Kay Thompson
Authors: Sam Irvin
Praise for
Kay Thompson
A
Vanity Fair
magazine “Hot Type” Selection
A Book-of-the-Month Club Alternate Selection
A
Kirkus Reviews
Best Biographies of 2010 Selection
“The greatest gift my parents ever gave me was my godmother, Kay Thompson. No one was as brilliant or as funny, and Sam Irvin’s book manages to capture that lightning in a bottle. Hang onto your hair!”
—Liza Minnelli
“Kay Thompson was the most important influence on me and my musical career. Sam Irvin’s wonderful book is right on the mark.”
—Andy Williams
“Kay Thompson never ceased to amaze. It is high time someone wrote a comprehensive book about her extraordinary life and Sam Irvin has done just that.”
—Angela Lansbury
“Isn’t it wonderful that Sam Irvin was able to capture this fantastic lady on paper?”
—Robert Wagner
“Hilarious, jaw-dropping, and hugely inspiring. I was swept aboard, like being on a train: the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa
Kay
!”
—Tommy Tune
“A first-rate show business biography; chock full of outrageous stories, accurate history, psychological insight and, of course, a fabulous subject.”
—Charles Busch
“This informative book details Kay’s and my collaboration. Like some very special unions it produced a child: the ageless, guileless, indomitable and endearing Eloise. Thank you, Kay, and especially Sam Irvin for this astounding story.”
—Hilary Knight, illustrator of
Eloise
“Awesome, overwhelming, breathtaking, and terrifying, but always,
always
hilarious.”
—Mart Crowley, playwright of
The Boys in the Band
“Sam Irvin has preserved an authentic legend in amber . . . It’s got bazazz!”
—Rex Reed
“Irvin’s brilliantly detailed book captures the lady in all her compelling contradictions. His book is really
quelque chose
!”
—Michael Musto
“Smart, dishy, and full of fascinating show-business stories. I loved every bit of it.”
—Leonard Maltin
“A brilliant job of research, judgment, insight and style.”
—Kevin Thomas
“Auntie Mame, Cleopatra and Madonna could all take lessons from Kay Thompson. To borrow a word once used to describe her work, Irvin’s book is
Thompsensational
.”
—Robert Osborne, Turner Classic Movies
“Sam Irvin illuminates the supercharged life of the entertainer and author.”
—Megan O’Grady,
Vogue.com
“Mr. Irvin has done his homework and then some . . . [and he] writes with intelligence and insight about the development of
Eloise
.”
—Dwight Garner,
The New York Times
“A revealing look at this complex and contradictory woman.”
—Susan King,
Los Angeles Times
“Wildly fascinating. Readers will be hard pressed to forget it.”
—Nora Dunne,
The Christian Science Monitor
“Kay Thompson’s status as a show business cult figure is bolstered by . . . this new biography about the zany, irascible dame behind Judy & Liza & Eloise.”
—Joe Meyers,
Connecticut Post
“Sam Irvin, producer and director, has written a biography of one of the most influential and perhaps underappreciated figures in show business.”
—Scott Simon,
NPR
“Spectacular. One of the best biographies I have ever, ever,
ever
read. From the moment I finished, I read it again. And then I went back and read it a
third
time.”
—Peter Filichia,
Broadway Radio
“Rollicking humor and infectious enthusiasm . . . An extremely entertaining chronicle of one of the most distinctive and absurdly gifted personalities in show business.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
“A superbly crafted portrait of one of the least appreciated giants of 20th-century American show business. Irvin fully grasps Thompson’s Auntie Mame vivacity.”
—Christopher Loudon,
JazzTimes.com
“Irvin preserves Thompson’s star-studded exploits with the attention to detail that Thompson would approve of.”
—Joanne Latimer,
Maclean’s
“Sam Irvin tells the life story, quirks and all, of this wildly talented and hilariously eccentric woman.”
—Evelyn Renold,
AARP Magazine
“Thompson gets a long-overdue examination in this breezy bio. Her feud with Fred Astaire makes for some of the book’s most entertaining passages.”
“Raucous and rollicking story. Thoroughly entertaining.”
—Kathleen Hughes,
Booklist
“Comprehensive, yes. But could we truly understand this ridiculously complicated whirlwind without all these details?”
—Steven Suskin,
Playbill.com
“Hollywood director Sam Irvin writes an entertaining biography describing Thompson’s dynamic personality and wild personal lifestyle.”
—Andrea Tullman,
DowntownMagazineNYC.com
“Film and television producer Sam Irvin brings Thompson lovingly, yet well-lit, to this thoroughly researched and stylishly written biography.”
—David Marshall James,
Yahoo! Shine
“The beauty of a biography of a lesser-known but influential figure like Kay Thompson is their Zelig-like appearances in the lives of other celebrities, and here Irvin delivers.”
—Brent Hartinger,
AfterElton.com
“Funny, sad, shocking, entertaining, and always riveting . . . this thoroughly fascinating showbiz biography is a must-read.”
—Steve Weinstein,
Edge.com
“Sam Irvin captures the essence of Kay Thompson in this page-turning biography . . . including her scandalous love-affair with a teenage Andy Williams and her mentor-ship of goddaughter Liza Minnelli.”
—Zachary Stewart,
TheaterMania.com
“Irvin did an incredible amount of research for this book, and he provides meticulous details and firsthand accounts of encounters with Thompson that really make her personality and the show business world come alive.”
—Claire Kelley,
[TK] Reviews
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Introduction
PRECOCIOUS GROWNUP
Kitty Fink Becomes Kay Thompson (1909–32)
Broadway Bound-and-Gagged (1937–42)
Kay Goes to Hollywood (1942–44)
Somewhere Over at Metro (1945–47)
Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers (1947–49)
Living out of a Suitcase (1949–55)
