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Jimmy Boyd 1939 - 2009

Jimmy Boyd of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, CA was born on January 9, 1939 in Jayess, Lawrence County, Mississippi United States, and died at age 70 years old on March 7, 2009 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, CA.

Jimmy Boyd

Jimmy Devon Boyd, Jimmy Boyd

Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, CA 90213

January 9, 1939

Jayess, Lawrence County, Mississippi, 39641, United States

March 7, 2009

Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California, United States

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Jimmy Boyd Jimmy Boyd (1939 - 2009)

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Jimmy Boyd's History: 1939 - 2009

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Introduction

Jimmy Boyd (Only known as "Jimmy Boyd') Born January 9, 1939 Jayess, Mississippi, U.S. Died March 7, 2009 (aged 70) Santa Monica, California, U.S. Occupation Actor, musician and singer Years active 1951–1963 Spouse(s) Yvonne Craig (m. 1960; div. 1962) Anne Forrey (m. 1980; div. 1984) Children 1 Jimmy Devon Boyd (January 9, 1939 – March 7, 2009) was an American singer, musician, and actor known for his recording of the song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". Boyd's parents would take their children to country and western dances held in a barn in Colton, California outside of Riverside. It was at one of these dances when Boyd's older, nine-year-old brother, Kenneth, went up to the bandstand and told the band leader, Texas Jim Lewis, he should hear his little brother sing and play the guitar. Lewis called seven-year-old Boyd up to the stage to sing and play. After the dance concluded, Lewis and the manager of a local radio station approached Boyd’s parents to make an offer of $50 per appearance on an hour-long radio show to be broadcast from the dance every Saturday night. While the family was in Los Angeles for surgery Leslie Boyd required for cataracts, they were told about auditions being held for the Al Jarvis Talent Show on KLAC-TV. Following his audition, Boyd appeared on Jarvis' show the same night. Winning the contest, Boyd was the subject of numerous telegrams and telephone calls from fans addressed to Jarvis and KLAC Jarvis, along with co-host, had a five-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week talk show on KLAC-TV called Hollywood On Television. After his popular appearance and win on the talent show, Jarvis signed Boyd to appear regularly on Hollywood on Television, a show he co-hosted with Betty White. With his popularity rising, Boyd started to be seen on other television shows, including CBS-TV's The Frank Sinatra Show. "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" Boyd recorded the song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" for Columbia Records in 1952, when he was 13 years old. It became a hit, selling over two and a half million records in its first week's release and Boyd's name became known internationally. Boyd was presented with two gold records. Boyd's record went to number one on the charts again the following year at Christmas, and continues to sell as a Christmas song. Collective disc sales by 1966 amounted to over 11 million copies. Boyd owned horses, so Columbia presented him with a silver mounted saddle. Inscribed in the silver plate on the back of the saddle were the words, "Presented by Columbia Records to Jimmy Boyd commemorating his 3,000,000 record of 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'". Between February 1953 and November 1954, Boyd made five appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. In that era, an appearance on Ed Sullivan's program (or even being introduced in the audience as was often the case of film stars and athletes), was considered by the entertainment industry and the public alike to be the pinnacle of success. In the same year and the years that followed Boyd made multiple appearances on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, The Doris Day Show, The Bing Crosby Show, The Bob Hope Show, the syndicated The Patti Page Show (1955), Dave Garroway, The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show, Shindig, American Bandstand and other programs throughout the United States and Canada. Boyd recorded several more hit records: teaming up with Frankie Laine in the spring of 1953 on "Tell Me a Story" (written by Terry Gilkyson), which reached #4, and "The Little Boy And The Old Man" with Frankie Laine (#24), and with Rosemary Clooney that summer on "Dennis the Menace," which reached #25. Frank Sinatra declared that Miller's choices of songs had ruined his career, and he promptly switched over to Capitol Records, where he chose his own songs and began making hit records again. However, Boyd felt a great deal of loyalty to Miller. He did not follow through with his own wish to go to Memphis and record with Sam Phillips at his Sun Records, where the dawn of rock and roll was beginning with many of the new rock artists of the time. Instead, he concentrated more on movies and television, and finishing his education. In