Early life

Hayes was born in San Francisco, the son of Joseph Conrad Lind Sr., a railroad man and amateur singer, and vaudeville entertainer Grace Hayes (1895–1989). Joseph Lind Sr. died when his son was two years old. Hayes attended parochial school in Cairo, Illinois, during his early childhood before moving to the New York City suburb of New Rochelle and continuing his education there.

Career

Hayes made his vaudeville debut with his mother at the age of six. In 1939, his mother sold some jewelry and borrowed $8,000 to open the Grace Hayes Lodge in Los Angeles, where he began working as a nightclub performer.

He appeared in films throughout the 1930s and 1940s and had a significant television career in the 1950s. He often appeared with his wife Mary Healy. During World War II Hayes enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and appeared in both the play and film of Winged Victory. In 1946, Hayes opened at the Copacabana in New York. This led to an engagement with the Dinah Shore radio show.

Hayes and Healy were the original singers of the Chevrolet jingle "See The U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet" in 1950. (Dinah Shore later sang the song for Chevrolet starting in 1952.) The couple starred in Zis Boom Bah (1941) along with Grace Hayes and were top-billed in the cult fantasy musical film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953). He also had a considerable reputation as a singer of comic songs, several of which made their way onto record, including "Life Gets Tee-Jus, Don't It".

Hayes may best be remembered for being designated substitute for Arthur Godfrey on both his CBS-TV and radio programs as well as several short-lived television series in which he and Healy co-hosted or co-starred, such as The Peter Lind Hayes Show (1950–51), Star of the Family (1950-1952), and Peter Loves Mary (1960–61). He also appeared on the pilot episode of The Match Game on December 5, 1962. He and his wife Mary were occasional guests on TV quiz shows To Tell the Truth, Password, and What's My Line? In 1964, he appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits, titled "Behold, Eck!", playing the lead role of Dr. Robert Stone, an absent-minded optical engineer and researcher.

Personal life

Hayes was married to Mary Healy from 1940 until his death in 1998.

In 1961, Hayes and Healy co-authored their biography, titled Twenty-Five Minutes from Broadway. The title was inspired by the name of the George M. Cohan musical Forty-five Minutes from Broadway, about the community of New Rochelle, New York where the two lived. They owned Columbia Island in New Rochelle, along the Long Island Sound shore. From that house, they broadcast a weekday breakfast conversation show on New York radio station 710 WOR.

Death

Hayes died from vascular problems in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the age of 82. He was survived by his wife; a son, Peter Michael Hayes, and a daughter, Cathy Lind Hayes.

Mary Sarah Healy (April 14, 1918 – February 3, 2015) was an American actress, singer, and variety entertainer.

She performed often with her husband, Peter Lind Hayes, for over 50 years, in a succession of films, television and radio shows and on the stage. She appeared in four Broadway shows between 1942–1958, and her film appearances include Second Fiddle, Star Dust and Theodore Geisel's musical fantasy The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. In 2006 she was inducted into the Nevada Entertainment/Artist Hall of Fame at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Healy was born April 14, 1918 in New Orleans. Crowned Miss New Orleans in 1935, she performed as a singer in the New Orleans area. She made her first screen appearance in the 1938 musical comedy Josette.^[In 1939 she had major film roles in Second Fiddle, and in Star Dust, where she sang the title song.

That year she met entertainer Peter Lind Hayes who, with his mother, vaudevillian Grace Hayes, was performing in North Hollywood. Healy and Hayes were married from 1940 until his death in 1998. With few exceptions, she and her husband worked together exclusively.

Healy made her stage debut in Count Me In (1942), opposite Charles Butterworth and Jean Arthur. She starred as Mrs. Aouda in Orson Welles's 1946 Broadway production of the musical Around the World in 80 Days, a role she reprised for The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air radio adaptation.

Healy was a member of the regular cast of Hayes's CBS-TV series, Inside U.S.A. with Chevrolet (1949–50), a revue-style series that producer Arthur Schwartz based on his successful Broadway show, Inside U.S.A.^? Healy and Hayes were the first to sing the commercial jingle, "See the USA in Your Chevrolet", which later became a signature song for Dinah Shore.

