Kay Thompson
Encyclopedia
Kay Thompson was an American
author
, composer
, musician
, actress and singer. She is best known as the creator of the Eloise
children's books.
in 1909, the second of the four children of Leo George Fink, an Austrian-born pawnbroker and jeweler, and his wife, the former Hattie A. Tetrick. Her siblings were Blanche, Marian, and Leo.
She married twice:
.
Kay Thompson and Her Rhythm Singers joined André Kostelanetz
and His Orchestra for the hit series The Chesterfield Radio Program (CBS, 1936), followed by It's Chesterfield Time (CBS, 1937) for which Kay and her large choir were teamed with Hal Kemp and His Orchestra. For her motion picture debut, Kay and her choir performed two songs in the Republic Pictures
musical Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937). In 1939, she reunited with André Kostelanetz
for Tune-Up Time (CBS), a show that was produced by radio legend William Spier (who later married Kay in 1942).
On an installment of Tune-Up Time in April 1939, 16-year-old Judy Garland
was a guest. It was at this time that Kay first met and worked with Judy, developing a close personal friendship and professional association that lasted the rest of Garland's life.
, Lena Horne
, Frank Sinatra
, and June Allyson
. A wealth of information examining Thompson's contributions to Freed's musicals is found in Hugh Fordin's The World of Entertainment!: Hollywood's Greatest Musicals (1975), and in Sam Irvin's Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise (2010).
She was the vocal arranger for Ziegfeld Follies
(1946), The Harvey Girls
(1946), Till the Clouds Roll By
(1946), Good News
(1947) and other films. After working on The Pirate
(1948) with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly
, she left MGM to create the night club act: "Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers
" (Bob, Don, Dick, and Andy Williams
). She wrote the songs and Robert Alton
did the original choreography for the act.
in New York City, became most notable as the author of the Eloise
series of children's books, which were partly inspired by the antics of her goddaughter Liza Minnelli
, daughter of Judy Garland
and film director Vincente Minnelli
, but when asked if this was true responded, "I am Eloise". The four books in the series, illustrated by Hilary Knight
, are Eloise (Simon & Schuster, 1955), Eloise in Paris (Simon & Schuster, 1957), Eloise at Christmastime
(Random House, 1958) and Eloise in Moscow (Simon & Schuster, 1959). They follow the adventures of the precocious six-year-old girl who lives at The Plaza. All were bestsellers upon release and have been adapted into television projects. She also composed and performed a Top 40 hit song, "Eloise" (Cadence Records, 1956). A fifth book, Eloise Takes a Bawth was posthumously published by Simon & Schuster in 2002, culled from Thompson's original manuscripts once slated for 1964 publication by Harper & Row. However, at the time, Thompson was burned out on Eloise; she blocked publication and took all but the first book out of print, drastically reducing the income of her collaborator.
As a film actress, Thompson played fashion editor Maggie Prescott in the musical Funny Face
(1957), which starred Audrey Hepburn
and Fred Astaire
. Reunited with her colleagues from MGM, producer/songwriter Roger Edens
and director Stanley Donen
, Thompson garnered critical praise for her stylish turn as an editor based on real-life Harper's Bazaar editor Diana Vreeland
, opening the film with her splashy "Think Pink!" and performing duets with Astaire and Hepburn. In a December 6, 2006 interview on Turner Classic Movies
, Donen said that Funny Face was made at Paramount with a primarily MGM crew, including Donen, Edens and Thompson, because Paramount Pictures
would not release Hepburn for any film except one made at Paramount. Thompson didn't act in any other films because, according to Liza Minnelli
, Thompson disliked the slow speed of production.
and another four sides for Victor
. The Brunswick sides ("You Hit The Spot", "You Let Me Down", "Don't Mention Love To Me" and "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind") are about as good as any example of sophisticated cabaret singing in the mid-1930s. She later recorded for Capitol, Columbia, Decca, and, most importantly, for MGM Records which issued the one and only complete album of songs by Thompson in 1954. In February 1956, Thompson wrote and recorded the song "Eloise" at Cadence Records
with an orchestra conducted by Archie Bleyer
. The song debuted on March 10, 1956, and became a Top 40 hit, selling over 100,000 copies.
