Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Oklahoma: The American Frontier and its Legendary Musical with Sharon McMahon

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

Sharon returns for a solo episode about the musical that opened the floodgates to the nation’s obsession with Broadway. Oklahoma!, the infamous Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, opened on a Broadway stage in the spring of 1943. It was wildly successful from the get-go, and it ushered in the golden age of musical theater. Listen while Sharon explains why Oklahoma! hit such a nostalgic chord with audiences who longed for the simple joys of homesteading on the American Frontier. You’ll also learn how the musical was reworked from its original play which had been written by a Cherokee man who came of age as Oklahoma was declared the 46th state of the Union. (This episode may also contain some singing!) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends. Welcome. So glad you're joining me today. And I have a really fun story about the fantastic state of Oklahoma. So let's dive in. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. Okay, let me start by saying I've been to Oklahoma a number of times. The people in Oklahoma are incredibly nice. But what I want to talk about today is a man named Lynn Riggs. Do you know who Lynn Riggs is? He is the author of 21 full-length plays. One of his most famous plays was called Green Grow the Lilacs. So let me give you just a little bit about Lynn Riggs, and then we're on a farm in Claremore, Oklahoma.

And his father was a cowboy and his mother was part Cherokee Indian. So Riggs was very well known for being this sort of quiet, reserved, mild-mannered man who started writing after high school. He never married. He did live with a male companion. There's a lot of speculation that perhaps Riggs is the only Native American dramatist, playwright, who was writing for the Broadway stage in the first half of the 20th century. So Green Grow the Lilacs was not a huge Broadway success. It was very well regarded by critics. They liked a lot of aspects that the play depicted,

but not a huge box office success. You know exactly the type of piece that I'm talking about that happens with movies, et cetera, as well today. In 1942, Riggs was drafted into the army. And while he was in the army, somebody gave the script of Greengro the Lilacs to two gentlemen, and I bet you will recognize their names, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein. And so Rodgers and Hammerstein had never worked together before, but they became one of the most famous and prolific duos in Hollywood. They took this play of Green Rose, the Lilacs, and decided that they were going to rework it into a musical. And they were going to rework it into a musical called, I paused for you to fill in the blank, Oklahoma. Right? You know this show, you know, Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plane and the wavened wheat sure smells sweet, etc.

So Oklahoma then opened on Broadway in March of 1943, and it ushered in a new era. Oklahoma was the pioneer of the golden age of musical theater. So Oklahoma was such a huge hit on Broadway because it really struck this sort of nostalgic chord with the audiences of the 1940s. I bet you have heard stories about how during times of war, during times of incredible unrest, movies and feel-good musicals are always incredibly popular. And that was absolutely true of Oklahoma. It was a huge hit with service members on leave who wanted to bring a date and they wanted to see Oklahoma. It became sort of the thing to see, kind of like Hamilton has become the show to see. Oklahoma was the show to see during the 1940s. And we had just come out of the depression. We were sort of

heading towards the tail end of World War II. And its central themes were so popular with audiences, you know, putting down roots, family, love, triumph over the land. All these things appealed to a country that was struggling with death and separation and war. It literally just hit all the right notes. And on the off chance that you have never seen Oklahoma, this is the general plot of the show. So it's set at the turn of the 20th century, and it's set in Oklahoma territory before Oklahoma becomes a state. And it follows the romance sort of between Laurie Williams and Curly McLean and Ada O'Annie and Will Parker. And both cowboys set out to win over their lady loves, but they have to contend with competition from other suitors. And it really champions this sort of love and homesteading in the American frontier. So what was the show actually depicting? What was Oklahoma

like during this timeframe when Lynn Riggs was writing about it, when he grew up in it, the timeframe that the show is depicting? At the turn of the century, Oklahoma was still a territory and large portions of it were Indian territory. And it contained lands that the government had set aside, relocating Native American tribes from especially the American Southeast, relocated them to Indian country or Indian territory. And that was an official congressional designation from 1890. It set aside the Oklahoma Organic Act, and it was a statute used by Congress that created organized incorporated territories in anticipation of them being admitted to the union estates. And so also during this time, we had land runs. Do you remember learning about land runs? They very strongly affected this region of the country, which of

