Boss Man Morman, Morgan Horse Musical Theater Star

The Morgan gelding Boss Man Morman gets a little exercise
while touring the United States in "The Music Man."

Monrovia/Duarte horse rancher Merle Little was well-known for his Morgan horses. They were mainstays of many regional equestrian events and parades during the 1940s through 1960s, from the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena to Monrovia Day celebrations to horse shows and parades in other Southern California cities and towns. 

The impact of Merle's Morgans was spread across the United States by proxy in the 1950s, when artist Maureen Love created ceramic designs inspired by several of his horses for the California pottery Hagen-Renaker, Inc. 

Hagen-Renaker Morgan stallion, "Lippet," inspired by Lippitt Morman.
(Yes, the company spelled the name wrong.)

But perhaps none of the Morgans from Merle's El Rancho Poco made an in-person impact on more people across the United States and Canada than his 1952 chestnut gelding with the flaxen mane and tail, Boss Man Morman (Lippitt Morman x Anita Belle Gift, by Montabell). 

Boss Man was a musical theater star, appearing in the national touring company production of "The Music Man" from 1958 to 1962. He played the only equine role in the story, that of the Wells Fargo Wagon Horse. Boss Man's time onstage was short, but he was an integral part of the story.

Harnessed and ready to go, Boss Man Morman poses with his handler at the time, Clifford Potter of Monrovia, outside the Philharmonic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles prior to a stage performance of "The Music Man." This snapshot, from Merle Little's estate, was reproduced in newspaper articles. 

"The Music Man," with music, lyrics, and book by Meredith Willson, had opened on Broadway in 1957, running 1,375 performances and winning five Tony Awards including Best Musical. The original cast soundtrack album won a Grammy Award and stayed on the Billboard charts for 245 weeks.  Audiences in Southern California and across the nation were ready to see the musical, live on stage. The national tour opened in Los Angeles in August 1958, with Boss Man harnessed and ready for his scene.

On September 10, 1958, the Monrovia News-Post reported that this was not Boss Man's first appearance connected with a Broadway musical, although the previous event wasn't an actual stage production of a play. Rather, it was at an Eastern Star convention in Long Beach, where the Grand Matron was saluted with a tune from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "Oklahoma." (I assume the song was "Surrey with the Fringe On Top." Merle Little also owned a surrey.)

Monrovia News-Post, 10 September 1958

The article noted that Boss Man was also a veteran of local horse shows.

Merle Little saved this photo of Boss Man Morgan,
ridden by Don McDaniel.

Boss Man's parents, while not theater stars themselves, still knew how to thrill audiences. His sire, Lippitt Morman, was the Grand Sweepstakes winner of the 100-mile Vermont Trail Ride in 1946. After moving west, "Lippitt" (as the Little family called him) was a prize-winning veteran of countless horse shows and parades. 

Merle Little and Lippitt Morman loved parades. 

(As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the word "Morman" doesn't refer to religion. Rather, it's wordplay on Lippitt Morman's sire Mansfield and his dam Lippitt Kate Moro.)

Boss Man's dam, Anita Belle Gift, was an outstanding California show mare. Here she is being shown by Merle's younger daughter Donnette.

Anita Belle Gift.

From August 1958 to March 1962, the chestnut son of "Lippitt" and "Anita Belle" spent much of his time on the road. Boss Man (also known as "The Bossman" in newspaper and magazine articles) racked up 90,000 miles while touring the United States and Canada with the traveling production of  "The Music Man." 

His human co-stars included Forrest Tucker, who played Professor Harold Hill, and Joan Weldon as Marian (the Librarian) Paroo. 

Joan Weldon and Forrest Tucker in the national touring production
of "The Music Man," via Wikipedia.

(Readers may remember some of Forrest Tucker's other memorable roles, including Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside opposite Rosalind Russell in the 1958 film "Auntie Mame," and as Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke in the 1965-1967 television comedy "F Troop.")

Boss Man played the horse that pulls the Wells Fargo Wagon. He came onstage at the end of Act One -- the turning point of the musical's plot.

Until that point in the story, only the audience knows that traveling salesman "Professor" Harold Hill is a con man. He's about to fleece the parents of River City, Iowa by collecting money for musical instruments and uniforms so their sons can be part of a character-building boys' band. Hill has operated this scam before; he, and the money, would soon be on a train out of town, and there would be no boys' band. 

Forrest Tucker in costume as Prof. Harold Hill

The audience has also learned that Marian's very shy, lisping little brother Winthrop has been without hope since the death of his father. Their mother eagerly signs up so Winthrop, too, can be part of the boys' band. Marian looks into Hill's credentials, discovers that he's a fraud, and is just about to expose him before he can hurt her little brother even more. 

And then the Wells Fargo delivery wagon comes to town.

No Amazon van or FedEx truck was ever met with such expectation as the Wells Fargo Wagon in "The Music Man." Practically the entire town turns out to sing about it. 

