The Urick brothers were born in
Malden, Massachusetts. Joe (May 3, 1921 – December 22, 2007), formed the singing group the Amory Brothers, which would become the Ames Brothers. Born into a non-professional but musically talented family, the boys were raised to enjoy
classical music and
operatic music. Their parents, David and Sarah Urick, were
Russian Jewish immigrants from
Ukraine who read
Shakespeare and semi-
classics to their nine children from the time they were old enough to listen. Three of the brothers formed a quartet with a cousin named Lennie, and had been touring
United States Army and
Navy bases entertaining the
troops when they were offered a job at The Fox and Hounds
nightclub, one of the fanciest clubs in
Boston. This one-week engagement turned into several months when positive word-of-mouth about their appearance got around. At the time, they were using Vic's middle name and calling themselves the
Amory Brothers. They were becoming quite popular in the area and it was at this time that Joe decided to rejoin the group. Taking their act to New York City, they got a job with bandleader
Art Mooney. One day while at Leeds Publishing Company in search of a song called "Should I" that their mother had asked them to sing,
Milt Gabler of
Decca Records overheard them singing it and asked them to cut a few sides for Decca Records, just before the
AFM recording ban which
James Petrillo imposed in January 1948. The ban was lifted a year later. The brothers shortened Amory to Ames and became the first artists to record for the newly founded
Coral Records, a subsidiary of Decca. The group sang on
Robert Q. Lewis's radio program until it was cut from one hour to 15 minutes. In late February 1949 they began performing on
Sing It Again, a musical quiz program on CBS radio. The brothers were swept into national top billing with their first hit
record, "
Rag Mop", in January 1950. Doing radio shows for free at times, just for the experience, they later became regulars on such shows as
Arthur Godfrey and His Friends. One of the first acts to appear on the original
The Ed Sullivan Show when it was known as
Toast of the Town, the foursome made their debut with him when the show was telecast live from
Wanamaker's Department Store. Soon, the Ames Brothers were the top paid group in nightclubs and
supper clubs everywhere and their popularity on television was nationwide. In 1956, they starred in their own syndicated TV program,
The Ames Brothers Show, sponsored by
RC Cola and broadcast on Friday nights. It was the first syndicated TV show to be broadcast in foreign countries. The brothers also appeared on
ABC's
The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom. The Ames Brothers recorded prodigiously and notched up 49 US
chart entries, 21 of them on the Coral label before signing with
RCA Victor in 1953. After a 15 year career, the quartet disbanded in 1963, but Ed Ames continued with a successful singing and acting career, including playing
Daniel Boone's sidekick, Mingo, on the popular
Daniel Boone television series. ==Legacy==