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You're looking at the point where the Wisconsin and
Mississippi rivers meet.
15.8 million gallons of water flow past here each minute.
Hello and welcome to a special summer edition of In Wisconsin.
I'm Kathy Beeson filling in for Patty Low.
Today we're at Wild Loosing State Park
in southwestern Wisconsin.
You can see Iowa right across the river there.
Later tonight we'll bring you a story from that state about
the man behind the music man.
We'll also introduce you to a woman who needs to use her best
horse sense while working what can be a very dangerous job.
But first we continue our Wearing Wisconsin U.S.
Senate road trip series.
Remember the candidates don't know in advance where
they're going or with whom they'll be talking.
This week reporter Frederica Freiberg hit
the road with Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold.
They began their day in Appleton.
On the road again.
Just can't wait to get on the road again.
This day the Feingold campaign ban is on the road
logging some miles with us.
But since Russ Feingold was first elected U.S.
Senator in 1992, his wheels have
logged more than 300,000 miles across Wisconsin.
The latest Feingold ban is slightly more upscaled than
the one he rumbled around in 12 years ago just slightly.
It's pretty odd to be in a distinct minority when
you're not a millionaire.
And that's what I am.
I am into minority in the United States
Senate because I don't have a million dollars in net worth.
I believe people in Wisconsin probably like having one
senator who is of average means.
This election Feingold finds himself running against
two multi-millionaires in the pack of Republicans
who want his seat.
One of them, Russ Darrell, has already started
airing lots of TV ads.
But because of Feingold's signature campaign finance
legislation, there have been changes made to the way
campaigns are run, including the so-called Stand By Your
Add Provision, as seen in the senator's own first
commercial of the campaign.
I'm U.S.
Senator Russ Feingold and I approve this message.
Campaign finance reform is one of the issues that citizens
in Appleton ask Feingold about.
What is step two with you and John McCain?
I'm trying to convince McCain to go along with a public
financing proposal like the kind that worked when I first ran.
When I first ran for the state center, I was 29
years old.
I had no money.
Wisconsin had a good law at the time.
If you could raise $17,000 of your own, the state would
give you a check for $17,000 to match it from voluntary
contributions from citizens.
That's the only reason I'm here today.
As Russ Feingold ventures down the streets of
Appleton, it's clear he's seen a lot of this state.
He says he's conducted 850 listening sessions across
Wisconsin since first being elected U.S.
Senator. I know there's good coffee here
because I've been here before.
Over morning coffee, Gail Hart asks Feingold, who's
on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
about the administration's strategy in Iraq.
They thought for some reason despite the warnings we
gave them, that it was going to be this military thing
that we'd win quickly and then it would not be that
difficult afterwards, so they didn't have a plan.
And more bluntly.
This is a monumental failure of American foreign policy.
The president that convinced the American people in the Senate
that the House would go along with the war on the flimsy of
subbasis. He talked about WMDs and apparently weren't there.
He tried to make people believe that this was the same thing
as 9/11 and people are bitterly confused about why we did
this instead of focusing on getting a son of in life.
Switching gears dramatically and of course never knowing
what's next.
Russ Feingold finds himself at the
Appleton Children's Museum.
Do you know this is in your ice cream?
On a museum field trip, Berlin First Graders learn about the
properties of KC.
Their teachers get a break from the classroom
and the rigors of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
They ask the Senator about it.
Well, what are your feelings on that issue?
Look, you had your choice of asking me anything in the world.
Yes. And this is what you chose.
And anybody that spends 10 minutes listening to educators
in Wisconsin is going to find out this is one of the
biggest mistakes ever made.
These teachers like that idea, saying no child left behind,
promotes teaching to the test.
In the town of Freedom, lunchtime at the Leap Inn brings
a Salisbury steak special.
I'm Senator Russ Feingold.
I'm here disrupting everybody's
wants. What's your name?
Big Mike Woods.
I like that man.
And Big Mike Woods asks the Senator about the high price
of gas.
At the station in Freedom, it's going for between
$2.13 and $2.31 a gallon.
Feingold says to reduce dependence on oil.
He favors not just alternative fuels,
but giving incentives for using renewable energy sources.
A couple of stools down, welder Brad Dickrow, talks trade.
