Mary Ford facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mary Ford |
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Ford with Les Paul in 1953
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Iris Colleen Summers |
| Born | July 7, 1924 El Monte, California, U.S. |
| Died | September 30, 1977 (aged 53) Arcadia, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
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| Years active | 1939–1966 |
| Labels | |
Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers; July 7, 1924 – September 30, 1977) was an American musician. She was a talented guitarist and singer. Mary Ford was famous for being half of the musical duo Les Paul and Mary Ford. This was a husband-and-wife team.
Between 1950 and 1954, they had 16 songs that reached the top ten on the music charts. Their number one hits included "How High the Moon" and "Vaya con Dios". In 1951 alone, they sold six million records! Mary Ford and Les Paul were pioneers in using a recording technique called multi-tracking. This allowed them to record many layers of sound.
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Mary Ford's Early Life
Mary Ford was born Iris Colleen Summers in El Monte, California, on July 7, 1924. Her father was a minister, and her mother was Dorothy May White Summers. Mary came from a very musical family. Her parents traveled across the United States. They sang gospel music and preached at church meetings.
They eventually settled in southern California. There, they performed on KPPC-AM, Pasadena's first Christian radio station. All of Mary's brothers and sisters were also musicians.
When she was in junior high school, Colleen Summers performed in churches. She sang with a local girl named Mildred "Milly" Watson. They later made gospel recordings with Milly's older brother, Marvin. Colleen even wrote some of the songs for these recordings. In 1939, Colleen and Milly won a talent contest in Pasadena. Famous people like a young Judy Garland were judges. They loved music so much that they left school to focus on their musical dreams. They briefly worked as ushers in a movie theater.
Starting Her Music Career
By 1943, Colleen Summers joined Vivian Earles and June Widener. They formed a western trio called the Sunshine Girls. They sang backup for Jimmy Wakely and his trio. The Sunshine Girls were regular performers on The Hollywood Barn Dance. This was a popular weekly radio show on CBS Radio. It was broadcast on Saturday nights.
In 1944, the Sunshine Girls appeared in a film called I'm from Arkansas. They sang "You Are My Sunshine" in the movie.
In 1945, Eddie Dean introduced Colleen Summers to guitarist Les Paul. At this time, she was a popular western singer on radio station KXLA. She and Les Paul began performing together in 1946. Colleen left the Sunshine Girls to work with Paul. Her older sister, Eva, later sang with the other members of the trio.
Colleen Summers also appeared on Gene Autry's Melody Ranch radio show. She was a cast member and featured singer from July to November 1946. From 1946 to 1948, Summers was a regular actor on The All-Star Western Theatre. This was a radio drama program.
By 1947, Colleen Summers and Les Paul became a couple. In January 1948, they were in a car accident in Oklahoma. Their car went off the road and fell into a frozen creek. Les Paul was badly hurt. His right elbow was shattered, and it took him 18 months to play guitar again. Colleen moved in with Paul to help him recover from his injuries.
By the summer of 1949, Colleen Summers started performing as Mary Ford. Les Paul chose the name "Mary Ford" from a phone book. He wanted her stage name to be short, like his.
That same year, Les Paul and Mary Ford got married. They had a small ceremony in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on December 29. They later had three children: a baby who passed away shortly after birth in 1954, a fostered daughter named Mary Colleen Paul, and a son named Robert Ralph "Bobby" Paul.
Success with Les Paul
After their wedding, Paul and Ford started making radio shows for NBC. One show was called Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home. It was a 15-minute program broadcast every Friday night.
Mary Ford and Les Paul became huge music stars in the early 1950s. They released 28 hit songs for Capitol Records between 1950 and 1957. Some of their famous songs included "Tiger Rag", "Vaya con Dios", "Mockin' Bird Hill", and "How High the Moon". "Vaya con Dios" was number one for 11 weeks, and "How High the Moon" was number one for nine weeks.
These songs featured Mary Ford singing harmonies with herself. This gave their music a unique and new sound. Paul and Ford recorded all their music at home or while traveling. They then sent the finished recordings to Capitol Records. Les Paul was very involved in deciding which songs would become hits.
They also used a recording technique called close miking. This means the microphone was very close to the singer's mouth. This made the sound more personal and clear. It was a different style from older singing methods.
