Maureen is an actor, singer and songwriter who grew up in Detroit, starred in television and on Broadway, moved to LA and worked with Berry Gordy and many Motown acts.
As a very young girl in Detroit. Michigan. Maureen Bailey frequently acted on THE LONE RANGER over the ABC radio network, and spent five years singing on ABC-WXYZ's RADIO SCHOOL HOUSE weekly broadcasts. In her teens, for seven years, she was a regular performer on MAKE WAY FOR YOUTH over the CBS network. Then she found her way into television doing commercials, being a weather girl, and performing on many SOUPY SALES TV variety shows.
Broadway was the next stop where Maureen co-starred opposite stars like Dick Van Dyke. Joel Gray. Woody Allen. Shelly Berman, Theodore Bikel and Nancy Walker. Her TV credits in New York included many guest appearances on NBC's TONIGHT SHOW and a syndicated TV series produced by David Susskind and written by Tom Whedon called NEW YORK SCRAPBOOK (Playhouse of the Week) over NTA-TV. In these humorous musical revues, Maureen co-starred with Kaye Ballard and Orson Bean. On a weekly Sunday morning CBS radio show called MAKE MINE MUSIC, she and Dick Haymes sang to the wonderful arrangements of the Percy Faith orchestra.
All of this led to her landing the role of Wendy in NBC's live color TV production of PETER PAN with Mary Martin. Soon after that, she took over the role of Liesyl Von Trapp in SOUND OF MUSIC on Broadway, also with Mary Martin. Eventually she toured nationally with CAMELOT, bringing her and her two small children to Hollywood. Continuing her performance career she co-starred opposite' stars like John Raitt, Louis Nye, Phil Silvers, Ruth Warrick, Art Lund and Pat O'Brian in West Coast and LA Music Center productions. On TV, she was acting opposite Michael Callan in a series called OCCASIONAL WIFE and singing regularly on NBC's 90 TONITE TV show with Cleavon Little.
During this period, she wrote and recorded for SPECIALTY RECORDS and then was discovered by MOTOWN RECORDS where she began an eleven-year relationship. She not only wrote but also arranged and did production work for stars like Jermaine Jackson. Fifth Dimension, Syreeta, Thelma Houston, George Benson and DeBarge. She enjoyed platinum success co-writing the "Let's Get Serious" album with Jermaine Jackson and writing for DeBarge on their "Switch II" and "Switch V" albums.
Maureen has always loved working with children. Even as a teenager at the J.L. Hudson Co. in Detroit, she created and portrayed the character named "Christmas Carol," which is a part of Detroit's Christmas season every year. So it's no wonder that she could write a show and musical score for children called STEPPIN' ON THE CLOUDS. Maureen is always hoping for a better and safer life for all the children of the world.
Maureen studied piano accompaniment with Cat. They went on to develop a songwriting collaboration relationship. One of their songs “You Set My Love In Motion” was recorded by Syreeta on Motown Records. In the 1980s Ms. Bailey also taught voice at Cat’s pop music school, Cat Cohen Studio. Along with Stephen Cohn, she and Cat would lead Song Evaluation Workshops there.
You can hear one of her recordings “Taking My Time With You” at www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBcwHe3Fd6Y.