Remembering Andy Williams

Andy Williams, one of America's top pop vocalists and popular TV show host, has died.  He was 84.

One of the benefits of a career in radio is, or maybe WAS, the chance to meet lots of celebrities needing to use your show to promote themselves or a project they support.  Usually you have enough notice to prepare for a famous guest and are ready with questions you think will provide some insight and fascination for listeners.  Naturally, like much in life, sometimes you get surprised…

In January of 1977 I was new to San Diego having re-located the previous August from the Tampa/St. Petersburg market.  As the afternoon drive guy on KOGO it was part of my deal to also host the Saturday morning show in place of the legendary Ernie Myers who had a contract that guaranteed him a Monday through Friday work week.  It was fun for me since I had primarily been a morning guy for most of my career. The show was my opportunity to establish a beachhead in the morning real estate if and when Ernie decided to retire.  

From 1968 to 1988 Andy Williams hosted the annual San Diego Open.  He was an avid golfer and the PGA loved having big names on the majority of their tournaments in those days.  Bob Hope, Glen Campbell and Dinah Shore had their own and the Torrey Pines course at La Jolla was the perfect venue for the Andy Williams San Diego Open.  

I was at the AWSDO that Saturday in January of 1977 and about half way through my 6am-10am show when an official from the tournament stuck his head in the door of the KOGO mobile studios set up for the event.  He said, "Andy is here and I'm bringing him in for an interview in a few minutes."  "Hummina hummina  hummina", I managed.  Immediately I thought I'm not prepared!  What the hell can I ask him??!!

At first I thought a sincere thank you for all the make-out music he had provided for my high school Romeo years. (The girls all loved him.)  Fortunately I realized that would fill about ten seconds of time, IF he laughed.  The only other subject that was rolling around in my cranium was the recent trial and conviction of his ex-wife, Claudine Longet, who had air-conditioned her boyfriend, professional skier Spider Sabich, to death with a pistol that just happened to fall into her hands.  That's ALL I had.  My mind couldn't stop thinking of wise ass cracks like Claudine wanting Spider to "listen to a 45" and other equally snide and insipid lines.

And then….HE WAS THERE.   

I rose to shake hands and was stunned to see how short he was.  I had no idea.  I'd seen him on TV for years and had always thought him to be of average height but here was a guy wearing Cuban heels who  barely touched 5'5", maybe less.  He was really short!  I'm certain that the surprise shown in my face.  In addition he gave every indication of being massively hungover and in no mood to "chat".  My career flashed in front of my eyes as he shakily fired up a large stogie, no doubt as an incentive for me to keep our meeting brief.

In my headphones I heard that we were nearing the end of a commercial break and I was "ON" in ten seconds.  Flop sweat enveloped my body as I lamely began introducing Andy.  A quick comment about us both having spent time in Iowa, he in Wall Lake and me in Spencer, went nowhere and I could tell by the look on his face he wasn't going to stick around too long if this was all I had.  I asked about his brothers and how their boyhood act evolved from singing on the radio in Des Moines and Cincinnati to backing up Bing Crosby on his big hit, "Swingin' On A Star".  And THEN IT CAME TO ME…

Somehow,  either by reading it or hearing about it, I recalled the little known fact that Andy, as a young boy, had provided the singing voice for Lauren Bacall in the movie "To Have and To Have Not", a picture that first teamed her with Humphrey Bogart.  I asked him if it was true and how it happened.

His eyes widened and he sat up with interest.  He was engaged and suddenly excited to talk to me.  I had turned the corner and we were headed for home!  He told the story of how he and his brothers, Dick, Bob and Don had been under contract to MGM and were on the studio lot playing ball outside Louie B. Mayer's window as Mr. Mayer was meeting with Bogie and Bacall.  The subject of Bacall's lack of singing talent had been the major topic since the picture required her to briefly sing a song.  Mayer, always anxious to utilize contract players, called out to the Williams brothers and ask them to come to his office.  Each brother was auditioned on the spot to see if there was a close match to Lauren's low pitch.  In his early teens, it was decided that young Andy's voice was just about perfect.   

Andy Williams became the singing voice of Lauren Bacall.  

Movie trivia had saved me!

If you have a chance, check out "To Have and To Have Not"to hear the voice of a young Andy Williams exit the mouth of the very sexy Lauren Bacall.

The rest of the interview went very well.  I relaxed and remembered questions about some of his hit records and his relationship with Bobby and Ethel Kennedy, even though he was a registered Republican.  In every respect it became a worthy interview.  He left the KOGO trailer in good spirits and I went home with a wonderful memory of a major singing talent with over twenty-seven charted hit records that continue to play on as the  soundtrack of my generation.