After touring and recording a lot, the couple moved to New York City. They wanted to move from radio to television. They recorded their famous song "How High The Moon" there. This song had many layers of guitar and Mary's voice, using 12 overdubs. Capitol Records was not sure about releasing it at first. But after more hits like "Tennessee Waltz" and "Mockin' Bird Hill", "How High The Moon" was released in March 1951. Within a month, "How High The Moon" and "Mockin' Bird Hill" were the number one and number two songs on Your Hit Parade.
In 1951, Ford and Paul earned a lot of money. They had more top ten hits that year than many other famous artists combined. They also sold over six million records since January 1951.
Paul bought a Cadillac for their tours to carry all their equipment. They also bought a home in Mahwah, New Jersey. It had a recording studio and a special echo chamber. In September 1952, Ford and Paul traveled to London. They performed at the Palladium Theatre. They even performed for Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family.
In 1953, the couple recorded "Vaya con Dios". This became the biggest-selling song of their career. It was number one on the Billboard charts for nine weeks.
After the success of "Vaya con Dios", they hosted The Les Paul and Mary Ford Show. This was their own daily television program. It was five minutes long and ran from 1953 to 1960 on NBC television.
In the mid-1950s, rock and roll music became very popular. This caused the popularity of many performers, including Paul and Ford, to decline. In 1955, they performed a concert at Carnegie Hall. In 1956, they performed at the Eisenhower White House.
As rock and roll grew, Ford and Paul's songs appeared less on the charts in the late 1950s. In July 1958, Paul and Ford left Capitol Records and signed with Columbia. However, this move did not bring back their earlier success. They appeared on NBC's Five Star Jubilee in 1961. Les and Mary divorced in December 1964.
Mary Ford's Later Years
In November 1963, Mary Ford released her first solo song. It was an English version of "Dominique".
Around 1965, Mary Ford married Donald Hatfield. She had known him since high school. They settled in Monrovia, California. Mary and her sisters sang on an album called The New Sound of American Folk. This album was recorded at her brother Bobby Summers' studio.
Awards and Honors
Mary Ford and Les Paul received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 1541 Vine Street in Hollywood. In 1978, they were honored by being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Mary Ford's Passing
Mary Ford passed away on September 30, 1977, in Arcadia, California. She was 53 years old. She is buried at Forest Lawn-Covina Hills in Covina, California. Her tombstone shows her birth year as 1924. It also has the words "Vaya con Dios" engraved on it. This means "Go with God" and was the title of one of her most famous songs.
Documentary Film About Mary Ford
Interviews and performances of Mary Ford and Les Paul are shown in a musical documentary. It is called Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90. John Paulson directed the film. It first showed on May 9, 2007, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It later premiered on television on July 11, 2007, as part of the PBS American Masters series.
Mary Ford's Music
Hit Singles
- "Vaya con Dios"
- "Jura"
- "Tennessee Waltz"
- "Mockin' Bird Hill"
- "How High the Moon"
- "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise"
- "Whispering"
- "My Baby's Coming Home"
- "Lady of Spain"
- "Bye Bye Blues"
- "I'm Sitting on Top of the World"
Albums
- Hawaiian Paradise
- The Hit Makers!
- The New Sound
- Les Paul's New Sound with Mary Ford, Vol. 2 – Capitol Records SM-286 (originally released 1951), A Capitol Monophonic Re-issue
- A01 in the Good Old Summer Time [2:06]
- A02 I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)[2:45]
- A03 Three Little Words [1:53]
- A04 The Lonesome Road [2:50]
- A05 Carioca [2:20]
- B01 I Can't Give You Anything But Love [1:54]
- B02 Just One More Chance [1:50]
- B03 Don'Cha Hear Them Bells [1:55]
- B04 The Moon of Manakoora [2:45]
- B05 Chicken Reel [2:05]
- Bye Bye Blues!
- Les and Mary
- Time to Dream
- Lover's Luau
- Warm and Wonderful
- Bouquet of Roses
- Swingin' South
- Fabulous Les Paul & Mary Ford
Listen to Mary Ford
- Internet Archive: The Les Paul Show (11 episodes)
- Sounds like Les Paul/Mary Ford, but it's actually Mary Ford's sisters (Carol, Eva) and brother (Bob)
See also
In Spanish: Mary Ford para niños
