Kitty Carlisle | |
|---|---|
 Photograph byCarl Van Vechten, 1933 | |
| Born | Catherine Conn (1910-09-03)September 3, 1910 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | April 17, 2007(2007-04-17) (aged 96)[1][2] New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Ferncliff Cemetery |
| Other names | Kitty Carlisle Hart |
| Alma mater | University of Paris London School of Economics Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1932–2006 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Kitty Carlisle Hart (bornCatherine Conn; September 3, 1910 – April 17, 2007)[1][2] was an American stage and screen actress, opera singer, television personality and spokesperson for the arts. She was theleading lady in theMarx Brothers movieA Night at the Opera (1935) and was a regular panelist on the television game showTo Tell the Truth (1956–1978). She served 20 years on theNew York State Council on the Arts.
In 1991, she received theNational Medal of Arts from PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush. She was inducted into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame in 1999.[3]
Kitty Carlisle was bornCatherine Conn (pronounced Cohen) inNew Orleans, Louisiana, of German-Jewish heritage. Her grandfather, Ben Holzman, was a mayor ofShreveport, Louisiana, and a Confederate veteran of theAmerican Civil War. He had been a gunner on theCSS Virginia, the Confederate ironclad warship that fought theUSS Monitor at theBattle of Hampton Roads. Her father, Joseph Conn, MD, was a gynecologist who died when she was ten years old. Her mother, Hortense Holzman Conn, was eager for her daughter to be accepted by local society. A taxi driver once asked if her daughter was Jewish, and she answered, "She may be, but I'm not."[4]
Carlisle's mother took her to Europe in 1921, where she hoped Kitty would marry European royalty, believing nobility were more likely to marry a Jewish girl. They traveled around Europe and often lived in what Carlisle recalled as "the worst room of the best hotel". Kitty was educated at theChâteau Mont-Choisi [de] inLausanne, Switzerland, then at theSorbonne and theLondon School of Economics. She studied acting in London at theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art.[5] She studied singing withEstelle Liebling, the teacher ofBeverly Sills, in New York City.[6]
After returning to New York in 1932 with her mother, she appeared, billed as Kitty Carlisle, onBroadway in several operettas and musical comedies, and in the American premiere ofBenjamin Britten'sThe Rape of Lucretia. She also sang the title role inGeorges Bizet'sCarmen inSalt Lake City. She privately studied voice withJuilliard teacherAnna E. Schoen-Rene, who had been a student ofPauline Viardot-Garcia andManuel Garcia.[7]
Carlisle's early movies includedMurder at the Vanities (1934),A Night at the Opera (1935) with the Marx Brothers, and two films withBing Crosby,She Loves Me Not (1934) andHere Is My Heart (1934).Carlisle resumed her film career later in life, appearing inWoody Allen'sRadio Days (1987) and inSix Degrees of Separation (1993), as well as on stage in a revival ofOn Your Toes, replacingDina Merrill. Her last movie appearance was inCatch Me If You Can (2002) in which she played herself in a dramatization of a 1970sTo Tell the Truth episode.
For her contributions to the film industry, Carlisle was inducted into theHollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 with amotion pictures star located at 6611Hollywood Boulevard.[8]
Carlisle became a household name throughTo Tell the Truth, where she was a regular panelist from 1956 to 1978, and later appeared on revivals of the series in 1980, 1990–91 and one episode in 2000. (One of her most notable hallmarks was her writing of the number one: When she voted for the member of the team of challengers who occupied the number one seat, it was written with aRoman numeral I.) She was also a semi-regular panelist onPassword,Match Game,Missing Links, andWhat's My Line?
On December 31, 1966, Carlisle made her debut with theMetropolitan Opera, as Prince Orlofsky inStrauss'sDie Fledermaus. She sang the role 10 more times that season, then returned in 1973 for four more performances. Her final performance with the company was on July 7, 1973. She reprised this role during theBeverly Sills Farewell Gala in October 1980.
Carlisle datedGeorge Gershwin in 1933 "until George went to California".[9] On August 10, 1946, she married playwright and theatrical producerMoss Hart, whom she met at the Bucks County Playhouse inNew Hope, Pennsylvania.[10][11] They had two children. Hart died on December 20, 1961, at their home inPalm Springs, California.[12] She never remarried, although she briefly dated former governor and presidential candidateThomas E. Dewey after the death of his wife. During the 1980s and 1990s, Carlisle was the partner of diplomatic historianIvo John Lederer, a relationship that lasted 16 years until Lederer's death in 1998. In her later years, she kept company with financier and art collectorRoy Neuberger.[13]
Carlisle was known for her gracious manner and personal elegance, and she became prominent in New York City social circles as she crusaded for financial support of the arts. She was appointed to various statewide councils, and was chairperson of theNew York State Council on the Arts from 1976 to 1996. One of the two state theaters housed atThe Eggperforming arts venue in Albany is named theKitty Carlisle Hart Theatre.[14] She also served on the boards of various New York City cultural institutions and made an appearance at the annualCIBC World Markets Miracle Day, a children's charity event. She was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997.[15]
Carlisle also widely performed her one-woman show, in which she told anecdotes about the great men of American musical theater she had known, notablyGeorge Gershwin (who had proposed marriage),[16]Irving Berlin,Kurt Weill,Oscar Hammerstein,Alan Jay Lerner, andFrederick Loewe, and interspersed with songs that had made each of them famous.
Carlisle Hart was a longtime champion ofHistoric Preservation in New York City and State. While chair of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), from 1976 to 1996, she directed many millions of dollars in support to preservation projects, from theNiagara Frontier toStaten Island. This was in an effort to keep historic preservation as a core program of theNew York State Council on the Arts, the only arts council in America that provides such funding. In 1980, she was crowned Queen of the Beaux Arts Ball, an annual event run by the Beaux Arts Society (American comedianPaul Lynde was crowned King the same year).[17]
In recognition of this legacy, theHistoric Districts Council presented its Landmarks Lion award to her in 2003.[18]
Carlisle died on April 17, 2007, fromcongestive heart failure resulting from a prolonged bout ofpneumonia.[19] She had been in and out of the hospital since she contracted pneumonia some time prior to November 2006. She died in herUpper East Side,[20]Manhattan apartment, with her son, Christopher Hart, at her bedside. She was interred in a crypt next to her husband, Moss Hart, atFerncliff Cemetery inHartsdale, New York.[citation needed]
