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Kitty Carlisle

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Kitty Carlisle in Die Fledermaus, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933

Kitty Carlisle Hart (also billed as Kitty Carlisle) (born September 3, 1910) is a United States singer, actress, and spokeswoman for the arts. She is best known for having been a regular panelist on the television game show, To Tell the Truth, and for her frequent appearances on another game show, What's My Line?.

Background

Kitty Carlisle was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and named Catherine Conn (the surname was pronounced Cohen); her family was of German Jewish heritage. Carlisle's father, Joseph Conn, was a gynecologist who died when she was 10. Her mother, Hortense Holtzman, was a daughter of the first Jewish mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, and a woman notoriously obsessed with breaking into Gentile society. (As Hortense Conn once said to a taxi driver who asked if her daughter was Jewish, "She may be, but I'm not.")[1]

Carlisle's early education took place in New Orleans. In 1921, she was taken to Europe, where Hortense Conn hoped to marry off her daughter to European royalty, believing the nobility there more amenable to a Jewish bride -- only to end up flitting around Europe and living in what Carlisle recalled as "the worst room of the best hotel." Carlisle was educated in Switzerland (École Mont Choisi in Lausanne), then at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics. She studied acting in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Early Career

After returning to New York in 1932 with her mother, Carlisle got her acting start in the United States at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania. She appeared, billed as Kitty Carlisle, on Broadway in several operettas and musical comedies, and in the American premiere of Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. For a brief moment, she considered taking the stage name Kitty Vere de Vere.

File:KittyC1.jpg
Kitty Carlisle as a guest panelist on What's My Line?

Carlisle's early movies included Murder at the Vanities (1934), A Night at the Opera (1935) with the Marx Brothers, and two films with Bing Crosby, She Loves Me Not (1934) and Here Is My Heart (1934).

Carlisle became a household name through To Tell the Truth, where she was a regular panelist for some 20 years, appearing on each version from 1956 to 2002. Carlisle also appeared as a frequent panelist on the 1968 revival of What's My Line?.

During this period, ever conscious of her image, Carlisle was alert to fashion and became an early patron of Scaasi: "At Wednesday night's Broadway salute to the New York City Mission Society on its 175th anniversary at Avery Fisher Hall, the fan-bodice Scaasis unfurled again. At least one of them did, a turquoise number on Kitty Carlisle Hart, who said she's been Scaasified ever since the designer dressed her for the London opening of My Fair Lady."[2]

Carlisle married playwright Moss Hart on August 10, 1946. He died December 21, 1961. They had two children.

Later Career

On December 31, 1966, Carlisle made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera, as Prince Orlofsky in Strauss's Die Fledermaus. She sang the role ten more times that season, then returned in 1973 for four more performances. Her final performance with the company was on July 7, 1973.

Known for her gracious manners and personal elegance, Carlisle became prominent in New York City social circles as she crusaded for financial support of the arts. She was appointed to various state-wide councils, and was chair of the New York State Council of the Arts from 1976-1996. She also served on the boards of various New York City cultural institutions.

Carlisle resumed her film career late in life, appearing in Woody Allen's Radio Days and in Six Degrees of Separation, as well as on stage in a revival of On Your Toes.

In recent years, she has been linked romantically to financier and art collector Roy Neuberger.

Current Activities

Though nearing her centenary, Carlisle still tours and performs with gusto; her act consists of anecdotes about the many great men in American musical theatre history that she has known, notably George Gershwin, who proposed marriage (according to a recent interview in American Heritage magazine), Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Oscar Hammerstein, and Frederick Loewe, interspersed with a few of the songs that made each of them famous.

In 2006 alone, Carlisle racked up performances at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York City, in St. Louis, Missouri, Atlanta, Georgia, and at the famed Plush Room in San Francisco.

Theatre

Films

Television

Cultural Activities

  • Vice Chair of the New York State Council of the Arts 1971-1976
  • Chair of the New York State Council of the Arts - 1976 - abt 1996
  • Chair Emeritus of the New York State Council of the Arts
  • Board member of Empire State College
  • Honorary trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Honorary trustee of the Museum of Modern Art
  • Board member of the Center for Arts Education
  • Chair of the New York Statewide Conference of Women
  • Special consultant to Governor Nelson Rockefeller on Women's Opportunities.

Book

  • Kitty: An Autobiography

Trivia

Many souces have listed an incorrect date of birth. Her correct date of birth is, in fact, 1910. However there are souces that have said she was born in 1906, another lists 1926, and one other lists her date of birth as early as 1899, making her 107 years old.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Teicholz, Tom (2005-07-01). "Heart to Hart". The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Retrieved 2006-12-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ The Evening Hours by Michael Gross, May 15, 1987, New York Times online retrieved June 29, 2006
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