Mary Healy (1918-2015)
By jakeem,
February 5, 2015 in General Discussions
jakeem
Location: Earth 1
Actress-singer Mary Healy, who co-starred with her husband Peter Lind Hayes in the 1953 musical fantasy "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T," has died at the age of 96. Turner Classic Movies aired the movie in the early morning hours of February 1, 2015, two days before her death.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/arts/television/mary-healy-actress-and-singer-dies-at-96.html
Here's a scene from the film featuring Healy and Tommy Rettig, who later starred in the television series "Lassie." The movie was produced by Stanley Kramer and written by Ted Geisel (alias Dr. Seuss).
SableGamine
LocationNew York City
Wow. You know, I always speculate on what her career would have been like had she not almost exclusively starred with her husband. I don'tt think that viewers ever got a chance to look at her abilities on their own. She played the role in "Dr. T"...well... to a "T". (Excuse the pun).
Mary Healy was discovered by the same talent.scout, during the same talent search, that also saw.Linda Darnell's discovery; a third discovery was.Dorris Bowden, who would marry Nunally Johnson. All three arrived at at the same.time, were tested and hired by 20th Century Fox. Only Linda Darnell.would become.a star.at.that.time. Healy, as well as Bowden, would get featured roles at the studio; Bowden was the Joad daughter in THE GRAPES OF WRATH.
Fox fashioned Linda Darnell's first vehicle (after starring in her first two movies) using semiautobiographical material of the talent scout trip discovery of both Darnell.and Mary Healy in 1940's STARDUST (early drafts of the script had Bowden also, plus the girls' first names used for the characters). Mary probably had her best role at the studio in this film, and got to sing the title.song. She was at the right place.at.the right time to have been considered to replace.Alice Faye in DOWN ARGENTINA WAY, but the studio gave the star making part to new contractee Betty Grable, and the rest.is history.
TheGayDivorcee
LocationThe Golden State
She was lovely and gracious on What's My LIne? where I discovered her during the GSN airings several years ago. Rather unusual about only working her husband--too bad for us her career was rather limited.
Ray Faiola
LocationEllenville, NY
I have a nice print of ZIS BOOM BAH which stars Healy with her husband and her mother-in-law Grace Hayes.
DougieB
Mary Healy and Peter Lind Hayes (as well as Les Paul and Mary Ford) really stood out in their time as an example of marital commitment and may have even helped pave the way for marriage-centric sitcoms like "Leave It to Beaver", "Make Room for Daddy" and "The Donna Reed Show". In films at the time we were mostly seeing married couples like Jim Backus and Ann Doran in "Rebel Without a Cause", couples who thwarted rather than encouraged the hopes of their children. The new "youth" demographic was lured into theaters by the villainization of parent figures, so people like Mary Healy seemed all the more rare in that landscape.
JamesJazGuitar
Being a guitar player I remember the first time I heard those Paul and Ford recordings. I really didn't know what to make of them. Ford singing with a fairly relaxed style and Paul playing (and often overplaying) on top of that. Crazy man, just crazy!
To this day, I still don't know how I feel about Paul as a guitar player. But the two albums he did with Chet Atkins are great (their styles being soooo much different).