retrospect, Boyd said he wished that he had gone to Sun Records. Other recordings Another favorite recording session of Boyd's was a song written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, "That's What I'll Give to You". Terry Melcher produced the session for Boyd on Vee-Jay Records. Vee-Jay was the first company to release all the early Beatles records in the United States. Before Boyd's single was released, Vee-Jay was sued by Capitol and lost all the royalties and rights to the Beatles. Vee-Jay Records went bankrupt. The song was recently released on Rhino Records. Herb Alpert had visited the session at Vee-Jay and liked it so much he asked Boyd and Melcher to record for his and Jerry Moss' label, A&M Records. While recording the album, the Manson murders occurred at a house in which Melcher had previously lived, prompting Melcher to abandon the project and go into seclusion. The album was never finished. Bobby Darin wrote and produced a record, Made In The Shade, for Boyd. Although they had met briefly at different events, Boyd and Bobby became friends while working on different movies at Universal Studios. Work in film, television and Las Vegas Boyd showed he had comedic talents in recurring roles in the television series Bachelor Father (as Howard Meechum, the boyfriend of the Noreen Corcoran character), Date with the Angels, The Betty White Show, Broadside (in the role of Marion Botnik), and My Three Sons. He also appeared in a number of motion pictures, including Inherit the Wind (1960). In that film, Boyd portrays Howard, a student who is called as the first witness in the trial of teacher Bertram Cates. One of his surviving performances available online is with Betty White on "The Betty White Show" in the mid-1950s. At the time, Boyd was the youngest entertainer ever allowed to appear in Las Vegas, starring at the famed Sands Hotel's "Copa Room" at age thirteen during Sinatra's "Rat Pack" era. On Boyd's opening night show he was applauded back onstage by the audience for multiple encores. With the audience still cheering and whistling, Sands boss, Jack Entratter, standing backstage, caught Boyd and stopped him from going back on stage after his third encore. Entratter asked Boyd if he could please go back for only one encore during his performances, and explained that it was nearly two o'clock in the morning and that the hotel needed the people to go back to the casino and gamble. Boyd also appeared at the Golden Hotel in Reno, Nevada. Following entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Frankie Laine, Johnnie Ray and Eddie Fisher with his own show, he performed at 90,000 seat-plus venues such as Soldier Field, The Rubber Bowl, The Plantation, Red Rocks and others, in Chicago, Ohio, Colorado, Hawaii and Canada, along with hundreds of one-nighters on the road throughout the U.S., Canada, and England. A seasoned performer at fourteen, he took time off to return to Hollywood to star in a horse racing movie called Racing Blood for 20th Century Fox. Boyd found Hollywood to be far less grueling than life on the road. At sixteen years of age he returned to Hollywood again to appear in The Second Greatest Sex with Jeanne Crain, George Nader, and Bert Lahr for Universal Pictures. Then it was on to New York to do a musical version of Tom Sawyer for The United States Steel Hour on CBS, with Florence Henderson as Becky. Boyd hung up his guitar at least temporarily and started having fun as a regular on comedy shows like Date With The Angels, Bachelor Father with John Forsythe, and Broadside. He starred with Mickey Rooney, Terry Moore, Dan Duryea and Yvette Mimieux in the film Platinum High School for MGM. Boyd was shooting Bachelor Father with Forsythe and simultaneously filming Inherit the Wind with Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly and Fredric March for Universal Studios. Boyd co-starred in the national touring company of Neil Simon's play The Star-Spangled Girl with George Hamilton and Deana Martin. Neil Simon's brother Danny Simon stated, "Initially Jimmy didn't want to do The Star-Spangled Girl. It meant he would have to leave L.A. for a year, and he wasn't sure he wanted to do the same show night after night. Neil and I took him out to dinner and coerced him into it. Jimmy got rave reviews, and was glad he did the play." Personal life In 1960, Boyd married actress Yvonne Craig (TV's Batgirl). After a year of marriage, Boyd was drafted into the Army and was stationed in Texas. Separation proved unfortunate to his marriage, which ended in divorce in 1962. Boyd went to the Republic of Vietnam in 1965 with his own show for the USO. In February 1967 he also joined in Nancy Sinatra's USO trip to entertain American troops in South Vietnam. Boyd married a second time in 1980. He and Anne Forrey Boyd had a son together, but divorced in 1984. He remained single for the rest of his life. When asked, "What's the most exciting thing that ever happened to you?" his reply was, "The birth of my son." Jimmy Boyd died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 70. For his contributions to the recording industry, Boyd has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd.
01/9

