The 94 Years of Kitty Carlisle Hart (February/March 2005 | Volume: 56, Issue: 1)

The 94 Years of Kitty Carlisle Hart

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Historic Era: Era 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)

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February/March 2005 | Volume 56, Issue 1

Eternally glamorous, effortlessly vivacious, and impossibly beautiful, Kitty Carlisle Hart has crammed at least eight notable lives into her eventful 94 years. Southern belle, expatriate debutante, 30s movie star, Broadway chanteuse, television star, arts funder, and, for the last decade, ageless nightclub and concert singer, she was also, notably, the wife of the late legendary playwright-director Moss Hart, and she led the national observance of his centennial in 2004. In short, she has been part of American culture for most of the 20th century and, so far, all of the 21st.

At a recent interview in her sprawling Manhattan apartment, she emerged with her famous smile beaming, hair perfect, dazzling in a royal blue suit with brass buttons, set off by a big gold bug-shaped lapel pin. I have never before seen such an entrance without paying for a ticket.

She poured white wine and then invited us to lunch at a gorgeous antique table, which I promptly doused with the dregs of my second glass, earning only the briefest glance from my hostess, who’s seen it all, from kings to klutzes. She pressed a discreet buzzer, a server emerged to mop the mess, and we were on to hot soup and roast chicken—who cared if it was 90 degrees outside? This is where George S. Kaufman played gin rummy, where Pamela and Averell Harriman nursed highballs, and where the walls are blanketed with paintings by George Gershwin and Harpo Marx.

When our main course was cleared, to be replaced by honey cake smothered in gobs of ice cream, we got down to the business of recalling her long, charmed life and career.

Two weeks later the legend grows. Kitty Carlisle Hart opens an acclaimed three-night engagement at a New York boÎte, proving that she still boasts the pipes and stamina of a woman half her age, not to mention—though she invariably does, usually lifting her gown to the hip—the best legs in show business. And the best memory.

 

This magazine celebrates American history, which you are very much a part of and continue to make. The thing that’s astounding is that you made the movie A Night at the Opera almost 70 years ago.

How about that? And I’m still alive and working and singing. I don’t sing the way I did when I did A Night at the Opera, because that was a soprano voice, but I’m singing now in the voice that my husband liked. Moss used to say to me on trips in the car, “Sing me something in that low voice of yours. I like that low voice.” So I would sing [sings] “The one I love. …”

The first thing I wanted to ask, because people are fascinated by this, is what the Marx Brothers were like for a young, innocent girl to work with.

Well, they were so nice to me. I have no stories. They didn’t play tricks on me, and they didn’t make