Thompson attempted to sue female impersonator Lynne Carter
. The resulting attention successfully helped Carter's career in Hollywood.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Kay mentored the solo career of the young Andy Williams
. She helped land him a regular singing spot on NBC-TV's new late-night series, The Tonight Show
, hosted by Steve Allen. She got her friend Archie Bleyer to add Andy to the roster of artists on his label Cadence Records
where she wrote many of the songs Andy recorded, including the 1958 Top 20 hit "Promise Me, Love". Though it had been denied for decades, Williams finally admitted in his 2009 memoir, Moon River and Me (Viking Press), that he and Kay had been secret lovers for several years, despite the 18 year age gap between them.
She later recorded a spoken-word album for Signature Records
, Let's Talk About Russia, which detailed her adventures in Moscow. Signature also released a single of two songs by Thompson, "Dasvidanya" and "Moscow Cha Cha". She served as an advisor to the 1957 Patti Page
TV series The Big Record, and also was creative consultant and vocal arranger for The Judy Garland Show
, Judy Garland's highly rated 1962 television special with Frank Sinatra
and Dean Martin
, and she kept busy with nightclub and television performances, as well as overseeing her successful "Eloise" franchise.
She returned to live in New York in 1969. Immediately following the death of Judy Garland, Kay appeared with her goddaughter Liza Minnelli
in Otto Preminger's Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
(Paramount, 1970). In 1974, Thompson directed a groundbreaking fashion show at the Palace of Versailles featuring performances by Liza Minnelli and the collections of Halston
, Bill Blass
, Oscar de la Renta
, and Anne Klein
.
has been remastered and reissued. Most of her exceptional work for MGM has been preserved and released on Rhino/Turner Classic Movies original soundtrack series, including little-known contributions she did for films such as Meet the People
(1944) and Abbott and Costello in Hollywood
(1945). Her 1930s recordings are available on the CD Kay Thompson: Queen of Swing Vocal & Her Rhythm Singers (Baldwin Street Records), produced and annotated by Ted Ono. The rest of her recording career is compiled on the 3-CD box set Think Pink! A Kay Thompson Party (Sepia Records), produced and annotated by Thompson biographer Sam Irvin
.
In 2003, Kay Thompson was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame
.
Liza Minnelli recreated Thompson's nightclub act for her 2009 Tony Award-winning Broadway event, Liza's at the Palace. A CD cast recording, a PBS television special, and a DVD followed. Liza's at The Palace opened at New York's legendary Palace theater, an affectionate salute to her godmother Kay Thompson. Supported by a quartet of dynamic singer/dancers standing in for the original Williams Brothers, Minnelli performed songs (with the original vocal arrangements) from Thompson's famous act, including "I Love a Violin", "Clap Yo' Hands
", "Jubilee Time", and "Hello Hello".
For an exhaustively-researched list of all of Thompson's hundreds of credits for radio, TV, movies, stage, books, and music, see the "Kayographies" tab at Kay Thompson Website. Featuring over 300 pages of endnotes, sidebars, letters, credits, etc., this website includes exclusive comprehensive extras about Kay Thompson that, due to space considerations, could not be included in the book, Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise (Simon & Schuster
), by Sam Irvin
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, actress and singer. She is best known as the creator of the Eloise
Eloise (books)
Eloise is the name of the protagonist in a series of children's books written by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight.Eloise is a six-year-old girl who lives in the "room on the tippy-top floor" of the Plaza Hotel in New York with her Nanny, her pug dog Weenie, and her turtle Skipperdee. A...
children's books.
Background
Catherine Louise Fink was born in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
in 1909, the second of the four children of Leo George Fink, an Austrian-born pawnbroker and jeweler, and his wife, the former Hattie A. Tetrick. Her siblings were Blanche, Marian, and Leo.
