Any Time-Clarence Willams Jazz Kings:1928

Clarence was ethnically Creole and Choctaw Indian, born in the 1890s near New Orleans. He was raised in the crescent city and started in show business at age 12 singing, dancing and playing piano. In addition to his performing, while still a young man his entrepreneurial drive led him to start several enterprises: a suit-cleaning business catering to performing piano professors, and he managed a cabaret.

Williams music business began in his mid teens when he first went door-to-door peddling his first self-published tune and sold out in a short time. He had found the trade that would be the central endeavor of his life, and soon partnered in a publishing company with A.J. Piron.