But no one is as excited as Winthrop. When the Wells Fargo Wagon arrives, Winthrop finally finds his voice and exuberantly sings of his hope that the Wells Fargo Wagon will bring his shiny gold cornet, so he can be part of the River City Boys' Band.

Winthrop (lisping):
O-ho the Wellth Fargo Wagon ith a-comin' now,
I don't know how I can ever wait to thee.
It could be thumpin' for thumone who is
No relation but it could be thump'n thpethul
Just for me!

Enter the Morgan gelding Boss Man, pulling the Wells Fargo Wagon, stage right.

And Harold Hill exits the wagon holding Winthrop's cornet!

Because of the positive influence Hill is making on her cherished little brother, Marian begins to see Harold Hill in a new light.

But will the promise of the River City Boys' Band ever be fulfilled? Or will Harold Hill skip town with the rest of the parents' money?

Intermission. 

Act Two.

Imagine the excitement of the theater-goers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when a real horse pulled the Wells Fargo Wagon onto the stage! It was absolutely crucial for the horse to behave professionally: not to balk at his cues, not to wander, not to get upset by the action on the stage or the music from the pit. 

And that's why Boss Man was such a star. He was, by all accounts, not only a handsome representative of the Morgan breed. He was also just about unflappable.

This snapshot of Boss Man on tour came from the estate of Merle Little. 

Wherever the company traveled around the country, reporters wanted to know about Boss Man. There are stories of the Morgan gelding yawning in the middle of his big scene, in performance after performance, something that no one taught him that always got a laugh from the audience. 

Actress Joan Weldon, in the role of Marian, once put her black poodle dog in the middle of Boss Man's back during a performance. The dog took the reins in his teeth and pulled, but Boss Man stood his ground. Boss Man waited after each performance for his fans to pat him or offer him a carrot.  

"The Music Man" returned to Los Angeles in 1960.

Pasadena Independent, 2 July 1960.

By the middle of 1960, Merle Little was ready for Boss Man to come home to Monrovia; his handler, Lee Kitchell (a member of the Monrovia Sheriff's Posse and Azusa Mounted Police), was tired of traveling. Boss Man was set to leave the touring company, but he returned in fairly short order -- with a new owner. Replacement horses just did not have the calm stage presence of "the Boss Man." The Tulsa World newspaper reported that one of Boss Man's replacements had tried to leap into the orchestra pit, "scaring Forrest Tucker half to death."  

In December 1960, the Kansas City Times reported that Merle had sold Boss Man to touring company manager Milton Pollack (who had also managed the original Broadway production of the musical).

Kansas City Times, 1 December 1960

The Lexington, Kentucky Courier-Journal reported the story with a photo of Boss Man and his new owner.

The Memphis Press-Scimitar's columnist Eldon Roark repeated the story that the company at first planned to rent a horse in each stop of the tour, but the other horses simply weren't up to the task: "Some of the rented horses acted up -- disrupted the scene, created faux pas [we can imagine what that implies], distracted the audience."

Memphis Press-Telegram, 26 January 1961.

Touring with "The Music Man" took Boss Man all over the United States, with a stop in Toronto, Canada as well. The Overtur website lists the locations and dates of the tour. 

Philharmonic Auditorium (Los Angeles, CA) August 18, 1958 - September 30, 1958

State Fair Music Hall (Dallas, TX) October 4, 1958 - October 19, 1958

Curran Theatre (San Francisco, CA) October 23, 1958 - December 27, 1958

Auditorium Theatre (Denver, CO) December 30, 1958 - January 3, 1959

KRNT Theatre (Des Moines, IA) January 12, 1959 - January 17, 1959

Taft Theatre (Cincinnati, OH) January 19, 1959 - January 31, 1959

Kansas City Music Hall (Kansas City, MO) February 2, 1959 - February 7, 1959

Sam S. Shubert Theatre (Chicago, IL) February 11, 1959 - March 5, 1960

Riviera Theatre (Detroit, MI) March 7, 1960 - April 9, 1960

Royal Alexandra Theatre (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) April 11, 1960 - April 30, 1960

Hanna Theatre (Cleveland, OH) May 2, 1960 - May 28, 1960

Biltmore Theatre (Los Angeles, CA) June 1, 1960 - July 9, 1960

Fox Theatre (San Diego, CA) July 11, 1960 - July 16, 1960

War Memorial Opera House (San Francisco, CA) July 18, 1960 - August 6, 1960

Paramount Theatre (Portland, OR) August 9, 1960 - September 13, 1960

American Theatre (St. Louis, MO) October 10, 1960 - October 29, 1960

Nixon Theatre (Pittsburgh, PA) March 27, 1961 - April 22, 1961

Shubert Theatre (New Haven, CT) May 29, 1961 - June 3, 1961

National Theatre (Washington, D.C.) June 12, 1961 - September 9, 1961

Taft Theatre (Cincinnati, OH) September 25, 1961 - September 30, 1961

Pabst Theater (Milwaukee, WI) October 16, 1961 - October 28, 1961

Hanna Theatre (Cleveland, OH) October 30, 1961 - November 11, 1961

Nixon Theatre (Pittsburgh, PA) November 13, 1961 - November 18, 1961

Ford's Theatre (Baltimore, MD) November 20, 1961 - November 25, 1961

Shubert Theatre (Philadelphia, PA) November 27, 1961 - December 23, 1961

Shubert Theatre (Boston, MA) December 26, 1961 - March 17, 1962

The touring theater production of "The Music Man" closed in Boston on March 17, 1962. The film version opened on June 19 of that same year.

