Personal Life
Williams was born in Watertown, Maine. While playing in the CBS Orchestra in New York during the 1930s, Williams studied architecture at Columbia University.
His wife was named Esther (Towner) Williams (not to be confused with actress Esther Williams).
In a 2008 interview with Stan Warnow (Raymond Scott's son, a filmmaker) and Jeff Winner (of RaymondScott.com), John Williams explained that his father was also an expert marksman who won national awards in pistol shooting. "He made his own ammunition," said John, "We had a target range in our basement in Queens where he practiced for pistol competitions." Williams was a marine instructor during World War II, specializing in the use of the Colt .45 handguns. An early Raymond Scott composition on which Williams fired a loaded pistol on microphone in the pre-Quintette days was a novelty entitled "Duet For Pistol and Piano." In one surviving shellac of a live radio program where this number was featured, Williams had to improvise rimshots to simulate the gunshots after the pistol he was firing failed.
Williams died in Los Angeles, California.
Read more about this topic: Johnny Williams (drummer)
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“[The election] ... was an event in which, so far as the personal side is concerned, the victory was to him who lost and the defeat to him who won. I can say that never in the last fifteen years have I had the peace of mind that I have since the election. I have almost a feeling of elation.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“The true colour of life is the colour of the body, the colour of the covered red, the implicit and not explicit red of the living heart and the pulses. It is the modest colour of the unpublished blood.”
—Alice Meynell (1847–1922)