1925–2019 · American singer, comedian and Broadway star
Born Catherine Gloria Balotta in Cleveland to Italian immigrant parents, Ballard came up as a musical comedienne — a stint with Spike Jones and His City Slickers, then the New York cabaret circuit. In early 1954 she was starring on Broadway in The Golden Apple, and for the flipside of her “Lazy Afternoon” single she picked a new song by the pianist and MC at the Blue Angel club. She is best remembered today for television — The Mothers-in-Law, Hollywood Squares — but the Library of Congress inducted this 1954 single into the National Recording Registry in 2026.