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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
KITTY CARLISLE HART, R.I.P.
The very definition of "class act." My favorite game show is To Tell The Truth, especially the Garry Moore-hosted era, with its psychedelic sets and groovy "ba ba ba pa" theme song. I collect episodes from this run, and when I watch them I am a contented man.
Kitty Carlisle was the show's "society gal," equivalent to the role Arlene Francis assumed on What's My Line. I admit I thought both of them were snooty broads when I was a kid, preferring cards like Orson Bean or even daffy personalities like Peggy Cass.
In recent years, turning to the old shows for comfort in a world I don't recognize no more, I immediately appreciated Kitty and Arlene for the considerable grace they brought to the unjustly scorned game show genre. They fast became my favorite panelists. From this vantage I marvel still at the sight of middle-aged people, known from the worlds of NY society, publishing and theater, holding forth as regulars on a mass-entertainment program. Such a thing is unknown now, apart from a few talk show hosts like Regis.
But then, the world Kitty shared with the likes of George Gershwin and Moss Hart is forgotten, by and large. There are numerous reasons why works like Porgy and Bess or You Can't Take it With You are no longer much more than cultural museum pieces, but in my youth they were still part of the everyday, even though they were both decades old by then. You'd see them on TV frequently, and not on specialist channels (there were none). You'd hear the songs all the time. Well, I'm not gonna mourn "my culture" again all night, it's nothing. Anyway, my kids won't miss out on it: their favorite screen personalities are silent genius Charley Bowers, Jerry Lewis, Our Gang, and the Beatles.
And they'll develop the patience for To Tell the Truth, I reckon, or suffer through my screenings anyway. Tributes to Ms. Carlisle Hart will appear in days to come, and I sure hope the degraded vestiges of the once-great Game Show Network will run a TTTT marathon. That show was the least of her accomplishments (I mean, GIGGING at the age of 95!!!), but it was great great stuff.
A toast to Kitty, then, and goodbye.
The very definition of "class act." My favorite game show is To Tell The Truth, especially the Garry Moore-hosted era, with its psychedelic sets and groovy "ba ba ba pa" theme song. I collect episodes from this run, and when I watch them I am a contented man.
Kitty Carlisle was the show's "society gal," equivalent to the role Arlene Francis assumed on What's My Line. I admit I thought both of them were snooty broads when I was a kid, preferring cards like Orson Bean or even daffy personalities like Peggy Cass.
In recent years, turning to the old shows for comfort in a world I don't recognize no more, I immediately appreciated Kitty and Arlene for the considerable grace they brought to the unjustly scorned game show genre. They fast became my favorite panelists. From this vantage I marvel still at the sight of middle-aged people, known from the worlds of NY society, publishing and theater, holding forth as regulars on a mass-entertainment program. Such a thing is unknown now, apart from a few talk show hosts like Regis.
But then, the world Kitty shared with the likes of George Gershwin and Moss Hart is forgotten, by and large. There are numerous reasons why works like Porgy and Bess or You Can't Take it With You are no longer much more than cultural museum pieces, but in my youth they were still part of the everyday, even though they were both decades old by then. You'd see them on TV frequently, and not on specialist channels (there were none). You'd hear the songs all the time. Well, I'm not gonna mourn "my culture" again all night, it's nothing. Anyway, my kids won't miss out on it: their favorite screen personalities are silent genius Charley Bowers, Jerry Lewis, Our Gang, and the Beatles.
And they'll develop the patience for To Tell the Truth, I reckon, or suffer through my screenings anyway. Tributes to Ms. Carlisle Hart will appear in days to come, and I sure hope the degraded vestiges of the once-great Game Show Network will run a TTTT marathon. That show was the least of her accomplishments (I mean, GIGGING at the age of 95!!!), but it was great great stuff.
A toast to Kitty, then, and goodbye.
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