Andy Williams
When Andy Williams sang "Moon River," his plush tenor created the promise of wonderment and romance.
But though the song catapulted Williams from a successful career into fame that continues on almost 60 years later, his own life, both before and after, has been strewn with lunar rocks. And now, in his autobiography, "Moon River" (Viking 2009, $25.95) and on his American and European tours, Williams recounts the hardships that were a part of his life.
"It was both hard and fun to write the book, but I felt that I had to be honest," Williams said in a recent phone interview."There were things that I didn't want to think about and to feel again, like when Bobby was shot and when my ex-wife was tried for murder."
Williams, though a long time Republican, was best friends with Robert Kennedy. The two families traveled together. Williams was at the Ambassador Hotel the night Kennedy was shot and then in the hospital room, with Kennedy's pregnant wife Ethel, when he was dying.
"Writing brought back all that pain, like how I felt when I sang at his funeral," said Williams. "I would have rather have not thought about it, but it was part of my life."
Raised in Wall Lake, Iowa during the Depression, Williams had a stage father who pushed he and his three older brothers into using their wonderful singing voices to help lift the family out of poverty.
"You don't tell a seven-year-old they're not as good as their brothers," said Williams who has recorded 18 Gold and three Platinum certified albums and whose voice was declared a "National Treasure" by President Ronald Reagan."It turned me into a workaholic which wrecked my marriage."
The marriage Williams is talking about was to Claudine Longet and the mother of the couple's three children and when Longet left the marriage, Williams was devastated. But that didn't stop him from being by her side a year later when she was accused of murdering her lover, famed skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich.
"I believe it was an accident, just like she said," said Williams, who remains friends with Longet -- and her current husband -- to this day. "Bing Crosby's wife said to me, 'I can't believe you stood by Claudine' and I said 'Any father would for the mother of his children' and she said to me 'Bing wouldn't have.' "
And though Williams believes his father pushed him for the best of reasons, it created in him, for both good and bad, the incessant drive that still now, at almost 82, keeps him working all the time. Owner of the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Mo., Williams performs two shows a day during the Christmas season and one a day for most of the year. It is a pace that would seem grueling for someone even half his age.
"But I love performing," said Williams, who also has a new CD out, "Moon River: The Very Best of Andy Williams." "And I love my audiences."
Indeed, after the Williams Brothers broke up their successful singing act in the early 1950s, Williams was determined to succeed on his own. But it wasn't easy. He'd ride the bus to small venues where drunken audiences weren't interested in the songs he was singing. He sometimes was so broke he ate dog food and he would hang his wrinkled tux in the freezer of restaurants so it would look pressed. But he kept on, deciding to become a crooner instead of a singer who performed songs such as "Mad Dogs & Englishmen."
And when he got the chance to sing "Moon River," he took it, even though his advisor, who had been right so many times before said listeners would never want to hear a song with the words "my huckleberry friend."
His advisor was wrong because more than 45 years later we're still listening to both Williams and "Moon River."
Andy Williams book signing, performance, talk and photo opportunity, 6 p.m. Monday
WHERE: Tivoli Theater, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove, Ill.
COST: $25.95 for pre-autographed book plus $5 admission
No comments:
Post a Comment