The Mary Kaye Trio

American singing trio and one the first lounge acts.

The group began in 1945 as the Mary Kaaihue Trio, an offshoot of Mary Kaye and Norman Kaye's father's (Johnny "Ukulele" Kaaihue) band The Ka'aihue Trio. The group consisted of Mary Kaye, Frank Ross and Mary Kaye's future husband Jules Pursley. Mary Kaye's brother Norman had been drafted and was not a part of the original trio.
They began appearing up and down the east coast of America. In 1947, Norman joined the group when he was discharged and Jules was drafted. When Jules returned, he married Mary and became the group's road manager. Their name was changed to the Mary Kaye Trio and the group members changed their names as well to disassociate themselves as just playing Hawaiian music.
The Mary Kaye Trio is credited with founding the Las Vegas "lounge" phenomenon at the Last Frontier in 1954. They headlined in Las Vegas & Lake Tahoe Casinos 36 weeks a year, as the highest paid lounge act of the era. “They changed the history of Las Vegas,” George Schlatter, a 1950s booking agent who became a film and TV producer, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week. “They were all over the room, and they were hysterical. Anybody who ever saw the act realized this was the most sound you ever got out of three pieces.” The group stayed together until 1965. In 1966, Mary Kaye started The New Mary Kaye Trio, which included her and Ray Malus and Ronny Douglas--the group disbanded in 1968.

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