In 1967, a movie opened starring Mary Tyler Moore and Julie Andrews, a product of an era when camp ruled. It was not a defining movie of the generation, but it was enough to inspire one man.

In 1988, more than 20 years after “Thoroughly Modern Millie” was released, writer Dick Scanlan saw potential in the slightly dated story of a 1920s Kansas farm girl who travels to New York City to find her place in the world.

The result is the touring version of last year’s most-awarded show at the Tony Awards, “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” The show opens Tuesday at the Des Moines Civic Center, 221 Walnut St., and runs through Nov. 2.

“At its core, ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ is the story of a small-town girl who heads to New York City to find herself,” Scanlan says. “It, to me, is a timeless story. Even today, people arrive in New York by bus, train or plane and want to take advantage of the opportunity that New York City offers to reinvent yourself.”

The process of rewriting the musical was a slow one. Scanlan says he first had to get permission from Richard Morris to take what was good about the movie like its 1920s setting and to discard what wasn’t good. Those included some stereotypical Asian characters and an underdeveloped villainess.

Morris and Scanlan worked together on the script from 1991 until Morris’ death in 1996.

Scanlan says he then turned to an old friend from his days as an actor to continue bringing the musical to life. His friend, director Michael Mayer, needed to be convinced, though.

“I had serious reservations about the show at first,” Mayer says. “There were things in the film that just wouldn’t play to today’s more sophisticated audiences. However, Dick was able to see beyond the ’60s trappings and reduce it to its purest form.”

With the story shaping up, the pair decided the score needed to be overhauled next. Scanlan says it was a hodgepodge of styles and in 1997, brought someone to help sort it out.

“I was brought in originally to stitch together the patchwork of songs,” composer Jeanine Tesori says. “I signed on to unify music and arrange, not to write.”

The job grew quickly. In addition to working with the existing material, Tesori began to write new songs, with Scanlan supplying lyrics. By the time the pair finished, only two songs from the original film remained and 15 new ones were added.

Basically, it was a whole new show.

Scanlan and Morris also changed the ending from the original “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” At the end of the film, Millie gives up the symbols of her newfound independence. She finds a man and decides to grow out her bobbed haircut into curls again.

“In the film, it seems like Millie gives up all her newfound sense of self up for love,” Scanlan says. “Even as a child when I first saw it, that bugged me, so I decided to do something about it. Even though she still finds true love, Millie remains true to herself.”

Some themes in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” still hold true, even though the story takes place in the 1920s. Scanlan says people still have many of the same goals they did then, but there are a few differences in the way people go about achieving those dreams.

“Back in the ’20s, people were trying to become rich and famous,” Scanlan says. “Today, people are trying to get famous by being rich.”