Willie and Lily attend a small weekly concert held at the hospital. Following the end of the war, Willie returns home and recuperates at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital. At sea, he begins a new march inspired by the war.ĭuring the rehearsal of Sousa's new operetta El Capitan, starring Lily, the Sousas receive a letter from Willie in Cuba in which he reveals he was wounded in the knee (his lower left leg is later amputated). However, Sousa is kept out of the actual fighting and instead is forced to go on a sea voyage to recover from a bout of typhoid fever. When the USS Maine is sunk by an explosion in Havana harbor, precipitating the Spanish–American War, both Willie and Sousa reenlist in the Marine Corps. Sousa and his band tour the world, and he is honored with medals by the crowned heads of Europe. Sousa and his band are heartily welcomed to the Atlanta exposition. The playlist for Sousa's twice-daily concerts is announced, and it includes "Dixie", to be played as often as possible and for all encores. His musicians strike up " Dixie" as the band marches onto the exposition grounds, putting the large crowd in a jubilant, receptive mood. Sousa's contract to perform at the Atlanta, Georgia Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895 is canceled by Colonel Randolph ( Finlay Currie) because both previous bands proved to be unpopular at the exposition. Sousa's wife has to let him in on their secret. Late one night, Sousa is shocked when he spots Willie sneaking into Lily's train compartment.
However, Willie and Lily are deeply in love and are secretly married and tour together in the new band. He firmly discourages the married men in the band from bringing their wives along on tour. Sousa forms his band and selects only the finest musicians from around the world. Willie and Lily immediately begin to fit right in, eventually becoming an extension of the Sousa family. When the police raid the place for indecency (by 1890s standards), the trio barely manage to get away. In fact, it is a rowdy music hall, where Willie's girlfriend, Lily Becker ( Debra Paget), is one of the performers. Willie persuades Sousa to go with him to a "concert" where some of Sousa's songs will be performed. As a favor for his splendid service, he is allowed to take along Private Willie Little ( Robert Wagner), who has invented and plays a new instrument, the "Sousaphone". He must do so because he is not paid enough by the Corps to provide for his wife Jennie ( Ruth Hussey) and their three children. In the 1890s, Sergeant Major John Philip Sousa, the director of the United States Marine Band, leaves the Marine Corps after his enlistment expires to form his own band. In reality, having learned of the sudden death of his band's manager, Sousa and his wife canceled their European vacation and were returning to the U.S. The inspiration for the film's title march is depicted in a scene with a voice over by Webb quoting Sousa's actual description of its creation while he was aboard ship recovering from typhoid fever. Two examples: In the film, Private Willie Little ( Robert Wagner), is credited with inventing the Sousaphone and naming it after his mentor, but in reality Sousa himself designed the instrument. While the film's storyline is loosely based on Sousa's autobiography Marching Along, the film takes considerable liberties and dramatic license, often expanding and examining themes and passages from Sousa's book. The film was released twenty years after Sousa's death. The film's title is taken from Sousa's " The Stars and Stripes Forever", which has become the best known of his military marches. This 20th Century Fox feature was produced by Lamar Trotti, directed by Henry Koster, and stars Clifton Webb, Debra Paget, Robert Wagner, and Ruth Hussey. Stars and Stripes Forever is a 1952 American Technicolor film biography of the late-19th-/early-20th-century composer and band leader John Philip Sousa.
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