She married twice:
- Jack JenneyJack JenneyTruman Eliot "Jack" Jenney was a jazz trombonist who might be best known for instrumental versions of the song Stardust. Born in Mason City, Iowa, Jenney played with his father's band from age 11, his father was a musician and music teacher, but his first professional work began with Austin Wylie...
, trombonist and bandleader, married 1937, divorced 1939. - William SpierWilliam SpierWilliam Spier was an American writer, producer and director for television and radio. He is best known for his radio work, notably Suspense and The Adventures of Sam Spade....
, radio producer, married 1942, divorced 1947.
Radio
Thompson began her career in the 1930s as a singer and choral director for radio. Her first big break was as a regular singer on The Bing Crosby-Woodbury Show (CBS, 1933–34). This led to a regular spot on The Fred Waring-Ford Dealers Show (NBC, 1934–35) and then, with conductor Lennie Hayton, she co-founded The Lucky Strike Hit Parade (CBS, 1935) where she met (and later married) trombonist Jack JenneyJack Jenney
Truman Eliot "Jack" Jenney was a jazz trombonist who might be best known for instrumental versions of the song Stardust. Born in Mason City, Iowa, Jenney played with his father's band from age 11, his father was a musician and music teacher, but his first professional work began with Austin Wylie...
.
Kay Thompson and Her Rhythm Singers joined André Kostelanetz
Andre Kostelanetz
André Kostelanetz was a popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music.-Biography:...
and His Orchestra for the hit series The Chesterfield Radio Program (CBS, 1936), followed by It's Chesterfield Time (CBS, 1937) for which Kay and her large choir were teamed with Hal Kemp and His Orchestra. For her motion picture debut, Kay and her choir performed two songs in the Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
musical Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937). In 1939, she reunited with André Kostelanetz
Andre Kostelanetz
André Kostelanetz was a popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music.-Biography:...
for Tune-Up Time (CBS), a show that was produced by radio legend William Spier (who later married Kay in 1942).
On an installment of Tune-Up Time in April 1939, 16-year-old Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
was a guest. It was at this time that Kay first met and worked with Judy, developing a close personal friendship and professional association that lasted the rest of Garland's life.
Hollywood
In 1943, Thompson signed an exclusive contract with MGM to become the studio's top vocal arranger, vocal coach, and choral director. She served as main vocal arranger for many of producer Arthur Freed's MGM musicals and as vocal coach to such stars as Judy GarlandJudy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, and June Allyson
June Allyson
June Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss . From 1959–1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology...
. A wealth of information examining Thompson's contributions to Freed's musicals is found in Hugh Fordin's The World of Entertainment!: Hollywood's Greatest Musicals (1975), and in Sam Irvin's Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise (2010).
She was the vocal arranger for Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
(1946), The Harvey Girls
The Harvey Girls
The Harvey Girls is a 1946 MGM musical film based on a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams about Fred Harvey's famous Harvey House restaurants. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger, and Marjorie Main...
(1946), Till the Clouds Roll By
Till the Clouds Roll By
Till The Clouds Roll By is a 1946 American musical film made by MGM. The film is a fictionalized biography of composer Jerome Kern, who was originally involved with the production of the film, but died before it was completed...
(1946), Good News
Good News (films)
Good News is the title of two American MGM musical films based on the 1927 stage production of the same name.The first, released in 1930, was directed by Nick Grinde. The cast included Bessie Love, Cliff Edwards and Penny Singleton. The film was shot in black-and-white, although the finale was in...
(1947) and other films. After working on The Pirate
The Pirate
The Pirate is a 1948 American musical feature film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. With songs by Cole Porter, it stars Judy Garland and Gene Kelly with co-stars Walter Slezak, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Owen, and George Zucco.-Plot:...
(1948) with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
, she left MGM to create the night club act: "Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers
Williams Brothers
The Williams Brothers were a singing quartet that performed extensively on radio, movies, nightclubs, and television from 1938 through the 1990s.-History:...
