Bill and Lucy Willard

William Norman Willard was born April 27, 1913 in Terre Haute, Indiana. His father, James Bassett Willard was a playwright, actor, comedian and theatrical producer, which sparked Bill's interests in all parts of entertainment and fine arts. He began art studies in 1930 along with theater. He also loved to write and by 1933, he landed a job with the Civilian Conservation Corps in Northern California as a camp newspaper editor.

In 1934, he went to New York where he obtained a working scholarship at the Art Students League. He began exploring popular music in the city clubs and hotels with mentors like Thomas (Fats) Waller and bandleader Don Bedman. He also worked as a sketch artist and painted murals for the 52nd Street Downbeat Club and the new Cotton Club in midtown for 35 cents an hour.

Bill worked briefly as a display artist for Lord & Taylor Department Store and after five years in New York he moved to Southern California to work for Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. It was a new store and he was able to receive and execute his first major sculpture commission, "The Four Seasons" and also presented his first wood carvings. This led to a period of owning his own display business, creating art items for department stores all over the United States.

His life was interrupted by "Greetings" from President Roosevelt and he was drafted into the Army. He worked in the special services at Torney General Hospital in Palm Springs and Birmingham Hospital; in Van Nuys, California. Bill thrust himself into theater, producing and writing radio shows, emceeing and writing radio broadcasts from the hospitals. One of his tasks was producing and narrating the annual Christmas shows heard nationwide and ultimately worldwide on the Armed Forces Radio Network. He also held art classes for the patients.

After his Army discharge in 1946, Willard continued writing, producing and hosting many shows for the Armed Forces Radio in Hollywood. In 1948, he became involved in writing and producing early television pilots. His agent brought him to Las Vegas in 1949 to write and produce a network radio show, "Honeymoon Hotel," from the Last Frontier Hotel. The project was abruptly aborted when his agent vanished, leaving Bill broke.

Rather than returning to Hollywood, Bill stayed in Las Vegas. His first job was to write and produce a local game/quiz show. Willard also presented his own star talk show, "The Green Room" on early KENO, introduced the first jazz radio show to Las Vegas on KRAM and the first request classical record show on KENO.

In 1949, the Thunderbird hotel became the initial site for the first Press Club "Branding Iron" revue and Willard was given writing and directing assignments. This was the start of many successful years of association with the Press Club. In 1951, Bill became the director of the Community Players with many performances in the War Memorial Building, which later became City Hall. Also that same year, he performed in the Birdcage Theatre at the Last Frontier Village in "M'Liss," a melodrama. As a result of his success, he was signed to write for and act with Hank Henry. This began a five year association with the Silver Slipper as writer, composer, character actor/straight man for Henry.

All through this period, Willard was writing a daily column for the Las Vegas Sun and became the first entertainment editor of the morning edition. In addition, he was reviewing show, filing hard news about Las Vegas for Daily and Weekly Variety, plus contributing articles to Down Beat magazine and columns for the Los Angeles Herald-Express.

After Bill left the Silver Slipper he bounced to other properties before deciding to lock himself in his studio to prepare a one-man show. This effort produced a near sell-out of his wares displayed at the Main Library downtown. Then Willard gravitated to public relations work and formed his own agency, Public Relation Advertising (PRA) with many prestige accounts. During this same time he produced "Sabrina Fair" for the Las Vegas Little theatre, followed by directing "The Tender Trap" at Grace Hayes Lodge on the strip.

In 1960, Bill produced another one-man art show with a Las Vegas theme and it moved to the Geminaire Galleries in New York City and West Galleries in Dallas. He then put his PRA business on hold in 1966 to become executive director of the newly formed Nevada State Council on the Arts and brought the organization into state recognition through the legislature's enactment of the NSCA Enabling Bill. The NSCA executive post ended in 1967 and Bill returned to the Variety fold and reactivated PRA.

Willard was commentator for the atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site and co-anchor of the nightly news on KSHO TV. He also did voice-overs and on camera appearances for commercial spots and contributed political commentary on KLAS TV. From 1964 to 1967, Bill served on the Las Vegas Beautification Committee and from 1971 to 1973, he was vice-chairman and chairman of the Las Vegas Planning Commission.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Bill co-starred in five plays at the Meadows Playhouse. In 1983, he joined the staff of the Las Vegas Review Journal as their entertainment, concert, theater critic. He became a member of the Advisory Board and subsequently, in 1989, Director of the Arnold Shaw Popular Music Research Center. He initiated the "Rap with the Artist" sessions with top performers, composers, bandleaders and those affiliated with pop music resulting in over 700 taped interviews.

William Norman Willard passed away in the year 2000.