Among the couple's other joint ventures on television were The Stork Club (1950), a CBS interview program;^? NBC's The Peter Lind Hayes Show (1950–51), a live situation comedy in which they played themselves on a set matching their actual New Rochelle home; the second season of the CBS variety show, Star of the Family (1951–1952) and the NBC sitcom Peter Loves Mary (1960–61), in which they played a show business couple with two children who are adjusting to suburban life. Healy and Hayes were among the substitute hosts of The Tonight Show in 1962, between Jack Paar's departure and Johnny Carson's arrival, and they were regular substitute hosts on Arthur Godfrey's TV programs. They were frequent guest panelists and once were the mystery guests on the long-running quiz show What's My Line? The couple were also celebrity contestants on the TV game show Password.

Healy and Hayes appeared in the cult fantasy film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953) and the Broadway comedy Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? (1958), written by Norman Krasna.

During the 1960s, they starred in a breakfast conversation show on New York radio station 710 WOR. WOR set up equipment in their house in suburban New Rochelle, New York so that they could broadcast on weekday mornings from their home.

Over the years Healy and Hayes headlined on 14 occasions at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. The couple published a memoir, Twenty-Five Minutes from Broadway, in 1961. Healy self-published a second book, Moments to Remember with Peter and Mary — Our Life in Show Business from Vaudeville to Video, in 2004. In 2006 she was inducted into the Nevada Entertainment/Artist Hall of Fame at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Personal life

Healy and Hayes were the parents of two adopted children – a son, Peter Michael Hayes,^[15] and a daughter, actress Cathy Lind Hayes. Healy died of natural causes February 3, 2015, in Calabasas, California.

Star of the Family is a CBS Television program which premiered on September 22, 1950, and aired until June 26, 1952.

• (22 September 1950 – 15 June 1951) Fridays 10-10:30 pm ET
• (29 July 1951 – 6 January 1952) Sundays 6:30-7pm ET
• (10 January 1952 – 26 June 1952) Thursdays 8-8:30pm ET

Hosts included Morton Downey (1950–1951) and Peter Lind Hayes with Mary Healy (1951–1952). The series was directed by Norman Frank, produced by Perry Lafferty and Coby Ruskin, and written by Adrian Spies. Music was by Carl Hoff and His Orchestra, with the Beatrice Kroft Dancers also featured. Beginning with the January 10, 1952, episode, the show alternated with The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.

The first season featured people who might be related to a celebrity, and the show contestants tried to guess the name of the celebrity. The celebrity was then brought out to entertain the audience. In the second season, the show became a musical comedy show.

One of the few surviving episodes is available online at TV4U. This is the December 9, 1951 episode, hosted by Hayes and Healy, and featuring Duke Ellington, Gloria LeRoy, and Andy Russell.

Cobey Ruskin was the producer, and John Wray was the director of the program, which was sponsored by Kelvinator.

Magnavox (Latin for "great voice", stylized as MAGNAVOX) is an American electronics company that since 1974 has been a subsidiary of the Dutch electronics corporation Philips.

The predecessor to Magnavox was founded in 1911 by Edwin Pridham and Peter L. Jensen, co-inventors of the moving-coil loudspeaker at their lab in Napa, California, under United States Patent number 1,105,924 for telephone receivers. Six decades later, Magnavox produced the Odyssey, the world's first home video game console.

Magnavox is the brand name worn by a line of products now made by Funai under license from trademark owner Philips.

However, on 29 January 2013, it was announced that Philips had agreed to sell its audio and video operations to the Japan-based Funai Electric for €150 million, with the audio business planned to transfer to Funai in the latter half of 2013, and the video business in 2017. As part of the transaction, Funai was to pay a regular licensing fee to Philips for the use of the Philips brand. The purchase agreement was terminated by Philips in October because of breach of contract and the consumer electronics operations remain under Philips. Philips said it would seek damages for breach of contract in the US$200-million sale.  In April 2016, the International Court of Arbitration ruled in favour of Philips, awarding compensation of €135 million in the process.^[8]

History

Jensen and Pridham founded the Commercial Wireless and Development Company in Napa, CA in 1911, moving to San Francisco, and then Oakland in 1916. In July 1917, a merger with The Sonora Phonograph Distributor Company was finalized and the Magnavox Company was born. Frank Morgan Steers was chosen as the company's first President. Jensen moved on to found the Jensen Radio Manufacturing Company in Chicago, in the late 1920s. Pridham stayed on with Magnavox, which moved manufacturing to Fort Wayne, Indiana by the 1930s. The term "Commercial Wireless" had a different meaning in the early days of radio and telephone. Magnavox manufactured radios, TVs, and phonographs. In the 1960s, Magnavox manufactured the first plasma displays for the military and for computer applications.