We have made it too attractive for companies to move
overseas. You know, when a company can pay somebody
27 cents an hour in China.
We'd like to be patriotic and stay here, but you kind of make
it a little too attractive.
I don't think we should have made that deal with China.
At a Green Bay location where pulp bearing logs roll past
on locomotives, it's the cost of healthcare, the prompt's
small business owner, Kathy Zitler, to take the floor.
I can't afford hardly anything that's a decent insurance.
We can't leave that burden on you anymore.
I think we have to get involved and
pass a guaranteed healthcare coverage for all Americans.
But here's how I think we ought to do it.
A lot of people hear that and they get nervous.
They think it's going to be like
Canada or Great Britain.
We don't have to do it that way.
We can do it American style.
And that to me means that each state would have be given a
lot of flexibility to figure out how to do it, but they got
to make sure that everybody, including you, is covered.
Fine Gold says the government cost of providing healthcare
to the uninsured would be greatly offset by reducing
what he calls the extreme profits of some insurance
companies and by reducing the most expensive form of medical
care. Emergency room visits.
Actually, when the senator mentioned this program, I
am truly excited.
I work mostly with small businesses.
I make signs for a living.
That comes in there.
That is an issue with them and
for their family as well.
So it makes me hope.
It's not hope, but luck that folks at the O'Neill de Casino
could use.
It's an odd place for a man who's never played
the games to find himself.
Fine Gold does not take Casino manager Neil Cornelius
up on an offer to roll the dice at the Crap's table,
but he does field questions.
Do you think there's an awareness amongst your
colleagues of the many, many positive and the cascading
impacts from Indian gaming?
I'm very candid with.
As a state senator, I opposed expanding
gambling. I've been brought up gambling to something
doing Illinois.
So I voted no.
But I also had visited bad river held town meetings there.
And I got to tell you the school
and the health care and a lot of things that were really,
really bad are a lot better.
As for no votes, fine Gold cast another this time the loan know
in the US Senate against the Patriot Act that challengers
hope to use against him.
Do you think the Patriot Act vote is gonna hurt you?
No, I think it will help me a lot.
People see it as an active common sense.
They see it as gutsy.
They also know that you believe I'm honest and
that I'm not making it up when I say that there are
provisions of the Patriot Act that are very, very bad.
Will they gonna believe somebody who's trying to get the job
has never read the bill?
They don't know what's in it.
I do.
Fine Gold confidently stands by his two term record
and is traveling the state armed with new proposals
like guaranteed health care.
Though not a betting man he's counting on voters to keep
him on the road again as US Senator for another six years.
Next week we'll follow another candidate for US Senate.
Find out which one and where in Wisconsin he'll be by
tuning in next Thursday.
In the meantime you can find more information about
all of the candidates in Wisconsin's US Senate race
by going to our web election year resource.
Wisconsin vote.
The address is Wisconsin vote dot ORG.
As we said we're right across the Mississippi from
Iowa and that's where our next story takes place.
Mason City Iowa is the birthplace of the man who
wrote one of America's classic musicals.
The story comes to us from Iowa Public Television.
One of America's favorite musicals is a comedic look
at Iowa called The Music Man.
When it hit Broadway in 1957 it broke box office
records and became a star.
It became one of the longest running plays in history.
A few years later it became a hit Hollywood film.
And although almost everyone knows the story of a flim
flam man gone sweet on a small town Mary in the librarian
and most Americans can sing along with at least one
or two songs from the show.
Few know anything about the man who wrote it.
Rose Mary my dear wife.
He was Meredith Wilson from
Mason City Iowa and his legacy will surprise you.
He influenced American culture throughout the 20th
century and was for some decades a household name.
And even though he lived a life of celebrity he never
forgot his hometown roots.
I want to give you the boy.
Born in 192 Meredith was the youngest of three children.
Wilson described his early years with enthusiasm
telling of a home where costumes, music and theater
were part of everyday life.
I was always involved with music.
Some part of everyday that through my dear saint
and mother and I thought it didn't everybody you know.
But according to his biographer John Skipper Meredith's
relationship with his father was not necessarily as idyllic as
Wilson sometimes described it.
It was probably not the happiest of households.
And Wilson said that in his
father's life he never ever uttered Meredith's name.
He never called his son by name his entire life.