" (Bob, Don, Dick, and Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
). She wrote the songs and Robert Alton
Robert Alton
Robert Alton was an American dancer and choreographer, a major figure in dance choreography of Broadway and Hollywood musicals from the 1930s through to the early 1950s...
did the original choreography for the act.
Collaboration with Hilary Knight
Thompson, who lived at the Plaza HotelPlaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel in New York City is a landmark 20-story luxury hotel with a height of and length of that occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue extends along the east side of Grand Army Plaza...
in New York City, became most notable as the author of the Eloise
Eloise (books)
Eloise is the name of the protagonist in a series of children's books written by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight.Eloise is a six-year-old girl who lives in the "room on the tippy-top floor" of the Plaza Hotel in New York with her Nanny, her pug dog Weenie, and her turtle Skipperdee. A...
series of children's books, which were partly inspired by the antics of her goddaughter Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
, daughter of Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
and film director Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
, but when asked if this was true responded, "I am Eloise". The four books in the series, illustrated by Hilary Knight
Hilary Knight
Hilary Knight is an American writer-artist who is the illustrator of more than 50 books and the author of nine books. He is best known as the illustrator of Kay Thompson's Eloise and others in the Eloise series....
, are Eloise (Simon & Schuster, 1955), Eloise in Paris (Simon & Schuster, 1957), Eloise at Christmastime
Eloise at Christmastime
Eloise at Christmastime is a live-action film based on the 1958 book of the same name written by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight. The film was produced by Handmade Films and DiNovi Pictures for Walt Disney Television with distribution handled by the ABC Television Network. It was...
(Random House, 1958) and Eloise in Moscow (Simon & Schuster, 1959). They follow the adventures of the precocious six-year-old girl who lives at The Plaza. All were bestsellers upon release and have been adapted into television projects. She also composed and performed a Top 40 hit song, "Eloise" (Cadence Records, 1956). A fifth book, Eloise Takes a Bawth was posthumously published by Simon & Schuster in 2002, culled from Thompson's original manuscripts once slated for 1964 publication by Harper & Row. However, at the time, Thompson was burned out on Eloise; she blocked publication and took all but the first book out of print, drastically reducing the income of her collaborator.
As a film actress, Thompson played fashion editor Maggie Prescott in the musical Funny Face
Funny Face
Funny Face is an American musical film released in 1957 in VistaVision Technicolor, with assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. The film was written by Leonard Gershe and directed by Stanley Donen. It stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Kay Thompson...
(1957), which starred Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
and Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
. Reunited with her colleagues from MGM, producer/songwriter Roger Edens
Roger Edens
Roger Edens was a Hollywood composer, arranger and associate producer, and is considered one of the major creative figures in Arthur Freed's musical film production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the "golden era of Hollywood".-Early career and work with Judy Garland:Edens was born in...
and director Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen ; is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are Singin' in the Rain and On the Town, both of which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. His other noteworthy films include Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Indiscreet, Damn...
, Thompson garnered critical praise for her stylish turn as an editor based on real-life Harper's Bazaar editor Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Born as Diana Dalziel, Vreeland was the eldest daughter of American socialite mother Emily Key Hoffman...
, opening the film with her splashy "Think Pink!" and performing duets with Astaire and Hepburn. In a December 6, 2006 interview on Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
, Donen said that Funny Face was made at Paramount with a primarily MGM crew, including Donen, Edens and Thompson, because Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
would not release Hepburn for any film except one made at Paramount. Thompson didn't act in any other films because, according to Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
, Thompson disliked the slow speed of production.
Recordings
As a singer, Thompson made very few records. In 1935, she recorded four sides for BrunswickBrunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
and another four sides for Victor
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
. The Brunswick sides ("You Hit The Spot", "You Let Me Down", "Don't Mention Love To Me" and "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind") are about as good as any example of sophisticated cabaret singing in the mid-1930s. She later recorded for Capitol, Columbia, Decca, and, most importantly, for MGM Records which issued the one and only complete album of songs by Thompson in 1954. In February 1956, Thompson wrote and recorded the song "Eloise" at Cadence Records
Cadence Records
Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952...
with an orchestra conducted by Archie Bleyer
Archie Bleyer
Archie Bleyer was an American song arranger, bandleader, and record company executive.-Early life:He was born in the Corona section of the New York City borough of Queens. He began playing the piano when he was only seven years old...
