In the closing years of the 1940s, vocalist Iris Colleen Summers, who later took the stage name Mary Ford, received a phone call that would change the trajectory of her career and her life. The California native had been the backup vocalist for one of the country-western genre’s biggest singing cowboys, Gene Autry. Now, she was headed out on the road with one of America’s most talented six-string pickers.
The phone call she received was from guitarist Les Paul, now known as a pioneering figure of the modern guitar and one of the recording industry’s visionary innovators. In the late 1940s, Paul was still trying to make a name for himself.
