Atlanta Daily World

Whistler, Imitator Are Hit At Fair

NEW YORK—(ANP)—One of the star attractions at the Florida building, New York World's fair is Willie L. Williams, skilled whistler and bird imitator whose performances are enjoyed daily by great crowds of visitors to the Florida exhibit.

Known as "Whistling Willie, the Janitor," Williams, to the delight of all who hear him, varies the monotony of his daily chores with an assortment of 50 imitations including animal and bird life, some of them so perfect visitors can't detect which is the imitation. Some of his specialties are macaws, parrots, cockatoos, canaries, mocking birds, Bermuda whistling frogs, red birds, meadow larks and scores of others.

Williams is 47 years old, was born in South Carolina and was taken by his parents to live in St. Augustine, Florida when a baby. In recent years he has lived in Sanford, Florida where he worked as celery-stripper and a filling station attendant. He came to New York in 1936 where his prowess as an imitator won him a place on Major Bowes Amateur program.

He says his bird talk often fools the birds themselves.