Hayes attended parochial school in Cairo, Illinois, during his early childhood[1] before moving to the New York City suburb of New Rochelle and continuing his education there.

[4] In 1939, his mother sold some jewelry and borrowed $8,000 to open the Grace Hayes Lodge in Los Angeles, where he began working as a nightclub performer.

During World War II Hayes enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and appeared in both the play and film of Winged Victory.

The couple starred in Zis Boom Bah (1941) along with Grace Hayes and were top-billed in the cult fantasy musical film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953).

[7] The title was inspired by the name of the George M. Cohan musical Forty-five Minutes from Broadway, about the community of New Rochelle, New York where the two lived.