1939

Birthday

January 9, 1939

Birthdate

Jayess, Lawrence County, Mississippi 39641, United States

Birthplace

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Military Service

Boyd was drafted into the Army and was stationed in Texas.
Professional Career

"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" Boyd recorded the song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" for Columbia Records in 1952, when he was 13 years old. It became a hit, selling over two and a half million records in its first week's release and Boyd's name became known internationally. Boyd was presented with two gold records. Boyd's record went to number one on the charts again the following year at Christmas, and continues to sell as a Christmas song. Collective disc sales by 1966 amounted to over 11 million copies. Boyd owned horses, so Columbia presented him with a silver mounted saddle. Inscribed in the silver plate on the back of the saddle were the words, "Presented by Columbia Records to Jimmy Boyd commemorating his 3,000,000 record of 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'". Between February 1953 and November 1954, Boyd made five appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. In that era, an appearance on Ed Sullivan's program (or even being introduced in the audience as was often the case of film stars and athletes), was considered by the entertainment industry and the public alike to be the pinnacle of success. In the same year and the years that followed Boyd made multiple appearances on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, The Doris Day Show, The Bing Crosby Show, The Bob Hope Show, the syndicated The Patti Page Show (1955), Dave Garroway, The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show, Shindig, American Bandstand and other programs throughout the United States and Canada. Boyd recorded several more hit records: teaming up with Frankie Laine in the spring of 1953 on "Tell Me a Story" (written by Terry Gilkyson), which reached #4, and "The Little Boy And The Old Man" with Frankie Laine (#24), and with Rosemary Clooney that summer on "Dennis the Menace," which reached #25. Frank Sinatra declared that Miller's choices of songs had ruined his career, and he promptly switched over to Capitol Records, where he chose his own songs and began making hit records again. However, Boyd felt a great deal of loyalty to Miller. He did not follow through with his own wish to go to Memphis and record with Sam Phillips at his Sun Records, where the dawn of rock and roll was beginning with many of the new rock artists of the time. Instead, he concentrated more on movies and television, and finishing his education. In retrospect, Boyd said he wished that he had gone to Sun Records. Other recordings Another favorite recording session of Boyd's was a song written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, "That's What I'll Give to You". Terry Melcher produced the session for Boyd on Vee-Jay Records. Vee-Jay was the first company to release all the early Beatles records in the United States. Before Boyd's single was released, Vee-Jay was sued by Capitol and lost all the royalties and rights to the Beatles. Vee-Jay Records went bankrupt. The song was recently released on Rhino Records. Herb Alpert had visited the session at Vee-Jay and liked it so much he asked Boyd and Melcher to record for his and Jerry Moss' label, A&M Records. While recording the album, the Manson murders occurred at a house in which Melcher had previously lived, prompting Melcher to abandon the project and go into seclusion. The album was never finished. Bobby Darin wrote and produced a record, Made In The Shade, for Boyd. Although they had met briefly at different events, Boyd and Bobby became friends while working on different movies at Universal Studios. Work in film, television and Las Vegas Boyd showed he had comedic talents in recurring roles in the television series Bachelor Father (as Howard Meechum, the boyfriend of the Noreen Corcoran character), Date with the Angels, The Betty White Show, Broadside (in the role of Marion Botnik), and My Three Sons. He also appeared in a number of motion pictures, including Inherit the Wind (1960). In that film, Boyd portrays Howard, a student who is called as the first witness in the trial of teacher Bertram Cates. One of his surviving performances available online is with Betty White on "The Betty White Show" in the mid-1950s. At the time, Boyd was the youngest entertainer ever allowed to appear in Las Vegas, starring at the famed Sands Hotel's "Copa Room" at age thirteen during Sinatra's "Rat Pack" era. On Boyd's opening night show he was applauded back onstage by the audience for multiple encores. With the audience still cheering and whistling, Sands boss, Jack Entratter, standing backstage, caught Boyd and stopped him from going back on stage after his third encore. Entratter asked Boyd if he could please go back for only one encore during his performances, and explained that it was nearly two o'clock in the morning and that the hotel needed the people to go back to the casino and gamble. Boyd also appeared at the Golden Hotel in Reno, Nevada. Following entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Frankie Laine, Johnnie Ray and Eddie Fisher with his own show, he performed at 90,000 seat-plus venues such as Soldier Field, The Rubber Bowl, The Plantation, Red Rocks and others, in Chicago, Ohio, Colorado, Hawaii and Canada, along with hundreds of one-nighters on the road throughout the U.S., Canada, and England.
03/7

