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South Fayette singer recalls career with The Four Coins
I sang ‘Shangri-La’ to my wife the night I was married. Every time I sing that song, I sing it to her. So it’s been our song. The words are just perfect.
--George Mahramas
Singer finds paradise performing with The Four Coins
George Mahramas of South Fayette recalls career with famous vocal group in '50s and '60s
By Andrea Iglar
When George Mahramas reminisces, he thinks of Elvis Presley, The Andrews Sisters, Nat King Cole.
And of course he recalls The Four Coins—his own vocal group that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
Now a South Fayette resident, Mahramas spent about 15 years touring the world, recording doo-wop albums and singing lead with his brothers and cousins. Along the way, he met and performed with famous musicians.
In Japan, he shared the bill with crooner Cole each night and played cards with him each morning.
“Super guy,” Mahramas recalled during an interview in May. “All we did was laugh.”
In Las Vegas, singing sisters Maxene, Patty and LaVerne Andrews of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” fame left their address on a postcard for the “four nice gents” they had met.
In 1956, Presley attended a Four Coins show in Biloxi, Mississippi, when he was seeking backing musicians.
“We imitated him; I used to sing ‘I’m all shook up, m-hmm.’ Maybe that’s why he didn’t like us,” Mahramas said with a laugh.
At age 90, Mahramas (muh-RAY-miss) continues to entertain crowds with his expressive baritone.
In April, he and John Sarkis, vocalist with Pittsburgh group The Skyliners, performed tunes for an appreciative audience at Chartiers Bend Retirement Resort in South Fayette Township, where Mahramas has resided the past four years.
Singing to music tracks, the duo sang Four Coins hits such as “The World Outside” and “Shangri-La”—a ballad named for a fictional utopia that quickly sold more than a million copies and was the most played record in the U.S. in 1957. They also sang classics like Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” and “My Way.”
For the occasion, Sarris Candies of Canonsburg, where Mahramas grew up, created specially wrapped candy bars acknowledging Mahramas as “one of the famous Four Coins.” (As a teenager, Mahramas was among those who sampled the first batch of chocolate that Frank Sarris made in his basement.)
Growing up in Canonsburg, Washington County, meant the boys admired singer Perry Como, who was raised in the same neighborhood. The Mahramas family and most neighbors had Greek heritage, while Como’s family was Italian.
“We all wanted to be a Perry Como,” Mahramas said. “We wanted to be like him.”
The teens who later would form The Four Coins—Mahramas; his older brother, Mike; and his cousins George Mantalis and Jim Gregorakis—would sit on a street corner for hours practicing harmonies. The youngest Mahramas brother, Jack, listened, learned and eventually replaced Mike when the elder left to become an actor.
The youth had sharpened their musical chops at Canonsburg High School, joining classmate Bobby Vinton’s orchestra in 1952. Mahramas played trumpet, and the cousins played saxophone.
In 1953, the quartet (originally called The Four Keys) won an amateur singing contest televised live in Pittsburgh.
They went on to play nightclubs, landing a 57-week gig at the Blue Ridge Inn along Route 51. They performed with a house band every night Monday through Saturday, earning $1,200 a week.
“That’s a lot of money,” Mahramas said. “We divided it by four, but still.”
Mahramas recalled an evening when he placed a stack of bills under his father Jim’s dinner plate.
“My dad said, ‘What’s this money here by my plate?’ I said, ‘I’m going to be giving you $200 a week to help you pay for bills.’ He said, ‘Where did you get this money?’ I said, ‘Singing.’”
His father asked again, and upon hearing the same answer, he replied skeptically, “George, I heard you sing. Now, where did you get this money?”
Jim accompanied his son to the vocal show that night, listened to the group and talked to the club owner. He decided the money was legitimate.
“He just loved us from that day on,” Mahramas said. “He became my biggest fan.”
In the coming years, the group found popular success, signing with Epic Records and making more than 100 singles and three albums, including a record of Greek songs.
The Four Coins performed “A Broken Promise” in the 1957 rock and roll musical “Jamboree” with the likes of Fats Domino and Count Basie, and they appeared on television with hosts Ed Sullivan, Patti Page, Steve Allen and Mike Douglas. They were guests on “The Tonight Show” and Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand.”
The group appeared twice with their hometown musical idol on “The Perry Como Show.” It became a tradition that when they visited New York City, they would pick up freshly baked bread from Como’s mother in Canonsburg and deliver it to her son at Rockefeller Center.
By 1970, The Four Coins stopped performing to spend more time with their families. Mahramas became an award-winning wine consultant and for 22 years served as maître d’ of Christopher’s Restaurant (now Monterey Bay) on Mt. Washington.
In the 1980s, Canonsburg named a road Four Coins Drive in the group’s honor. The borough also has named streets for Como and Vinton.
In 2003, the group reunited for sold-out shows at Pepsi Roadhouse in Washington County, followed by a regional tour and a TV appearance on PBS.
“I just couldn’t wait to get back onto that stage,” Mahramas said. “It’s like it never left us.”
Today, George Mahramas and Gregorakis are the sole survivors of The Four Coins. Mahramas performs occasionally at his apartment building, where he keeps photo albums, posters and other memorabilia.
While Mahramas enjoyed rubbing elbows with famous personalities over the years, the most important person he met during his performance years was Helen Vidovich, who was Miss Pennsylvania USA in 1954 and married Mahramas in 1960. She died in 2020 after a long illness.
“I sang ‘Shangri-La’ to my wife the night I was married,” Mahramas said. “Every time I sing that song, I sing it to her. So it’s been our song. The words are just perfect.”
The song, written by Matty Malneck and Robert Maxwell, include these lyrics by Carl Sigman:
“And when you hold me, how warm you are / Be mine, my darling, and spend your life with me in Shangri-La.”
