76 Trombones for the century...

I tried another musical with the kids, today, the 1962 The Music Man with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones.

It wasn't the first time I'd seen it, of course, but it had been a while.  Plus, of course, it's always a bit different with the kids present.

It occurred to me, while we were watching, that the movie took place in 1912, exactly a century ago.  That made for some interesting things to point out to the kids.  After all, we don't see horses every day any more.  Nor unpaved roads.  Nor soda fountains.

It was definitely fun to see again.  I'd forgotten a bit of the beginning, so it was funny to see Prof Hill thinking up his scheme again.  And I'd never noticed how the line in Marian the Librarian (much of the rest of the movie seems to be on youtube, but not that song) about his body turning to carrion got her attention.

And I noticed a couple more examples of Winston's talking getting Marian's attention (I knew that was what had won her over to his side, but hadn't paid attention to all the cases, I think).  I also hadn't paid much attention to his attempts to quote famous passages, and how that figured in.  The movie definitely fits together more tightly than I'd remembered.

But the key part was that it was still as fun as I'd recalled.  It wasn't as good as Sound of Music or Singing in the Rain for keeping the kids' attention, but we still had a good time.

The only disappointment was that I only had it on DVD, but did order the blu-ray after watching (and seeing that the price was fairly low).  Now I'll just have to watch it again, soon.