Mason Williams

Vocation

Notable

Family

American musician-composer and author, originally hired as a gag writer for the "Smothers Brothers" television show, who then starred as a singer on the same show. He studied music at Oklahoma City University, followed by a stint in the Navy prior to his "Smothers Brothers" work. He recorded primarily with the Mercury and Warner brothers label, and may be most notably known as creator of "Classical Gas,"1968, a refreshing instrumental that earned him two Grammy awards. A master-of-no-one-trade attitude, he had a fast ascent into the realm of hip young entertainers in the ‘60s, followed by an equally fast escape when the work lost its appeal for him. His creative efforts also include a 37-by-11 foot poster of a Greyhound bus packaged inside a box the size of breakfast cereal packages, which later ended up at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He once spent $5,000 to get a skywriter to draw a heavenly stem and leaves, with the sun as the flower, above the San Bernardino desert, thus taking credit for the world’s largest sunflower which lasted only 40 seconds. Before the "Classical Gas" instrumental made him a success, he was good friends with the Smothers Brothers during their nightclub entertainment days. The Smothers brought Williams on board as comedy writer when they were hired by CBS for their weekly comedy hour. The show launched Williams as a gag writer. He developed the original "Paulsen for President" idea, which later earned him an Emmy award. He left the Smothers in 1969. Williams dabbled in television on a here-and-there basis, working on variety specials and again for the Smothers when they had a 13-week summer series in 1975. He also did some writing for "Saturday Night Live," and later worked on bluegrass symphonies. His book, "Flavors," was released in 1967. He has one daughter. Link to Wikipedia biography