Andy Williams

Within a year, they were the highest paid nightclub act in the world, breaking records wherever they appeared.

Andy Williams revealed in his memoir Moon River and Me that he and Kay became romantically involved while on tour, despite the age difference (he was 19 and she was 38). Read Less

In terms of success on the singles charts, the Cadence era was Williams' peak although songs he introduced on Columbia became much bigger standards. The two top-ten hits from the Cadence era, "Butterfly" and "I Like Your Kind of Love", both sung in a style similar to Elvis Presley, were apparently believed not to suit Williams' later style; they were not included on a Columbia reissue of his Cadence greatest hits of the 1960s. Some of William's recordings sounded like multitracking. He admitted that he had occasionally asked one of his brothers to sing with him to save studio time.

In 1964, Williams ultimately became the owner of the Cadence master tapes, which he occasionally licensed to Columbia, including not only his own recordings, but also those of his fellow Cadence-era labelmates: The Everly Brothers, Lenny Welch, The Chordettes, and Johnny Tillotson. In 1968, although he was still under contract with Columbia for his own recordings, Williams formed a separate company called Barnaby Records to handle not only reissuing of the Cadence material, especially that of the Everly Brothers (one of the first Barnaby LPs was a double LP set of the brothers long out of print Cadence hits) but also new artists. Barnaby also had several Top 40 hits in the 1970s with novelty artist Ray Stevens (who had done a summer replacement show for Williams in 1970), including number-one hits such as "Everything Is Beautiful" in 1970 and "The Streak" in 1974. Read Less

His Christmas specials, which appeared regularly until 1974 and intermittently from 1982 into the 1990s, were among the most popular of the genre. Williams recorded eight Christmas albums over the years and was known as "Mr. Christmas", due to his perennial Christmas specials and the success of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year", which appears on all of his Christmas albums. Read Less

The name came from his signature song. It went on to become the first theater ever to be featured in Architectural Digest, and also won the 1992 Conservation Award from the State of Missouri.

The theater was designed to blend with the rough terrain of the Ozark Mountains. Reportedly when Williams was on his way to Big Cedar Lodge one day, he had noticed some rough rock outcroppings and said, "What about these? This could be the entrance." He had originally planned a marble style theater reminiscence of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, but soon had a change of mind. The Larson Company of Tucson, Arizona, fabricated a section of rock on Missouri's Highway 76 and the theater was soon engulfed with waterfalls, koi-filled ponds, ferns and trees native to the Ozarks. The inside of the theater incorporates the outside. Trees and plants are seen throughout the theater's three lobbies. Oak floors are accompanied by African ribbon-striped mahogany walls that are filled with pictures of the Andy Williams Television Show. Williams' passion for art can be seen throughout as well. From the start of his career, Williams had accumulated several paintings and sculptures and decided to fill his theater with his collection. Frankenthaler, Diebenkorn, Oldenburg, Pollock, Klee and Moore are a small list of artists whose work is on display at the Moon River Theater. Read Less