Kay Thompson

Sleek, effervescent, gregarious and indefatigable only begins to
describe the indescribable Kay Thompson -- a one-of-a-kind author,
pianist, actress, comedienne, singer, composer, coach, dancer,
choreographer, clothing designer, and arguably one of entertainment's
most unique and charismatic personalities of the 20th century. Born in
Missouri with the uncharismatic name of Catherine L. Fink, she would
reinvent herself as Kay Thompson and become a real-life representation
of Auntie Mame, living life to the hilt while sharing with that
character an unabashed joie de vivre and "never say die" mantra.The St. Louis born-and-bred celebrity was the second of four born to
Austrian immigrant Leo George Thompson, a jeweler, and Hattie Thompson.
Nicknamed Kitty by the time she attended Soldan International Studies
High School in St. Louis, and (later) Washington University, she began
playing the piano at age 4. Deemed a prodigy, she was performing with
the St. Louis Symphony by the time she was 16. While this may have been
a strong enough focus for some or most, Kay was not to be confined and
decided to instead test her singing talents. Singing with local dance
bands, she eventually blossomed into a band vocalist with the Tom
Coakley and Fred Waring bands. At
this juncture, she met and married one of her band's talented trombone
players, Jack Jenney, but the marriage ended
quickly. She also took to radio and sang alongside the harmony group
The Mills Brothers. Eventually she
was handed her own CBS-aired show entitled "Kay Thompson and Company".
It was short-lived. Kay and the group did make a special appearance in
the film
Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937).During the mid-to-late 1930s Kay recorded briefly such songs as "You
Hit The Spot", "You Let Me Down", "Don't Mention Love To Me" and "Out
Of Sight, Out Of Mind", and toward the end of the decade was cast in
"Hooray for What", a political revue, but was fired during the
pre-Broadway tour. She never returned to the musical stage arena again
as a result of that unhappy experience.Arthur Freed became her ticket to 1940s
Hollywood when he hired her as an arranger, coach and composer at MGM
Studios. Such noteworthy films that utilized her multiple skills was
I Dood It (1943),
The Kid from Brooklyn (1946),
in which she had a small role,
Ziegfeld Follies (1945),
The Harvey Girls (1946),
Good News (1947), and
The Pirate (1948). While vocal coach
to such MGM superstars as
Judy Garland,
Gene Kelly,
Lena Horne,
Frank Sinatra and
June Allyson, Kay forged an extremely tight
bond with Garland and was made godmother to first-born,
Liza Minnelli. Also during this post-war
stage of Kay's life, a second marriage to radio and film
writer/producer/director William Spier
also came and went. She never had children.Always on the move, Kay decided to put together her own club act which
opened at Ciro's night club in 1947. The singer/comedienne was a
sensation with her Coward-esque brand of stylish eccentricity. Her
unique, full-throttled blend of sophisticated music, outrageous satire
and clever banter made her act a virtual "must see" among the
industry's "who's who". Featured with her (in both musical and comedy
sketches) was a talented harmony she discovered, the singing Williams
Brothers, which featured a young
Andy Williams. After a six-year
trek the cabaret act was disbanded in the summer of 1953 and Kay spent
time designing fashion slacks for long-limbed ladies backed by her
clothing line "Kay Thompson Fancy Pants."The reed-slim, silvery blonde was sadly underused in films, to the
detriment of movie lovers alike, appearing in only four films with two
of them being specialty cameos. In 1955, however, she nearly stole the
thunder from under co-stars Fred Astaire
and Audrey Hepburn as fashion editor
Maggie Prescott in the musical classic
Funny Face (1957). Her character,
inspired by real-life editor
Diana Vreeland was expertly showcased in
the "Think Pink" number, one of the film's many highlights; Kay was a
delight as well in other chic numbers in which she appeared with the
stars. While this could have been the start of something big (as a top
character player), Kay did not return to films until summoned by
goddaughter Liza Minnelli for a featured
role in Otto Preminger's
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970).In 1958, Kay introduced another new successful side of her -- as a
children's author. The best-selling "Eloise" series, which was sparked
from Kay's own escapades and adventures, chronicle the tale of a
precocious, pixilated 6-year-old who lives at New York's Plaza Hotel
and turns the place upside down with her brazen antics. All four books
were top sellers: (Eloise (1956); Eloise in Paris (1957); Eloise at
Christmastime (1958); and Eloise in Moscow (1959)). A fifth book,
Eloise Takes a Bawth, which came from a 1964 manuscript blocked
originally for publication, was published in 2002. Kay's most enduring
achievement, Eloise, finally made it to the TV screen after her deathIn 1962 Kay served as creative consultant and vocal arranger for
Judy Garland's legendary TV special
with Frank Sinatra and
Dean Martin, and kept busy with
various nightclub/TV performances of her own until she decided to leave
the limelight. It was fashion icon Halston who
lured Kay out of her self-imposed retirement for a time in the 1970s in
order to stage his runway shows. She eventually moved, however, into
Liza Minnelli's Upper East Side penthouse
in New York City and, contrary to her larger-than-life persona, grew
quiet and reclusive with the last decade pretty much confined to a
wheelchair. She died at the penthouse on July 2, 1998 at age 88.