In 1972 Magnavox introduced the Odyssey, the first video game console. In 1974, the Magnavox Company was acquired by Philips of the Netherlands to ensure nationwide distribution for their VLP (later renamed LaserVision) Videodisc technology, and all Philips consumer electronics in the US under the Norelco name began rebranding them under the Magnavox name; Philips acquired the similar-sounding company Philco in 1981, and Philips was able to freely use the Philips name, alternating with the Magnavox name for some electronics, with the personal care business continuing to use the Norelco name.

In the late 1970s, Philips developed LaserDisc technology, producing an optically read, 12 inch disc that would contain recorded video material. In the early 1980s, Philips worked with Sony to create a standard for optical audio discs (CDs), using the technology developed for the LaserDisc.

Teamed with Sony, Philips used the Magnavox brand name to introduce the CD-DA standard and equipment for consumer audio with the Magnavox player sold in department stores while the Sony CDP-101 went to high-end audio stores.

During the late 1970s the company released the Odyssey², in Europe also known as Philips Videopac G7000.

In the early 1980s, Philips merged Sylvania, Philco and Magnavox into one division headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, with a manufacturing plant in Greeneville, Tennessee. The Sylvania plant in Batavia, New York, was closed and all operations moved to Greeneville. Philips also abandoned the Sylvania trademark which is owned by Osram.

In the late 1980s, Magnavox sold the Magnavox/Philips VideoWriter with some success. Released in 1985, the VideoWriter was a standalone fixed-application word processing machine (electronic typewriter).

Philips Computers, primarily based in Canada, sold its products in North America under the Magnavox brand with minor rebadging in logo and color scheme of computers, monitors, peripherals and manuals. Philips exited the proprietary personal computer business in 1992. Philips sold the Greenville plant in 1997.

In the 1990s, several Magnavox branded CD-i players were marketed by Philips.

Starting in the early 1990s, some Philips electronics were marketed under the brand name "Philips Magnavox", in an attempt to increase brand awareness of the Philips name in the United States. While it did work to a degree, it also caused confusion to the consumer as to the difference between "Philips Magnavox" products and "Philips" products, resulting in Philips marketing the two brands separately again.

The defense electronics group, centered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, remained independent under the Magnavox Electronic Systems name, first under Philips and later in the Carlyle Group, until it was acquired by Hughes Electronics in 1995. The three areas of business of the MESC operation during the late 1980s and early 1990s were C-Cubed (Command, Control, and Communication), Electronic Warfare, and sonobuoys. When Hughes Electronics sold its aerospace and defense operations to Raytheon, the former Magnavox defense operations were transferred as well. Shortly thereafter, Raytheon spun off the sonobuoy operation to form Under Sea Systems Inc (USSI), in Columbia City, Indiana. In 1998, Raytheon sold USSI to a British defense consortium named Ultra Electronics. The company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Ultra, manufacturing water and acoustic sensing and communications devices for military and civil defense.

Among the defense products Magnavox manufactured were the AN/ARC-164 UHF radio, AN/SSQ-53 series sonobuoys, AN/ALQ-128 EW equipment, AN/SSQ-62 series sonobuoys, and the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS).

The brand also has worked with Funai with their televisions after the Philips Magnavox name was popular. Magnavox also has a brand licensing deal where several of their consumer electronics are manufactured by Craig Electronics and sold under the Magnavox brand.

In Australia, the rights to the Magnavox brand are not owned by Philips but by Mistral Ltd, a Hong Kong trading company that uses it to sell audio/video equipment of a different make.

In Europe, the brand Magnavox was briefly used in the 1990s by Philips on budget consumer electronics to replace traditional local brand names (such as Aristona, Erres, Hornyphon, Radiola, Siera). Since no one recognised the brand name, it was soon discontinued.

ILLUSTRATOR/ARTIST: PAUL HESSE PHOTO -

Paul Hesse

Paul Hesse was born in New York City. While attending Pratt Institute he experimented with photography. After World War I he became a poster illustrator, but grew impatient with its time-consuming aspects. After reading all the photography books in the New York Public Library, he set out on a photographic career. In the mid-1920s, he established a successful commercial photography studio. Later he resettled in Los Angeles, where his Sunset Strip studio became a gathering place for advertising and motion picture industry notables.