And the answer is: racial prejudice. If you don’t know the plot of this musical and think it’s just something lighthearted, you might be surprised by its content. The location is an island in the (where else?) south Pacific during World War II. The central conflict between the two main characters, Nellie the Naval nurse and Emile, the French planter with whom she falls in love, is that Nellie finds it very difficult to accept that Emile has been married before to a “dark-skinned Polynesian” and has two “mixed race” children. It’s only after Emile is almost killed in a secret mission to spy on the Japanese forces that Nellie realizes how much she loves him and his children. Another character, the Naval officer Cable, falls in love with a Polynesian girl, Liat, and that romance is also considered pretty scandalous. He decides that he can’t marry her because of how his family back home would react. He’s killed during the spy mission. But before he goes off to that fate he sings a very famous (and controversial at the time) song about how prejudice develops: “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.”
As with almost every other major creative work, there’s a long, meandering path to its final form. Sometimes when I read these backstories I wonder how anything ever gets done. Here the story begins with James Michener’s short story collection Tales of the South Pacific, his first work of fiction. Michener had traveled extensively throughout the south Pacific islands during World War II, and he decided to write some accounts of the people he’d met during that time. Although Michener had been raised a Quaker, and therefore could have claimed the status of a conscientious objector and avoided the draft, he enlisted in the Navy in 1941. I wonder if his attitude was similar to my own father’s, who was raised a Mennonite, also a pacifist denomination. He and his buddies from the small farming community of Delft, Minnesota, joined up to fight in Europe in spite of their church’s objections because they felt that “Hitler must be stopped.” I suppose Michener felt the same about Emperor Hirohito. (Funny story: Michener ended up avoiding combat and instead using his considerable writing talents as an on-the-spot Naval historian. He was apparently awarded these assignments because his commanders thought he was the son of Admiral Marc Mitscher.)
Anyway, after the war the composer/lyricist team of Rodgers and Hammerstein was casting around for a new musical to follow up on their huge successes with Oklahoma! and Carousel. Someone passed on Michener’s book to the two men, and after much negotiation over rights and rewriting of the script the premier took place in 1949 with the two leading roles played by Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza. Pinza was making a move from opera to musical theater, and Martin was a little nervous about performing with him. I’m going to include a section here from the Wikipedia article on the leadup to the musical’s opening, as it’s all so charming:
Martin was reluctant to sing opposite Pinza’s powerful voice; Rodgers assured her he would see to it the two never sang at the same time, a promise he mostly kept. . . . Martin influenced several of her songs. While showering one day during rehearsals, she came up with the idea for a scene in which she would shampoo her hair onstage. This gave rise to “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair.” Built around a primitive shower that [director] Logan remembered from his time in the military, the song became one of the most talked-about in South Pacific. To introduce another of Martin’s numbers to her, Rodgers called her over to his apartment, where he and Hammerstein played “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy” for her. When Martin essayed it for herself, she sang the final 26 words, as intended, with a single breath, and fell off her piano bench. Rodgers gazed down at her, “That’s exactly what I want. Never do it differently. We must feel you couldn’t squeeze out another sound.” . . . As originally planned, Martin was supposed to conclude “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy” with an exuberant cartwheel across the stage. This was eliminated after she vaulted into the orchestra pit, knocking out [the conductor].
To say that South Pacific was a hit rather understates the facts. Perhaps the closest phenomenon today would be the musical Hamilton. If you’d like to read a retrospective about the opening, this article from the Washington Post fills the bill. (And has a surprising number of typos.)
My own choir has performed two popular selections that have been arranged for choral groups: “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame” which is sung by the Seabees (C.B.’s–”Construction Battalions”) on the island who aren’t allowed to date the nurses, since they’re enlisted men and the nurses are commissioned officers. So they languish. “I’m Gonna Wash that Man” fits into the plot near the beginning, when Nellie’s just becoming attracted to Emile. She decides that she doesn’t know him very well (the racial issue hasn’t arisen yet) and she should just break things off. It’s a very funny scene in itself, but it’s also pretty hilarious that Nellie’s taking a shower onstage but she of course keeps her clothes on.
May I share a personal story here? At some point in the 1950’s there must have been a TV broadcast of the original Broadway show. My mother said, “That Mary Martin is funny. She sings ‘I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair.’” She even sang a little bit of it. So we made sure to watch the program. (And of course we had to undergo the unspeakable hardship of checking the TV schedule and tuning in at the right time.) Well, I was entranced when that song came on. Mary’s singing and dancing were a revelation, especially her prancing around with that towel. So that was what you were supposed to do when you performed something! You didn’t just stand there. You put it over. (Not that I knew that expression at the time.) Maybe that was the start of my liking for the theater (although I’ve never been much of an actress—or a singer, for that matter.) When I was reminded of this incident by our own performance I decided to go on YouTube and see if by any chance it was still accessible. And it is! I just could not believe that I was sitting in front of my computer watching something I last saw 60+ years ago with my mom. I’m posting it below for you to watch if you’d like to see the absolutely definitive version of this song in all of its grainy black-and-white glory. The actual song starts about five minutes into the video. (Mary Martin makes Mitzi Gaynor, who played Nellie in the film, look like a limp dishrag. If you have no idea who I’m talking about, well, I guess you’re just not old enough!)
In addition to the two selections I’ve sung there are others that have been arranged for choir, including “Bali Ha’i,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” and “Younger than Springtime.” In addition, there have been concert versions performed, including one at Carnegie Hall starring Reba McEntire as Nellie. It’s pretty good! (But I can’t for the life of me figure out why she and other main characters didn’t memorize their parts and instead had to carry around black notebooks. Strange!) And with that I’d better close, having just scratched the surface of the info that’s out there on this musical. One of these days I may even hunt down a copy of Michener’s book.
First off, here’s the published grainy-but-great video of Mary Martin’s song:
Then here’s the first of 13 videos of the Reba McEntire concert version. You’ll see the rest of them on the sidebar. (Don’t miss Alec Baldwin’s performance in #11)–
And then, just because I was reminded of this while writing about Michener’s being mistaken for Admiral Mitscher’s son, a clip from the old TV show Gomer Pyle:
© Debi Simons