. The song debuted on March 10, 1956, and became a Top 40 hit, selling over 100,000 copies.
Thompson attempted to sue female impersonator Lynne Carter
Lynne Carter
Lynne Carter was a prominent entertainer, actor, and female impersonator.-Biography:Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Carter served in the United States Navy during World War II. He began his performance career in 1947 in a Chicago nightclub where he met Pearl Bailey who became an early supporter of his act...
. The resulting attention successfully helped Carter's career in Hollywood.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Kay mentored the solo career of the young Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
. She helped land him a regular singing spot on NBC-TV's new late-night series, The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
, hosted by Steve Allen. She got her friend Archie Bleyer to add Andy to the roster of artists on his label Cadence Records
Cadence Records
Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952...
where she wrote many of the songs Andy recorded, including the 1958 Top 20 hit "Promise Me, Love". Though it had been denied for decades, Williams finally admitted in his 2009 memoir, Moon River and Me (Viking Press), that he and Kay had been secret lovers for several years, despite the 18 year age gap between them.
She later recorded a spoken-word album for Signature Records
Signature Records
Signature Records was a mid-20th century United States based record label. Noted Signature recording artists included Anita O'Day, Coleman Hawkins, Eddie Lawrence, Ray Anthony, Barbara McNair, Monica Lewis, Dickie Thompson, Jane Harvey, Kay Thompson and Alan Dale. Bob Thiele produced records for...
, Let's Talk About Russia, which detailed her adventures in Moscow. Signature also released a single of two songs by Thompson, "Dasvidanya" and "Moscow Cha Cha". She served as an advisor to the 1957 Patti Page
Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...
TV series The Big Record, and also was creative consultant and vocal arranger for The Judy Garland Show
The Judy Garland Show
The Judy Garland Show is an American musical variety television series that aired on CBS on Sunday nights during the 1963-1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star...
, Judy Garland's highly rated 1962 television special with Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
, and she kept busy with nightclub and television performances, as well as overseeing her successful "Eloise" franchise.
She returned to live in New York in 1969. Immediately following the death of Judy Garland, Kay appeared with her goddaughter Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
in Otto Preminger's Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon is a 1970 film directed by Otto Preminger. The film is based on the book by Marjorie Kellogg. The film starred Liza Minnelli as the title character, a girl whose face is scarred in a vicious battery acid attack by her boy friend. Later in an institution, she...
(Paramount, 1970). In 1974, Thompson directed a groundbreaking fashion show at the Palace of Versailles featuring performances by Liza Minnelli and the collections of Halston
Halston
Roy Halston Frowick, also known as Halston was a clothing designer of the 1970s. His long dresses or copies of his style were popular fashion wear in mid-1970s discotheques.-Early life and career:...
, Bill Blass
Bill Blass
William Ralph "Bill" Blass was an American fashion designer, born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is known for his tailoring and his innovative combinations of textures and patterns...
, Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...
, and Anne Klein
Anne Klein
Anne Klein was an American fashion designer who founded her own women's sportswear and apparel label.-Biography:Anne Klein was born as Hannah Golofski in a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York on August 3, 1923...
.
Death
Thompson eventually moved into Minnelli's Upper East Side penthouse, where she died in 1998 at the age of 88.Posthumous
The original soundtrack to Funny FaceFunny Face
Funny Face is an American musical film released in 1957 in VistaVision Technicolor, with assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. The film was written by Leonard Gershe and directed by Stanley Donen. It stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Kay Thompson...
has been remastered and reissued. Most of her exceptional work for MGM has been preserved and released on Rhino/Turner Classic Movies original soundtrack series, including little-known contributions she did for films such as Meet the People
Meet the People
Meet the People was a 1944 MGM patriotic film made during World War II with Lucille Ball and Dick Powell that took its title from a successful Los Angeles stage revue...