Andy Williams 1927-2012

Getting Out of Town

Been on the road…and, in the air--A LOT.
The wife and I thought it was time to see Europe up close and personal since we have reached that point in life when people say things like "better do it now while you still can".

My take?
First of all, it's always a treat to be overseas when zealots decide to burn our embassies and kill our ambassadors.  If you're an American, it's always open season.
Then there is the problem of too damn many statues and fountains.
Frankly, I got tired of looking at them.  Far more interesting were the balconies of Italy, Greece and Spain.  The denizens of southern Europe  actually use their little slice of sky for drying their clothes,  growing potted things and just watching the passing parade.  Remember  the smell of clothesline dried duds?  Over here they never forgot.

"Honey, your shorts are done."

Cool shadows in Tuscany

Drawers dryin' in the Italian sun.

Nice window box in Corfu, Greece

When in Rome, do as the Pope does.

Old cats watch the tourists

A dog's eye view of the Spanish Steps in Rome.

I don't know why Italian laundry fascinates me, but it does.

Just shoot the morons who do this!

No, not NYC.  It's Manarola, Italy

Santorini, Greece: a place of stunning beauty.

Unfortunately graffiti has become commonplace on the continent.  Like Americans the people of Europe have come to accept it.  It is NOT "street art" dammit!   It is a disgrace and let me be the first to suggest that instant public executions for those responsible may be a handy deterrent.  A society willing to tolerate this nonsense is most certainly circling the drain.  It has to stop NOW.

The food, especially in Italy, is exceptional.  I'm sure that at least a couple of pounds of pasta has found a home around my equator.  The Greeks have some good ideas about what to do with food too.  Spain--the whole tapas thing has a lot of appeal--but, who wants to wait around to dine at nine or ten PM?

Okay, check that trip off the old bucket list.  It's time to make plans for the next venture.  I'm excluding Africa and Antarctica because I simply have zero interest in either.  (I get National Geographic to cover that base.)  But after another ten or twelve months of recovery time I should be ready to tackle the world once again with camera at the ready.  Zanzibar anyone?

Yesterday, after eighteen hours in the air and four trips through the airport security of two different countries, we touched down on U.S. soil.  As our plane began its approach, Chuck Berry's "Back In the U.S.A." played on my ipod.

                  "Oh well, oh well, I feel so good today,
                    We touched ground on an international runway
                     Jet propelled back home, from overseas to the U.S.A.

                    Well, I'm so glad I'm livin' in the U.S.A.
                     Yes, I'm so glad I'm livin' in the U.S.A.
                     Anything you want, we got it right here in the U.S.A."

Nailed it Chuck!   Sometimes you have to leave to remind yourself.

KO Is OK by This Flyboy

With a colonoscopy they are at least courteous enough to knock you out with one of those elephant tranquilizers before violating your nether regions.  You know the drill, (pun intended), like a dying star beginning a wobbly decent into the void, doctors recommend--nay insist--on a colonoscopy to probe the southern end of your inner being.  And, like a college fraternity pledge with a homecoming weekend date, sedation is helpful.  Better living through chemistry I believe they call it.

Having been a traveling fool of late I think that, just as it is with the old roto rooter routine, air transportation may be enhanced by the administration of a package of heavy sedation.  It is after all a true PAIN IN THE ASS TO FLY!  From the TSA pre-boarding feel up to the excruciatingly uncomfortable ride there is genuine torture a plenty when taking a plane ride in 2012.

WHY??!!!

It's not as if the airlines are making money.  Sir Richard Branson, the daddy of Virgin Air, once explained that the quickest way to become a millionaire is to begin with a billion dollars and then get into the airline business. 

It wasn't always thus.  I recall my first plane ride. It was a BIG DEAL.  People, me included, dressed up.  We didn't all look like we were in the middle of washing the car and suddenly Baltimore seemed a good idea.  In those days you could smoke and the food and drinks were free.  It was heaven to fire up a Lucky Strike and slam down the first of fifteen or twenty Old Fitzgerald's as the bird began to taxi for takeoff.  I recollect the plane landing at our destination around 7:15 PM and me a couple of hours later.  Good times!

So here it is, another million dollar idea lined up just for you:  Please, SOMEBODY, develop a business plan that offers air travel providing complete and carefree heavy sedation from my front door to my final destination.  There are plenty of fliers with credit cards at the ready just waiting to book fare.  We will PAY UP to be knocked out and transported in air-conditioned unconscious comfort and or splendor to anywhere and everywhere a limp and compliant body can be shipped.

I'm already counting backward.  Nurse, turn on the joy juice and wake me when we're there! 

10, 9, 8…….ZZZZZZZZZZ

BAM! ZOOM! TO THE MOON!