Kitty Carlisle Hart – An American Icon in Southern California Concert
Debbi K. Swanson Patrick
Kitty Carlisle Hart is a walking, talking, singing history of the American theater. She’ll share some of her legendary experience with theater and show business greats in her one-woman show in North Hollywood August 4-6. She’ll also be celebrating her 96th birthday on Sept. 3.
Yes, 96. The woman is one of the most revered and admired icons of the 20th century, and now the 21st. Known to most from her 20+ years on To Tell the Truth (starting in 1956 and ending in the various reworkings of the show in 2000), and on What’s My Line?, she’s done so much more. Her life is a mixture of the most impressive with the most humble of experiences. While her autobiography tells many tales of both her luck and unfortunate mistakes, as the famous song goes, she’s still here!
Son Chris Hart says Kitty has thought about doing this show since his father, Pulitzer Prize-winner Moss Hart, was alive – and he died in 1961! So this has been a well thought out production. “It came out a series of lectures she was asked to give about her life in the theater,” says son Chris. “She went to my father and said, ‘What should I talk about?’ He said, ‘There’s one subject you’ve given unfailing attention to in your life and that’s yourself, so start with that.”
That attention to herself began with her ferociously determined mother. After Kitty’s father died, mother Hortense whisked her off to Paris at age 11 to prepare Catherine for a rich husband. It worked, but took a lot longer than planned. Kitty returned to the stage of New York 10 years later instead. She did some shows then grabbed an opportunity to go to Hollywood. Her first stop in California was at the Pasadena train station, where photographer and reporter were waiting to promote her arrival.
Though she did two movies with Bing Crosby and sang Il Travatore in the Marx Brothers’ classic A Night at the Opera, movies didn’t suit her – she’d spent too much time obtaining a European education in the arts and the two didn’t mix.
Back to New York she went. She was 36 when she married Hart. Ten years earlier, on being introduced to him, she tripped on a cable and landed on her face at his feet. After his death, she wasn’t sure what her future would be, but she’s made the most of it. Kitty is a poster girl for life after 50 – she debuted at the New York Met at age 54, became vice chairman and chairman of the New York State Council of the Arts for more than 20 years, and is on the board of several prestigious arts and educational institutions.
She keeps herself so fit, that Chris says when a TV production crew came to film her just a few years ago doing her daily routine of floor exercises for a video series for seniors, they were stunned. “She does amazingly limber things and when she was done they said, ‘Sorry, we can’t use this, our seniors wouldn’t ever be able to do what you do.’”
She’s doing her show around the country, and at Feinstein’s in New York. In fact, Chris says, “She’s such a hit they’ve given her a slot to celebrate her birthday every year. This last year they had her back twice. She’s been working with arranger David Lewis on new songs and arrangements. She does embody the era she talks about, and she knew all the greats through her own career or Dad’s. And best of all, she knows how the composers intended the songs to be done because she knew them personally.” In fact, Gershwin actually semi-seriously proposed to her. In an understatement, Chris says, “It’s a bit of history up there.”
She does 20 songs, some just a flavor of them, a bit of singalong. Chris’s favorite part of the show? “The September Song gets me every time. And there is one funny song, Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise, about a women’s garden party lunch, a potluck of horrendous dishes that I love. I’m very sentimental so I’m bawling every performance, wondering how many more I’ll get to see.”
In the show Kitty quotes her mother on the rapid passage of time after a certain age: “When you pass 50, every 15 minutes, it’s breakfast.”
A portion of the proceeds will benefit Chris Hart’s new production, With Friends Like These, to be staged as part of the Mammoth Lakes Theatre Festival the week before Kitty’s birthday. Written by Tom Dullack, the comedy stars Donna Mills. Since there is no performing arts venue in Mammoth yet (the word is one is coming), the show is being done in a large tent in the main village square. And it may move to Los Angeles and the East Coast. Last year he directed his dad’s famous show, Light Up the Sky.
Kitty Carlisle Hart - An American Icon in Concert, at the historic El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday August 4, 5 and 3 p.m. Sunday August 6. Tickets: $100 premium seats include champagne post reception with Ms. Hart; remaining seats $30-$50. To Purchase Tickets: www.elportaltheatre.com or call 818-508-4200.