edit: pierce 10:54 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
| Posted by: pierce 10:48 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Music Man film question - showtunetrivia 08:04 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| Right. Mrs Paroo asks "Library open later than usual?" and Marian responds "It always is" - which (I guess) means the library is always open late. To Alan's point, I've often heard bewilderment expressed over the lack of twilight in River City. Daylight Savings Time wasn't adopted nationwide until after WWI, but even so, the "Pick a Little"sequence would have logically taken place in early evening - and since we're talking early July, we wouldn't have had the look of dark night that we glimpse in that scene. I don't think it would have been unusual for the library to stay open til 8pm, but even if it stayed open til 9pm, there would have been some light in the sky during the "Pick a Little"/"Goodnight Ladies" scene. But then, I tend to turn a blind eye to some of the film's inconsistencies. Right before "Iowa Stubborn" gets underway, the audience can clearly see the foothills of the Santa Monica mountains on the outskirts of River City; that's not a problem if the setting is southern California, but this is supposed to be Iowa! :-) |
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