When Steven Spielberg Met John Williams

In the fall of 1972, John Williams—40 years old, the father of three teenagers, a serious, old-soul musician with nearly 20 years in the business—found himself seated across from an excitable, nerdy director, 25 years old, who had just been offered his first feature. John, who never paid much heed to the films or TV of his own youth, was encountering a kid from Arizona who worshiped movies—who had been collecting soundtracks since he was 10, and who whistled “Make Me Rainbows” (a song John wrote for the 1967 movie Fitzwilly, starring Dick Van Dyke) to a bemused John during lunch.