Molly Bee

Molly Bee notched multiple chart successes in the opening years of the 1960s while projecting a flamboyant stage presence well suited to nightclub audiences. Born in Beltbuckle, TN, she remained silent as a performer until her family relocated to Tucson, AZ. Even there she launched her vocal career far ahead of her peers, attracting the notice of singing cowboy Rex Allen at age ten. Her mother escorted her to one of Allen’s local concerts and arranged for the girl to perform for him; impressed by her rendition of “Lovesick Blues,” Allen booked the youngster on his radio broadcast soon afterward. One year later the family settled in Hollywood, where Bee became a regular on Cliffie Stone’s Los Angeles television program Hometown Jamboree. She continued appearing on the Jamboree through her teenage years and built a devoted audience so large that the show was sometimes referred to as the “Molly Bee Show.” She simultaneously served as a three-year regular on The Pinky Lee Show.

At thirteen Bee signed with Capitol Records and issued her debut single “Tennessee Tango,” yet her first substantial hit arrived with the late-1952 release “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” In 1953 she cut the duet “Don’t Start Courtin’ in a Hot Rod Ford” with Tennessee Ernie Ford; the next year she departed Pinky Lee’s program to join Ford’s daytime television series. Her visibility expanded through additional hit singles such as “Young Romance,” “Don’t Look Back,” and “5 Points of a Star,” along with guest spots on numerous television variety programs. By the late 1950s her live engagements were attracting record-setting crowds.

Early in the 1960s Bee extended her reach into acting, appearing in the musicals The Boy Friend, Finian’s Rainbow, and Paint Your Wagon as well as the films Chartreuse Caboose and The Young Swingers while establishing herself as a steady Las Vegas attraction. Her recording fortunes waned, however, after she moved to Liberty Records in 1962. Two unprofitable years later she joined MGM in 1965 and released the album It’s Great…It’s Molly Bee; her strongest MGM seller came the following year with the single “Losing You”/“Miserable Me.”

Drug addiction curtailed her activities by the late 1960s, forcing several years away from performing while she recovered. She returned in 1975 with Good Golly Ms. Molly on Cliffie Stone’s Granite label; the album yielded two charting singles, “She Kept on Talking” and “Right or Left at Oak Street.” Her final LP, Sounds Fine to Me, appeared in 1982 and did not replicate the commercial showing of its predecessor, though she retained strong drawing power as a concert artist.