BILL WATTERS

Bill Watters, Hollywood publicist for over 60 years, died at his home in Los Angeles on November 11, 2005.  He was 90 and had been ill for several years.

Watters was born in New York City on March 20, 1915.  Before coming to Los Angeles, graduated from the Taft School in Connecticut in 1933, and attended Brown University and the University of Arizona.  He graduated from the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts in 1936.  He wrote the words and music of “Fighting Sons of the Navy Blue,” and the lyrics of “Tumbledown Ranch in Arizona” and “Vienna Forgot How to Waltz.”

Watters served in the Navy during World War II.  He was the editor of “The Martial  Air,” the war daily published and distributed to servicemen serving in the Marshall Islands where he was posted. 

During his press agent career from the late 1930’s until the 1990’s, he represented airlines, nightclubs, movie studios, personalities and numerous theatrical productions in Los Angeles, including Oh Calcutta, Otherwise Engaged, Jailbirds on Broadway, Philadelphia Story, Boy Meets Boy, The Fantasticks, A Far Country, Liberace, Billy Barnes’ People, Around The World In 80 Days, Joseph E. Levine in the distribution of La Dolce Vita, Mondo Cane, Hercules, The Private Ear the Public Eye, Sweet Bird of Youth, Shirley Knight, The Blacks, The Billy Barnes Party for Joyce Jameson, A Man for All Seasons, Three Penny Opera, Oh Coward, Marcel Marceau, and Les Poupees de Paris.  His movie representations included The Swordsmen, The Return of Monte Christo, Her Husband’s Affairs.  He also represented important personalities, including Michael Todd, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, and Liberace.  His press representation for companies and organizations included RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, Columbia Pictures Corporation, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, the State of Indiana, Amateur Athletic Union, Children’s World, Inc. and Dufour and Rogers Show at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, Philip H. Lord, Inc., and Transcontinental Broadcasting System, Inc.

Watters was a member of the Hollywood Advertising Club and the Great Los Angeles Press Club, Mayor’s Council for International Visitors (appointed by Mayor Sam Yorty), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and ATPAM.

Watters was an inveterate traveler, beginning in the 1930’s when he visited Albania and wrote a travel article for the New York Herald Tribune.  He was associated with La Cienega Travel Agency for many years and visited over 150 countries.

He is survived by his sister, Ann W. Becker, of Bethesda, MD.

Bill was a member of ATPAM's Press Agent Chapter since 1959.