Mindy Carson

Mindy Carson (July 16, 1927 – October 2, 2025) was an American traditional pop vocalist and Broadway performer born in New York City and raised in the Bronx, where she attended and graduated from James Monroe High School. After completing her education, she worked as a typist and stenographer at a candy company before her singing career began to take shape.

Carson's entry into professional performance came in 1946, when she won an audition for the radio program Stairway to the Stars while still a teenager. This led to eight months of work in 1947 alongside Paul Whiteman's band and singer Martha Tilton. Her earliest recordings were made with the Harry Cool Orchestra on Signature Records, a double-sided release pairing "Rumors Are Flying" with "The Whole World is Singing My Song." She subsequently recorded one disc with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and released four discs on Musicraft, though none of these early efforts generated significant commercial attention. Radio exposure proved more fruitful during this period: Carson was heard on Guy Lombardo's syndicated program in the late 1940s, launched her own variety program on the CBS Network in 1949, and hosted a thrice-weekly program sponsored by the U.S. Army in 1950. She was also among the guests featured on the November 5, 1950 premiere of NBC's The Big Show, hosted by Tallulah Bankhead.

Television work began for Carson in 1949, when she became a regular on Florian Zabach's NBC variety program, a role she held for two years. On December 30, 1952, she launched the Mindy Carson Show on NBC, sponsored by Embassy cigarettes. That same year, 1949, she had become the youngest performer to receive top billing at New York City's Copacabana nightclub, and she went on to perform at clubs in New Orleans, Baltimore, and other cities.

Carson signed with RCA Victor in 1949. Her initial recordings for the label did not sell, but the commercial success of Eileen Barton's novelty hit "If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Baked a Cake" prompted RCA to pursue a similar approach with Carson. The resulting record paired "Candy and Cake" with "My Foolish Heart" and became a rare two-sided hit. Subsequent releases failed to replicate that success, and RCA dropped her in 1952. She then moved to Columbia Records, where her duet with Guy Mitchell, "Cause I Love You That's-A-Why," reached number 25 on the Billboard chart. A cover of The Gaylords' "Tell Me You're Mine" charted at number 22, and additional recordings placed in the top 30 in 1952, 1953, and 1954. Her cover of "Memories Are Made of This" with the Ray Conniff Orchestra was released in 1955. That August, "Wake the Town and Tell the People" reached number 13, and a preceding single, "The Fish," a light rocker tied to a proposed dance craze, appeared in both the Cashbox and Music Vendor retail surveys. Carson's final chart entry at Columbia was a white R&B cover of Ivory Joe Hunter's "Since I Met You Baby" in 1957, and she also guest-starred on ABC's The Guy Mitchell Show that year. Columbia dropped her in 1958, after which she released three additional singles on Philips, Joy, and W&G Records before retiring from recording in 1960. She also recorded two LPs, Mindy Carson and Orchestra and Baby, Baby, Baby, both structured around songs sharing a variation of the same title.

Carson's Broadway career spanned 1958 to 1966. She made her Broadway debut in 1958 in The Body Beautiful, a musical written by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, which marked the first collaboration between the two. She returned to Broadway in the 1960s, appearing in the comedy Mary, Mary, which ran from 1961 to 1964, and in Dinner at Eight in 1966. Her Broadway credits also include The Beautiful Bait.

In September 1949, Carson married music publisher Eddie Joy. The couple had three daughters: Jenny, Jody, and Cathy. Carson died on Staten Island on October 2, 2025, at the age of 98.