It was hard to believe, hard to understand.
And contradicts a lot of the anecdotal things that
Meredith said growing up.
But when you're doing an interview in the twilight
of your life sometimes the truth surfaces a little more.
Perhaps the tension at home gave Meredith the motivation to
leave his much loved hometown immediately after high school.
He traveled to New York City to continue his musical
education at what is now Julliard School of Music.
He was such a good musician that at age 18 he was hired as
first flutist in one of the most popular bands in the nation,
the band of John Philip Susa.
After a few years of traveling with Susa Meredith decided to
settle down with his new wife Elizabeth so he joined the New
York Philharmonic Orchestra.
His next position was with the Seattle Symphony and he
also lived in San Francisco.
But soon he was drawn to Southern California where
he would make his mark in the new medium of radio.
A national broadcasting company presents The Big Show.
He had a fabulous career, particularly in radio.
Before the music man was even ever thought of.
He was the musical director of NBC
Radio for years and years.
And back in those days there was no television.
So if you're the musical director
of NBC Radio you're the musical director of NBC.
You're about to be entertained by some of the biggest names in
show business such bright stars as Fred Allen, Rachel Marx.
Ginger Rogers.
Meredith Wilson.
And my name is Dollyings is Tannula Bankit.
By the 1950s Meredith Wilson was a household name.
He had been a familiar voice on many a hit
radio show and had even written some hit songs.
But he was about to become even more famous.
Our story starts back in 1912 and a little eye with town
called River City.
For Meredith Wilson's songwriting was
easy. He could come up with a musical lick while shaving
and produce an entire song by the time he got to work.
But writing the entire play and all the songs for the
music man took him nearly six years of concerted effort.
It was probably one of the hardest things he ever did.
76 trombones let the big parade with 110 corn.
That's close.
He and his second wife, Reenie, a trained opera singer
auditioned the three hours show over and over to everyone from
the secretaries at the office to Broadway's top producers.
Right here.
Say trouble right here.
River City with a top of a team.
Right here.
He rewrote song after song and eventually cut out some
of his favorite characters before the story settled
into its now familiar shape.
Finally his creation came to life and has continued to hit
the right notes ever since.
Shirley Jones starred as Mary in the librarian in the 1962
film of Meredith's musical.
I think the music man it just so appealing to all Americans
probably to the world now.
But I mean it's just so American.
It's an American classic.
That's what I call it.
Ladies and gentlemen, the music man.
It's one of those shows that's just going to go on and on
and on.
I do concerts all over the country now as I've been
doing here and I have to tell you you know most of most of
what I have done is Rogers and Hammerstein because I did the
two films for Rogers and with Rogers and Hammerstein music.
But the most requested across the country is the music man.
He was a musical genius.
While the music man is the play most commonly associated
with Meredith Wilson in his lifetime he wrote more than
400 songs.
Many of them were recorded by some of the
biggest names in showbiz.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
From Bing Crosby to Debbie Reynolds.
So if you go from nowhere on the road to somewhere and you
meet anyone you know it's me.
And he also wrote this one.
And there's something else you may not know about Meredith
Wilson. Throughout his career he collaborated with Hollywood's
top directors and producers.
Wilson was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the
musical score for this film, The Great Dictator, Charlie
Chaplin's first talking.
With a career that gave him access to everyone from studio
heads to American presidents, Meredith Wilson never lost
his connections with his hometown in Iowa.
According to Mason City historian Art
Fishbeck, Wilson always shared his fame with his hometown.
The one thing he started doing right from the beginning was
mentioning Mason City in every radio broadcast.
And that carried on throughout even
through the end of the big show.
From all accounts, Meredith didn't just talk about
loving Iowa.
He really felt strongly about his roots.
I keep on coming back because I love Iowa.
I owe Iowa.
I love Iowa people.
I have memories in Iowa that will never be erased.
I never knew in Iowa that wasn't proud of his Iowa.
And you're looking at one right here.
Meredith Wilson passed away in 1984.
But even today the people of Mason City enjoy
fond remembrances of him.
He just was Iowa friendly we wouldn't say.
You know what I just discovered?
That you like butter.
We really enjoyed him.
Basically he was just a good, down-earth person.
You felt very comfortable with him.
