Kitty Carlisle

Kitty Carlisle (a pretty cool name) Hart has died at the age of 96. When I was a little kid she made an impression on me with her graciousness and charm as a panelist on To Tell The Truth.

Years later, I saw her (not realising it was the same person) co-starring with the Marx Brothers in their 1935 film A Night At The Opera. This was a major turning point in their career--they went from the anarchy of their Paramount work to the more conventional story structure of their MGM movies. While not the best trade, it did give new life to their careers, and, at any rate, A Night At The Opera is a classic. And I'll give one thing to Kitty--of all the ingenues the Marxes had at MGM, her romantic subplot was the most bearable.

She married playwright Moss Hart, no mean feat. He was a noted bachelor. The joke around the time was if he went out with someone--let's call her Anne Smith--they'd say "there goes Moss Hart with the future Miss Anne Smith." Hart died young, and Kitty Carlisle was a widow for over forty years. Even though Hart allegedly had demons, it was apparently a happy marriage. I also heard that Kitty encouraged him to write his memoirs, and out of that came one of my favorite books, Act One.