Mary Healy

Mary Healy was born on April 14, 1918 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. She was an actress, known for The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.

Mary Healy went on to appear in four Broadway productions between 1942 and 1958. Mary made her Broadway stage debut (at age 24) in the musical, revue, comedy "Count Me In". - opening October 08, closing November 21, 1942 (61 performances), opposite Charles Butterworth and Jean Arthur. In 1945, Mary appeared in the original play "Common Ground", opening 25 April, closing 23 June 1945 (69 performances). In 1946, she starred as Mrs. Aouda in Orson Welles' production for Broadway, an original Cole Porter composed Extravaganza musical production of "Around the World", opening 31 May, closing 03 August 1946 (75 performances), a role that she would reprise for Orson Welles' the "Mercury Summer Theatre on the Air" radio adaptation of the musical play. The 1946 Orson Welles "Mercury Theatre Production" was based on the Jules Verne novel about an adventurer who circumnavigates the globe in 80 days. Mary Healy with her husband Peter Lind Hayes 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, with husband Peter, she 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. Healy, as Heloise Collins, portrayed the boy's mother. Bartholomew Collins, the boy, was portrayed by actor Tommy Rettig. Peter Lind Hays portrayed August Zabladowski. George Chakiris was featured as a dancer.

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,'" Healy told the New York Times interviewer in 1964. In addition to their TV and film work, Healy and Peter Lind Hayes were popular in Las Vegas, headlined at the Sands Hotel for fourteen successful nightclub circuit engagements during the 1960s.

(1953), Lookin' to Get Out (1982) and 20,000 Men a Year (1939). She was married to Peter Lind Hayes.

Release of their biography, "Twenty-Five Minutes from Broadway", by Mary and Peter Lind Hayes. [1961]

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.