Remembering I Remember Mama
By Theodore S. Chapin
For generations of Americans, the words "For as long as I could
remember, the house on Steiner Street had been home" have a more than
familiar ring to them. They are the opening words of the Kathryn Forbes
story about the Hansen family, a stalwart group of Norwegian immigrants
who settled in San Francisco at the turn of the century, which has
charmed readers, listeners, viewers and theater goers for over forty
years.
The first story appeared in 1943 as Mama's Bank Account in the
Readers' Digest. Its success prompted Miss Forbes to write other short
stories about her family, which were later published as a collection.
These stories were bought by RKO to be filmed, but that was not where
their first dramatization was to take place.
At the urging of his daughter and wife, Richard Rodgers read Mama's Bank Account and after conferring with his partner Oscar Hammerstein II,
decided to turn it into a play (the team decided to produce plays as
well as the musicals for which they were famous, and Mama seemed to fit
in perfectly). The play version, adapted by John Van Druten, opened in
1944—with the title that was to stick from then on: I Remember Mama. (It
is interesting to note that the role of Nils was played by a newcomer
by the name of Marlon Brando).
The Broadway success was followed by the George Stevens film starring
Irene Dunne and by various radio presentations. On July 1, 1949,
however, Mama began her longest and most fondly remembered life as the
matriarch of the CBS television series. As played by Peggy Wood, Mama
was to reign 8 years over those early days of television with her
characteristic blend of earthy practicality and undiminishing vision of
good and wholesome life in the "new" land. In 1979, I Remember Mama came
full circle and opened as a bright and cheerful Broadway musical. One
wonders if Richard Rodgers knew all along that he would some day compose
a score for a musical version of Mama. He did and it was to be his
final score. His collaborators were the team who had had an enormous
success with Annie—librettist Thomas Meehan and lyricist Martin Charnin.
For Rodgers, it was musical number 40 in a career which spanned 50
years
During the Broadway run of Mama, Rodgers was visited in New York by
record producer Norman Newell, and at the time the composer said, "My
greatest wish is for Mama to be recorded." Five years after his death,
Rodgers' wish came true when Newell assembled a superlative cast to
record the album for TER Records, with Broadway originators George Hearn
and George S. Irving joined by Sally Ann Howes as Mama, Ann Morrison as
Katrin, with cameos from such West End stars as Elizabeth Seal, Gay
Soper, Patricia Routledge and Sian Phillips, and all under the musical
direction of Bruce Pomahac.