We know quite a bit about Boss Man Morman's stage career, but there are some errors in published information about him:

-- The American Morgan Horse Association website identifies the photograph of Boss Man onstage as "Boss Man Morman appearing in the Hollywood production of The Music Man." The 1958 venue of the Los Angeles County performances of The Music Man was actually the Philharmonic Auditorium in downtown LA; the 1960 venue was the Biltmore Theater, also downtown. The production was never staged in Hollywood, which is five or six miles away. (A small detail.)

-- Contrary to published reports and at least one online horse pedigree website, it's clear that Boss Man did not play the Wells Fargo Wagon Horse in the 1962 Warner Bros. film version of The Music Man. That horse was a solid bay; Boss Man was a chestnut with white markings and a flaxen mane and tail. 

-- The late Don McDaniel's great article on Merle Little's legacy in the April 2009 issue of The Morgan Horse magazine said that Boss Man retired after a stage injury to Meredith Willson's farm in Vermont. I haven't been able to find a direct connection between the composer of "The Music Man" and Boss Man Morman. 

It's possible there was some confusion between Meredith Willson the composer of "The Music Man," and Milton Pollack, the Broadway and touring company manager of "The Music Man," who (according to several published reports) had purchased Boss Man from Merle. One newspaper account said Pollack's children planned to keep Boss Man. 

Neither Willson nor Pollack is reported as owning Boss Man in the American Morgan Horse Association Registry Online. Perhaps Pollack did not complete the paperwork after the sale, or perhaps the AMHA records that appear online are incomplete. They don't show that Merle Little ever owned Boss Man, either. (Omissions in a horse's history from this era sometimes occur in such massive equine registry databases.) However, that's not the end of the story.

What did happen to Boss Man Morman? The AMHA Registry Online shows his last owner was Cora Peterson Snow.  An award-winning equestrian, she operated Camp Jo-Al-Co, a riding camp for girls ages 10 to 17 in Strafford, New Hampshire. Cora P. Snow was also heavily involved in long-distance trail riding in New England during the 1950s and '60s. Newspaper accounts show that she and Camp Jo-Al-Co owned a number of different horses, including some other registered Morgans.

We see from newspaper ads for the Jo-Al-Co Camp in New Hampshire that Snow's mailing address in the 1960s was in Brockton, Massachusetts. That's not too far from where the national tour of "The Music Man" ended in Boston in 1962.

We may never know Boss Man Morman's complete story, but a youth riding camp would have been the perfect place for an unflappable Morgan gelding with a charming personality -- out of the limelight and into the hearts of young horse lovers who could get to know him in person. Perhaps there, Boss Man lived "happily ever after."

***

Meredith Willson described "The Music Man" as a Valentine, rather than a comedy. With his dependable charm and bomb-proof performance, the Morgan gelding Boss Man Morman helped facilitate Willson's vision of the transformation of small-town America on the American stage: 

A con man confesses that he has lied, experiences a transformation of heart, and finds true love. Gossip is quashed. A rabble-rouser leaves town. Bickering politicians stop fighting and sing in perfect four-part harmony. Children find purpose, meaning, and healing through the fine arts. Truth prevails.

And a good horse -- just doing his job -- brings hope to the whole community. 

Even though Boss Man never returned to El Rancho Poco, his breeder and former owner, Merle Little, must have had a soft spot for this most-traveled, most-applauded of his Morgans. He saved photographs from Boss Man's travels, and a cassette tape of the soundtrack of "The Music Man," with his other horse-related items. 

___

You can see the crowds lining up for tickets to "The Music Man" in Los Angeles, 1958, in this photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection:

https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/7978

The history of the Philharmonic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles is recounted in detail, with lots of pictures, here:

https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2018/10/philharmonic-auditorium.html

"The Music Man" returned to Los Angeles in 1960, this time at the Biltmore Theater downtown:

https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2018/11/biltmore-theatre.html

We don't have film of the stage production that Boss Man took part in, but we do have the scene from the 1962 film production of "The Music Man," with a very young Ron Howard (yes, that Ron Howard, the film director) as Winthrop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8LHlJSBkg0

I haven't been able to find film footage of the original Broadway production of "The Music Man," but we do have this 1960 segment from television's Bell Telephone Hour. The Buffalo Bills and soprano Barbara Cook reprise their Broadway roles singing "Lida Rose / Will I Ever Tell You?" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q-MH6kwPnA