(1944) and Abbott and Costello in Hollywood
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood is a 1945 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. This film's full onscreen title is Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood.-Plot:...
(1945). Her 1930s recordings are available on the CD Kay Thompson: Queen of Swing Vocal & Her Rhythm Singers (Baldwin Street Records), produced and annotated by Ted Ono. The rest of her recording career is compiled on the 3-CD box set Think Pink! A Kay Thompson Party (Sepia Records), produced and annotated by Thompson biographer Sam Irvin
Sam Irvin
Sam Irvin is a film and television director, producer, screen writer, and author.-Career:Sam Irvin was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1964, when he was eight years old, Irvin went on a family trip to California where he was able to tour various movie studios...
.
In 2003, Kay Thompson was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame
St. Louis Walk of Fame
The St. Louis Walk of Fame honors well-known people from St. Louis, Missouri, who made contributions to culture of the United States. All inductees were either born in the Greater St. Louis area or spent their formative or creative years there...
.
Liza Minnelli recreated Thompson's nightclub act for her 2009 Tony Award-winning Broadway event, Liza's at the Palace. A CD cast recording, a PBS television special, and a DVD followed. Liza's at The Palace opened at New York's legendary Palace theater, an affectionate salute to her godmother Kay Thompson. Supported by a quartet of dynamic singer/dancers standing in for the original Williams Brothers, Minnelli performed songs (with the original vocal arrangements) from Thompson's famous act, including "I Love a Violin", "Clap Yo' Hands
Clap Yo' Hands
"Clap Yo' Hands" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.It was introduced in the musical Oh, Kay! , and was featured by Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson in a song and dance routine in Funny Face ....
", "Jubilee Time", and "Hello Hello".
For an exhaustively-researched list of all of Thompson's hundreds of credits for radio, TV, movies, stage, books, and music, see the "Kayographies" tab at Kay Thompson Website. Featuring over 300 pages of endnotes, sidebars, letters, credits, etc., this website includes exclusive comprehensive extras about Kay Thompson that, due to space considerations, could not be included in the book, Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise (Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
), by Sam Irvin
Sam Irvin
Sam Irvin is a film and television director, producer, screen writer, and author.-Career:Sam Irvin was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1964, when he was eight years old, Irvin went on a family trip to California where he was able to tour various movie studios...
.
Miscellaneous
- One of Thompson's sisters, Blanche Hurd, was designated as her literary heir, and was the commanding interest in the Eloise franchise beginning in 1998. After Blanche's death in 2002, the estate passed to Hurd's two children.
- In the 2001 ABC miniseries Life With Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows, Kay Thompson was portrayed by actress Sonja SmitsSonja SmitsSonja Smits is a television actress who has played roles in many television series, including Falcon Crest, Airwolf, Odyssey 5, The Outer Limits, Street Legal, Traders and The Eleventh Hour.She also played Bianca O'Blivion in the David Cronenberg horror movie, Videodrome.Sonja went to Bell High...
.
- Hollywood director Sam IrvinSam IrvinSam Irvin is a film and television director, producer, screen writer, and author.-Career:Sam Irvin was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1964, when he was eight years old, Irvin went on a family trip to California where he was able to tour various movie studios...
wrote a comprehensive biography, Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise, published in November 2010 by Simon & SchusterSimon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
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External links
- Kay Thompson biography, KayThompson: From Funny Face to Eloise, by Sam IrvinSam IrvinSam Irvin is a film and television director, producer, screen writer, and author.-Career:Sam Irvin was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1964, when he was eight years old, Irvin went on a family trip to California where he was able to tour various movie studios...
, published by Simon & Schuster. This website features exclusive extras including exhaustively researched lists of Thompson's credits in various media - Kay Thompson at the St. Louis Walk of Fame website
- Kay Thompson biography at the Eloise website