course is still known for its agriculture, ranching, et cetera. And what it did was it gave European immigrants the opportunity to stake a claim for land that they were going to farm or ranch. And one of these largest land runs was in the late 1880s. And it had an estimated 50,000 people lined up at a starting line, like a physical starting line. They fired a gun. And then people literally rode off or ran off from the starting line to stake a claim for land. All told, after that 1889 land run, about 11,000 homesteads were established. So this is how Oklahoma became, in part, farming and ranching community, were land runs. Over a decade later, many of these ranches and farms were very well established. And they had been clustered together in little frontier towns,

they had little wooden outbuildings, one room schoolhouses, acres of wide open land for grazing raising livestock. And in 1907, Teddy Roosevelt signed the proclamation establishing Oklahoma as the 46th state. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together, we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind-the-scenes stories stories, hilarious guests and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve! It's Steve Carell in the studio! Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from The Office and our friendship with brand new guests. And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Ladies 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus,

on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. So that is what Lynn Riggs was born into. Again, he was born in 1899, right before Oklahoma became a state. And that Oklahoma territory of his boyhood is what he set Green Grows the Lilacs in. And that is the play that Rodgers and Hammerstein turned into the blockbuster Broadway hit, Oklahoma. So then Oklahoma became a movie.

The movie Oklahoma was released in 1955. The soundtrack to the movie Oklahoma was the very first musical to have a complete original cast album by a major label. And it really, again, was a pioneer in this trend of Broadway musicals recording original cast albums and releasing them as a soundtrack that people could buy. And other artists like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra covered songs from the Oklahoma soundtrack like People Will Say We're In Love. By the way, the song Oklahoma is now the official state song of the state of Oklahoma. I'm not going to pretend that I could sing it for you,

but you know the song like, Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. You know what I'm talking about? Okay. And the waving wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain. That song, that is the official state song of Oklahoma. And it was written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for the Broadway show and later the movie. The movie starred Gordon McRae and Shirley Jones. And I love Shirley Jones. She later went on to starring in Music Man and The Partridge Family. Her voice is just second to none. Rodgers and Hammerstein loved her. They loved her. They cast her in a bunch of their stuff because they loved her perfect voice. She just had an incredible voice. I would classify her

voice as right up there with Julie Andrews. Okay, that is how highly regarded Shirley Jones was as a vocalist. So when they went to make the movie of the show Oklahoma, technicolor and widescreen formats were just coming into their heyday. And they really wanted to use that to their advantage to create these massive sweeping shots of the Oklahoma plane. And Rodgers and Hammerstein were the executive producers of the movie. And so the songwriters rarely have that much control over a show. And so they were very unique in that regard in that they had so much creative control over the entire movie process.

This cemented Rodgers and Hammerstein as a literal Hollywood institution. Rodgers and Hammerstein created musical hits for over 20 years. They earned 37 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammys, two Emmy Awards. I mean, talk about a decorated duo. They also, by the way, wrote South Pacific, Carousel, The King and I, in addition to The Best, The Sound of Music, obviously. So in 1943, after the show Oklahoma had been such a smash success on Broadway, the New York Times ran a letter to the editor from a woman named Eva Paul. And she was curious about why the show gave no credit to Lynn Riggs. And this is what her letter said in part. It is rather amusing to notice the insouciance and naive bravado with which all the perpetrators of Oklahoma eliminate all mention

of Lynn Riggs. After all, did he or did he not give them a plot to which they more or less adhered and a galaxy of characters which none of them ever approached in their other undertakings. And Hammerstein wrote back a response to the New York Times, published in the New York Times, saying, as a perpetrator of Oklahoma, I deny this. And then adding, Lynn Riggs and Green Grow the Lilacs are the very soul of Oklahoma. Okay, Miss Paul? That's what he wrote back. So while Lynn Riggs did receive playbill credit and box office royalties, it's hard to deny that Oklahoma is a European-centric version of his play, Green Grow the Lilacs, which has indigenous characters in it, which are not in the show, Oklahoma. And a couple of other things I found really interesting

about this show was that prior to Rodgers and Hammerstein writing Oklahoma. Most shows were vehicles to showcase performer talent. They were not necessarily there to provide the most compelling story for the audience. That was not true in the show Oklahoma. And the other thing that was new about Oklahoma in the genre of musicals was that the songs were not just catchy. They were not just love songs. The songs were used as vehicles to drive the plot forward. They enhanced the story. They created character depth. So that was something Rodgers and Hammerstein introduced to this genre, that the songs themselves were plot devices, and they helped you understand the characters better and helped you understand where the plot was heading. That was a unique thing to a 1943 audience.

