Mindy Carson

When The Big Show premiered November 5, 1950, this ad, showing NBC's full evening schedule, ran in Sunday newspapers across the country. Here's how it looked in the Kingsport Times-News (Kingsport, Tennessee). Clockwise from top left: Mindy Carson, Jimmy Durante, Tallulah Bankhead, Fred Allen and Ethel Merman.

Mindy Carson (born July 16, 1927), an American traditional pop vocalist, was heard often on radio during the 1940s and 1950s.

She was born in New York City. In 1946, still in her teens, she won an audition to the radio program, Stairway to the Stars. This gave her a chance to perform with Paul Whiteman's band and singer Martha Tilton, stars of the program. She joined the singing bandleader Harry Cool that year and made a number of recordings with him, one of which, "Rumors Are Flying," made the charts.

Although she failed to score with a chart hit recording during the next four years, she did receive much radio exposure. She was heard on Guy Lombardo's syndicated program in the late 1940s and her own variety program which began on the CBS Network in 1949. She was widely promoted as one of the guests on the November 5, 1950 premiere of NBC's The Big Show, hosted by Tallulah Bankhead.

Television and recordings

Beginning in 1949, Carson was a regular for two years on Florian Zabach's NBC television variety program.

By that time she had signed with RCA's record label, RCA Victor Records. Although her initial recordings for RCA failed to excite record-buyers, the success of Eileen Barton's novelty hit "If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Baked a Cake" prompted the company to try a similar recording for Mindy Carson. Her recording of "Candy and Cake" was backed with "My Foolish Heart" as RCA catalog number 20-3204, and both sides became a two-sided hit. However, after a number of recordings that failed to make it, RCA dropped her in 1952.

When Carson moved to Columbia Records, her duet with Guy Mitchell, "Cause I Love You That's-A-Why," climbed on the charts to the top 25. She also guest starred on ABC's 1957 series, The Guy Mitchell Show. "All the Time and Everywhere," a big hit in the United Kingdom for Dickie Valentine, went nowhere for Carson and other U.S. recording artists. A cover of The Gaylords' big hit "Tell Me You're Mine" charted at #22, and a few others made the top 30 in 1952, 1953 and 1954.

In August 1955, she scored a hit when her recording of "Wake the Town and Tell the People" reached #13, despite the fact that the trends in popular music were moving to Rock'n'Roll and she was not a rock singer. She had only one more hit, Ivory Joe Hunter's "Since I Met You Baby" in 1957, and by 1960 she had finished her recording career.

Broadway

In 1958, she appeared on Broadway in The Body Beautiful by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, their first musical collaboration. Carson returned to Broadway in the 1960s in two comedies, Mary, Mary and Dinner at Eight.

External links

• JC Marion's Interlude Era: Mindy Carson

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Name	Carson, Mindy
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Date of birth	July 16, 1927
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