When I heard that Paul Williams was in town last week, I said to myself "cool, the dude that composed the score for "Star Wars."
No, that's John Williams.
Next stop, Google.
Ah, this is Paul Williams. Wow. Dude was in the "The Muppet Movie," all the "Smokey and the Bandit" flicks and a bunch of TV shows including "The Love Boat," for which he also wrote the theme song. He's written countless songs, including Three Dog Night's "Just an Old Fashioned Love Song" and The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" and has Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe statues.
Why was he in Milwaukee? Mr. Williams wrote the music and lyrics for "Happy Days -- A New Musical," a touring production that comes to the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts Jan. 6-11, 2009.
Williams was funny, engaging and truly proud of his work on "Happy Days."
I've got to say, I'm excited to see it next month. And, as he told me, "if Happy Days doesn't play in Milwaukee, it's not going to play well any where in the world."
Check out my short chat with Williams in the video blog below.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