And they say that all the things that they write about
him is everybody was his cousin.
And I feel that's true.
Iowa, it's a beautiful name.
When you say it like we say it, back home.
There are many delightful stories about Meredith's
visits to Iowa.
And Swanson's father was a childhood
friend of Meredith's.
Her family visited with Wilson often, even going to his home
in Hollywood.
When Anne's father passed away, Meredith and his
third wife Rosemary became even closer to the Swanson family.
Our youngest daughter who at that time was about seven years
old, wrote to Meredith and asked if he would be interested in
being her grandfather because she no longer had a grandfather.
He wrote back and said he would be honored to be a substitute
grandfather. So for years until he died actually, he remembered
her at birthdays in Christmas and so it was very special.
With dozens of personal connections like this one,
Meredith's legacy remains alive and well in Mason City.
So much so that the Mason City Foundation has raised more
than ten million dollars to develop a campus which includes
Meredith Wilson's boyhood home.
And this building called Music Man Square, which is not
only a museum and a tourist destination, but also a
center for music education.
So in the community where he was born more than
100 years ago, Meredith Wilson's legacy lives on.
And even though Meredith Wilson may no longer be a household
name, his songs and musicals will continue on as an
irreplaceable part of Americana.
[Music]
You're looking at the Upper Mississippi River National
Wildlife and Fish Refuge.
And as we enjoy sites like this throughout the summer,
we're also going to bring you some of our favorite
stories from the past year.
This next one is about Milwaukee resident Leah Seder.
She's one of only three women in Wisconsin to work
professionally as a fairier.
[Music]
The foot belongs to Talley, a retired Arabian showhouse.
The hands are Leah Seder's, a Milwaukee failure.
I got into this because I really love horses and that was what
I wanted to do.
And I think that shows a lot of the time.
Yeah, you especially.
And I do, I feel for them.
Being a fairier makes you part blacksmith, part
podiatrist, and part manicurist.
Horses feed are like your nails, they grow continuously.
The shoes protect the horse's feet from being
worn down too much.
So their shoes have to be reset every six to eight weeks?
Talley was donated to the ranch in Manamini Falls to a program
for disabled riders.
As an older horse, he has special problems.
He has two completely different front feet.
His legs are even a little different
length up front, so he wears a very bizarre shoeing job.
This wedged shoe called an egg bar will keep Talley
comfortable on his feet.
When you can actually fix one all by yourself with a shoeing
job, it feels really good.
That desire to help out horses is what drew the
assader to horseshoeing.
I got accused of being too soft ones.
I'm carrying too much about the animal, but I feel
like that's part of my job.
There are a couple of hundred people horseshoeing
professionally in Wisconsin, but only three
women make it a career.
I wasn't sure that I could do it.
I wanted to try though.
I figured I could.
I'd been raised a very ardent feminist, so I
figured I could try anything.
You're silly.
I was very lucky, the guy that I apprenticed
with, the one time that I was very frustrated and
couldn't get something done and said, "I can't do this!"
He grabbed the tool away from me and said, "Of
course you can do this."
And I think that was the nicest thing anyone ever said to me.
This is called hoof packing to keep her foot moist and
to keep her disease out.
This is oakum, water proof.
Another attribute say her brings to her job is perhaps more
unusual. She majored in English.
And the English degree has been very helpful in communicating.
Sometimes you need to be able to talk to a person and really
get across the idea of what it is that their horse needs.
And as a former bookstore manager, she understands
customer service.
I get so many compliments because I'm always on time.
Though a bookstore never offered this kind of excitement.
I got kicked in the face.
Otherwise I got a nail ripped through my finger and so
it can be very dangerous.
A couple guys die every year doing it.
I try and be very careful.
And I think I might say no a little more than some
people do because I don't have any macho to deal with.
Nope, that looks like it's going to hurt me.
That's my definition of a good day when
nothing tries to kill me.
So today was a good day.
You're right.
By that standard, I'd say I've had a good day too.
And what a day.
Enjoying the beauty of Wile
Loosing State Park.
Thank you so much for joining us.
We leave you now with a few more sights
and sounds from the park.
For In Wisconsin, I'm Kathy Beeson.
Good night.
[Music]
And by contributions to your PBS station by viewers
like you.
Thank you.
[Music]