2009

Death

March 7, 2009

Death date

Cancer

Cause of death

Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California United States
Death location

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Obituary

Jimmy Boyd dies at 70; singer of ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ By VALERIE J. NELSON MARCH 9, 2009 6:26 PM Jimmy Boyd, a singer best known for recording the Christmas novelty hit “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” in 1952 when he was 13, died Saturday. He was 70. Boyd, who also was a child actor, died of cancer at a Santa Monica convalescent hospital, said Eleanor Pillsbury, a longtime friend. Three weeks after the yuletide kiss-and-tell was released, the song was No. 1 on the Billboard charts. It sold 2 million records in less than 10 weeks. Tens of millions of copies of the much-covered song written by Tommie Connors have been sold over the decades, according to the Allmusic online database. It has been interpreted by such artists as the Jackson 5, John Mellencamp and Amy Winehouse. Molly Bee was also 13 when she later had a hit warbling about the unlikely pair kissing “underneath the mistletoe last night.” Bee died last month at 69. Although it came to be regarded as a holiday classic, the ditty about a child who can’t understand why Mommy is cheating on Daddy with Santa Claus caused controversy in some quarters when the original featuring Boyd’s childish treble was released. The Catholic Church condemned the song for implying even a tenuous link between sex and the religious holiday, and radio stations in several markets banned it. The ban was lifted after the 13-year-old Boyd appeared before church leaders to talk about the lyrics. Recorded at the urging of Columbia record executive Mitch Miller, the tune made “something of an overnight national musical figure” of the vocalist, a “freckle-patch” who lived in Van Nuys, Time magazine reported in 1952. Lyrics such as “She didn’t see me creep/Down the stairs to have a peep” weren’t “quite up to the title-line,” the magazine huffed. Even the young singer was surprised by the song’s success. “I like it personally,” Boyd told Time, “but I didn’t think anyone would buy it.” He was born dirt-poor in a shack in McComb, Miss., on Jan. 9, 1939, to Leslie and Winnie Boyd. His father, Leslie, was a carpenter from a big musical family -- Boyd’s grandfather was known in Mississippi as Fiddler Bill and had 21 children, Pillsbury confirmed. At 4, Boyd started playing the guitar. He grew up on a ranch near the San Fernando Valley. While at a country-western dance in a Colton barn, the 7-year-old was called on stage to sing with Texas Jim Lewis’ troupe. Boyd was soon regularly appearing with the band in shows that were broadcast on the radio. After winning a talent contest on KLAC-TV Channel 13, Boyd appeared on “The Frank Sinatra Show” and was signed to a recording contract with Columbia. His first recording success was with a country song, "(The Angels Are Lighting) God’s Little Candles.” His recording career essentially lasted until 1967 and encompassed such hits as “Dennis the Menace,” sung with Rosemary Clooney, and several duets with Frankie Laine, including “The Little Boy and the Old Man,” “Poor Little Piggy Bank” and “Tell Me a Story.” On television, Boyd made several appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in the early 1950s and moved into acting. From 1958 to 1961, he portrayed Howard Meechim, the high school boyfriend on “Bachelor Father,” a sitcom that starred John Forsythe and Noreen Corcoran. He also played the teenage nephew of Betty White’s character on “Date with the Angels,” a late-1950s sitcom. In 1960, Boyd appeared as a biology student in “Inherit the Wind” with Spencer Tracy and, the same year, married Yvonne Craig, an actress he met while making the Bing Crosby film “High Time.” Craig would go on to play Batgirl in the 1960s TV series " Batman.” Their marriage ended after two years. Soon after marrying, Boyd was drafted into the Army and later performed in two USO shows in Vietnam. For several years, he toured the U.S. in his own music and comedy show. He was an avid tennis player until he discovered sailing, Pillsbury said, and for years lived in Marina del Rey on a sailboat he named Unplugged. He is survived by a son, Devon James Boyd, 28.

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Jimmy Boyd lived 1 years shorter than the average family member when died at the age of 70.

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