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Here’s to Kitty, here’s to life
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New York - When I heard that Kitty Carlisle Hart had died, the first thing I wanted to do was call her producer, Joe Spotts, who brought her to Atlanta last year for what turned out to be her final performances. Before those gigs, Hart had invited me to visit her at her grandiose New York apartment. I never made it, but the idea of having tea with the famous smile - for really Hart was just a fabulous set of red lips walking around on pair of pure-bred legs - had always intrigued me.
Heading up to New York this week to cover the Broadway scene, someone jokingly asked me if I would be taking tea with Kitty. Before I could get on the plane Wednesday morning, she had passed away Tuesday night, at 96. She once told me that she would never give up her Upper East Side flat, said to cover half a city block, for to do so would surely mean death. In the end, she passed away there quietly, with her son at her side.
Spotts told me that Hart had been suffering from pneumonia while in Atlanta, though no one knew it then. Frail when I first saw her on a soupy cold day last November, she apparently later became invigorated by her Midtown walks and was determined to go out with a blast. Spotts said he considered canceling each show, but she and her musical director, David Lewis, insisted on going on, and by the final number of the final night, Hart purred Shirley Horne’s “Here’s to Life” like it was as her last shining moment.
And it was.
Now this is the part I love. Spotts said Hart had become like a second grandmother and used to visit his Palm Springs home and swim laps every day in the pool. She told him that she had never been to the Taj Mahal and would like to go there, so Spotts was busy at work making it happen at the time of her death.
That’s a postcard I would have loved to have gotten. One great lady saying hello to another. A moment for eternity.
Once declared a “Living Landmark” by the city of New York, Kitty Carlisle Hart was like an ageless visitor from a lost time, when people still dressed up and said charming, witty things. She was an actress, a Metropolitan Opera singer, wife of playwright Moss Hart, an effervescent quiz show personality, a fashion plate and Manhattan socialite. She was always gracious and kind and she never stopped smiling. It would be impossible not to remember her with great fondness.
Comments
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By GT
April 19, 2007 1:14 PM | Link to this
They won’t let her in heaven only because they will think she is lying about her age. Best looking and most with it 96 year old woman I can remember and a real lady. She will be missed.
By JustMe
April 19, 2007 1:32 PM | Link to this
WHO?