Singer Andy Williams, a man who has started almost as many traditions as he embodies, performed a traditional Christmas concert Friday for the first of two sold-out shows at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert.
It was an old-fashioned variety show with quick-change artists Pasha & Aliona, the singing Warnock Family and the Williams Brothers tap dancers - who, as they noted, weren't really Andy's brothers.
Williams, who turned 80 on Dec. 3, is a longtime winter resident of La Quinta and a former honorary mayor of the city.
So the theater was filled with many local friends, including entertainer Peter Marshall of Palm Desert.
But others came from all over the nation, as personal notes Williams read on stage indicated. Notes included quips such as: "Is that your real hair?"
Other celebrities on the guest list included Grammy Award-winning singers Jack Jones and Keely Smith, and longtime Grammy show producer Pierre Cossette.
Williams was the host of the Grammy Awards in the 1960s and the first host of a televised Grammy show.
Smith, scheduled to attend Williams' Sunday show, said the secret to Williams' appeal is that he's so approachable.
"He's a very nice person and he gives off that aura from the stage," she said. "You always call him Andy, you never call him Mr. Williams. He's just like a down-home country boy."
Williams didn't come out in his traditional Christmas sweater, making an entrance in an oversized yellow shirt.
But he started with his traditional "Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and quickly indicated he hasn't lost any of his dulcet vocal tones.
Williams has recorded eight Christmas albums and he did a Christmas show during each of the 10 seasons his highly rated variety show was on television in the 1960s.
His Christmas concerts became a holiday tradition at the McCallum in the first years of the theater and he transferred that tradition to his Andy Williams Moon River Theatre in Branson, Mo. He performed his last Christmas show there Wednesday.
Williams sang such holiday classics as "Jingle Bells" and "Silent Night.
But he mixed in pop classics such as "Call Me Irresponsible" and, of course, "Moon River."
Original article source: http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071215/LIFESTYLES0101/712150316/-1/newsfront