One of the other things that I thought was really interesting about this was people were very skeptical about whether or not Rodgers and Hammerstein were going to be a successful duo. And one of the producers of the show was Elizabeth Taylor's husband at the time. of the producers of the show was Elizabeth Taylor's husband at the time. She had a number of husbands. His name was Mike Todd. And he actually walked out of a pre-Broadway production meeting and told a reporter that he was certain the show was going to be a flop. Certain. And he told reporters, no legs, no jokes, no chance. Meaning there's no beautiful ladies. It's not funny. It has no chance of being a success. And he was wrong. Clearly, he definitely had to eat his words. Okay, let me give you just a couple little fun facts. Then I'll tell you my Oklahoma story. One of the things that proved difficult for the set decorators on the set of the movie Oklahoma

was that there's this line in one of the songs that talks about corn that's as high as an elephant's eye. And filming was taking place out of season, and there were no tall cornfields around. And so they had to recruit people from the University of Arizona Agricultural Department who then were desperately trying to grow tall corn stalks in a very short period of time. So they planted each stalk in individual containers and eventually they were able to coax the corn stalks to grow to be 16 feet tall. And Oscar Hammerstein was like, this corn is now as high as the eye of an elephant on top of another elephant. Like it's higher than anybody has ever seen corn before. It gets higher than anybody has ever seen Korn before.

And the woman who plays Ado Annie absolutely cannot sing in real life. Gloria Graham cannot sing in real life. And she was not trying to sing badly. That is her actual singing voice. Now, when they cast the show, like a high school or whatever, like the person playing Ado Annie has to sing badly on purpose, generally speaking. No, not her. That was actually how she sang. The movie was shot in Arizona. It was not shot in Oklahoma. And that was because in 1955, when this movie was coming out, Oklahoma was so heavily farmed and developed that they could not find any areas that resembled the highly

rural, underdeveloped Oklahoma of the turn of the century. So they had to move production to Arizona to get the kind of vibe that they wanted. The movie cost $6.8 million to make in 1954. And that's roughly the equivalent of $65 million today, which is more of a medium budget movie. But think about all of the special effects, et cetera, that they have to include in movies today that they certainly didn't have back then. It was a very expensive movie to make at the time. Very expensive movie. One of the other things I found really funny was that Gloria Graham, who I already mentioned, who played Ado Annie, refused to learn any of the choreography. And when you watch the movie back, now you can't

unsee it. During songs where there is choreography, like there's a song where they're dancing at the box social, she'll show up, sing her line, and then leave. And she was famous for like not showing up to work, showing up late, refusing to participate, refusing to learn the choreography. In fact, she basically never worked in film again because of how difficult she was to work with on the set of Oklahoma. I could keep talking about this for hours. I think it's just a charming show. There is a lot of innuendo. If you watch it with adult eyes and you're watching it for innuendo, you can be like, dang, that would definitely go over the head of a six

year old, but I understand what they're saying. All right, here's my quick little Oklahoma story. I was once traveling in Oklahoma for business and it was a Sunday and I was hungry for dinner. Most of the restaurants near where I was staying were closed. And so I was eating dinner alone in a Panera Bread. And the only other people in the Panera Bread, the only other people there were two older cowboys sitting at a table not far from me. And they're just sitting there chatting with each other. And as I got up to leave and walk past them,

I heard one of them say to the other one, she ain't from around here. How they knew, I'll never know. But it was obvious to the cowboys in Oklahoma that I was not from around there. Probably because I look like an Arctic librarian. Okay, that is it for today. I hope you loved this.

It's such a fun show. And I hope you learned some new stuff. And I will see you soon. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast, or maybe leave me a rating or a review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out

so much. I cannot wait to have another mind-blown moment with you next episode. Thanks again for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast.