Trivia

Mary Healy, at age 21, met vaudeville-trained 24 year old Peter Lind Hayes performing with his vaudevillian mother Grace Hayes at a North Hollywood nightclub. Mary (age 22) and Peter Lind Hayes (age 25) were married from 1940 until his death on 21 April 1998 (age 82). With few exceptions she and her husband worked together exclusively. One of their first high-profile pairings as a duo was in the CBS TV musical variety series "Inside U.S.A. with Chevrolet", which ran on CBS TV from September 29,1949 through March 16, 1950; a revue-style series that producer Arthur Schwartz based on his successful Broadway show "Inside U.S.A.". They sang Chevrolet's catchy jingle, "See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet," before the jingle became a signature of Dinah Shore on her NBC TV "Dinah Shore Show" Chevrolet sponsored variety show of the 1950s and '60s.

In 1941, after marrying Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy co-starred with her husband and his mother Grace Hayes in the musical comedy film "Zis Boom Bah". "Hey, kids, let's get together and put on a show!" That's the idea behind this raucous spoof about a vaudeville performer who goes to college to spy on her bratty son. The character "Nick" played by Benny Rubin (Ruben) who tap-dances his way through this film is made up to look like a college kid but is actually 42 years old in this film.

Was Arthur Godfrey's replacement on CBS radio and TV. Served as a Technical Sgt. in the U.S. Air Corps 1942-1946. Decorated with two battle stars and a bronze star.

Father of Cathy Lind Hayes and Peter Michael Hayes.

Release of autobiography, "Twenty-Five Minutes from Broadway" by Peter and Mary Healy. (1961)

The popular comedy team Healy and Hayes gained television fame during the infancy of the television medium's golden age, when husband-wife acts, notably "George Burns and Gracie Allen" and "Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz" had strong appeal. A replica of the stars' New Rochelle, New York home provided the setting for 'The Peter Lind Hayes Show", which ran on NBC in 1950 through 1951. Each episode opened with a shot of the guest star on the telephone explaining to someone off-camera that he could not have dinner that evening because he was going to Peter and Mary's house. He then walked onto the set, where his talents were showcased along with those of the two hosts. A degree of verisimilitude also characterized the half-hour comedy "Peter Loves Mary," which ran on NBC airing in 1960-61. Healy and Hayes portrayed a show-business couple who left New York City for life in the suburbs with their children. Peter misses the hustle-bustle of the city and his show-biz confrères, while Mary prefers the PTA, Boy and Girl Scout membership activities and the garden club scene. In the early 1960s, the couple also hosted a WOR radio show, which was broadcast from the basement of their New Rochelle house. Their witty repartee about children, married life and other mundaneness struck a chord with listeners, especially when they argued on the air. "We've even had letters saying, 'Please argue more,'" Mary Healy told the New York Times interviewer in 1964. In addition to their TV and film work, Mary Healy and her husband Peter Lind Hays were popular at the Las Vegas Sands Hotel, headliners on fourteen successful nightclub circuit engagements during the 1960s.

Together, in 1961, Mary Healy and Peter Lind Hayes published a memoir, "Twenty-five Minutes from Broadway"; their memoir, the title inspired by George M. Cohan's Broadway musical "Forty Five Minutes from Broadway", was about the community of New Rochelle, New York, where they owned and lived on Columbia Island along the Long Island Sound shore where they taped and rebroadcast the daily breakfast conversation program. Mary Healy self-published a second book in 2004, "Moments to Remember with Peter and Mary - Our Life in Show Business from Vaudeville to Video". In 2006, Mary Healy and Peter Lind Hayes were inducted into the Nevada Entertainment Artist Hall of Fame at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Mary Healy (at age 40) with her husband Peter Lind Hayes (at age 43) returned to Broadway in 1958 to star in the Leland Hayward produced original comedy written by Norman Krasna, with incidental music by Bernard Green, "Who Was That Lady I Saw You With" at the Martin Beck Theatre, opening 03 March, closing 30 August 1958 (208 performances). Extending Healy's career from stage to the movies, Mary with her husband Peter co-starred with Hans Corned in "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T," a 1953 musical fantasy film based on a story by Theodor Seuss Geisel about a boy who hates practicing piano and dreams he has been taken to an island where he is forced to play on a giant keyboard with 499 other captive children. Mary Healy, as Heloise Collins, portrayed the boy's film mother. Bartholomew Collins, the boy, was portrayed by actor Tommy Rettig. Peter Lind Hays portrayed August Zabladowski. George Chakiris was featured as a dancer.

Son of Grace Hayes.

Stepson of Robert E. Hopkins.