(Press
Release) "The odds against a Samoa-born singer becoming a major artist
on a major record label are, conservatively, about one million to one.
Those things just don't happen.

"But in the case of Mavis Rivers, they did.

"Late in 1958, Mavis' agent brought her audition record to Andy Wiswell, a producer in Capitol's New York studios. When her voice came through the speaker, Wiswell immediately knew that here was a new star with overwhelming potential. Immediately, a contract was signed.

"Mavis was born in Apia, Upolu,
Western Samoa, of English, Chinese, German, Samoan, Swiss and French
ancestry. In addition to Mavis and her parents, a dozen more children
filled the Rivers' home — and nearly everyone sang or played.

"The Rivers family's regular Tuesday evening clambake became the event of the week on the island…

"In 1942, with the war at the height of its fury, 'Mavis and her family moved to Pago Pago, American Samoa, a staging area with thousands of troops surging in and out each week.

"'I've
never in my life seen so many soldiers and sailors,' Mavis recalls.
"We'd wake up in the morning, look out in the back yard, and find it
full of tents.'"

(signed) Publicity Department, Capitol Records, Hollywood.

-Those weren't soldiers and sailors. That was the Arechiga family.