Kay Thompson (57 page)

As her friendship with Edens cooled, Kay’s love affair with Camelot intensified, extending well beyond the First Family. On June 17, 1961, Kay sang “The Trolley Song” with Judy Garland and Ethel Merman at Bobby and Ethel Kennedy’s eleventh anniversary dinner dance, accompanied by Lester Lanin and His Orchestra. Thompson’s long association with Peter Lawford resulted in several visits to the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport, where she hit it off with Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

D
espite never-ending distractions, Kay
always found time to coach Judy Garland on nearly everything she did, including her landmark
Judy at Carnegie Hall
concerts in 1961—which spawned a live double LP that spent thirteen weeks at No. 1 and collected five Grammy Awards including Album of the Year.

“Kay not only advised Judy on the songs,” recalled Mort Lindsey, music director for
Judy at Carnegie Hall,
“but she did her choreography, too. When Judy did ‘Chicago,’ for instance, she had a routine all worked out, where her feet were going to go, exactly when her feet were going to stamp. She did it each time identically, and this was what Kay had worked out with her very specifically.”

When Garland had a studio album to record, Thompson was usually there—for better or worse. During the 1958 sessions for
Judy in Love,
for instance, Kay brought along Fenice, who caused quite a commotion during the recording of “Do It Again.”

“Right at the bridge, the damn thing
farted,
” Garland howled, “and everybody went—Mmmwwwrrr-AAAAAH!! Let’s get
outta
here!”

Kay was Judy’s “security blanket” throughout the filming of “Born in a Trunk” for
A Star Is Born
(Warner Brothers, 1954) and for all her numbers in the animated feature film
Gay Purr-ee
(Warner Brothers, 1962).

Garland also called upon Thompson to be a “creative consultant” on her television specials, including
The Judy Garland Show
(CBS-TV, February 25, 1962), featuring guests Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and directed by Norman Jewison, long before his big-time movie career.

“When we went to California to shoot the special, Kay went with us,” recalled Jewison. “If you can imagine, I got on that plane with Kay, Judy, all three of her kids—Liza, Lorna and Joey—Mort, the music, the arrangements, the clothes, and that bloody dog of Kay’s, Fenice, whose farts were enough to clear out the first-class compartment of any airplane. I’m telling you, it was a circus and we were coming out west to conquer television.”

Thompson knew the drill all too well. She told Jewison to schedule all of the sequences involving Frank and Dean on the first day of the three-day shoot, and to forgo the live audience on that day. She knew Frank would not want spectators and that they would get more out of him without that distraction. Conversely, the remaining two days would be spent shooting Judy’s solo numbers with a studio audience because she fed off the adulation.

“Judy and Kay and I worked on the arrangement for the opening number, ‘Just in Time,’ ” recalled conductor Mort Lindsey. “We must have worked about eight hours figuring out how to do this thing. It’s a spectacular layout because Kay wanted to modulate every eight bars.”

“When Mama did her television show with Frank and Dean all that dialogue they say was written by Kay,” Liza Minnelli recalled. “It was very casual but all so
charming
. Mama was so attractive and she felt so pretty around Kay. Kay brought out the side of Mama that was really feminine, funny, smart, and sophisticated.”

“Kay was just fabulous,” Jewison reflected. “She brought a lot of bazazz to that show and she was an anchor for Judy. I don’t know what the relationship was between Frank and Kay, but I remember his enthusiasm just
blossomed
around Kay, and he ended up really helping with the number he did with Judy and Dean.”

When the show aired on February 25, 1962, it garnered a 49.5 rating—making it the highest-rated special in CBS-TV’s history up to that date. Consequently, the network ordered a weekly Garland series for the 1963–64 season. Thompson was asked to work on it, but she declined. “We did a wonderful show,” Kay said. “Let’s not spoil something that was so wonderful.”

T
hroughout the 1950s and
early 1960s, Thompson kept her own ego fully nourished by making guest appearances on a slew of variety shows and, in the wake of her star turn in
Funny Face,
she suddenly had the aroma of a “bankable” Hollywood star. Taking full advantage of this scent, she wrote a letter to Noël Coward: “Why don’t you write a marvelous script for a marvelous movie for you and me?” Noël felt they would make a bigger splash on Broadway and
so, with that in mind, he began working on
Sail Away,
a musical comedy set aboard a luxury cruise liner.

Flash forward to December 1960 when Kay threw a head-spinning sixty-first birthday soirée for Noël. “It was
the
most extraordinary party I’d ever been to in my whole life,” China Machado recalled. “Everybody on Broadway came
before
their performances,
between
their performances,
after
their performances. Then they stayed until dawn the next morning. If they had bombed that studio, there’d be no more Broadway—or Hollywood!”

“It started with near disaster,” Noël recounted, “as [Kay] had forgotten to order any food at all! [We] were all famished so we sent out to Steuben’s and ultimately all was more than well.”

“Kay had rented two grand pianos,” China explained, “which she had put together facing each other. She was on one piano and Lennie Hayton was on the other—and they were singing songs to each other. And then Noël Coward sang, Lena Horne sang.”

“Richard Burton sang his Welsh songs,” recalled model Carmen Dell’Orefice, “and Laurence Olivier ended up in his boxer shorts and bare feet up on top of the piano, pretending to toe-dance.”

Thompson explained the key to her “hostess with the mostes” success: “There are two ways to attract people—have a secret everybody’s dying to know, or play the piano. And when you have both of them, you’re practically Perle Mesta.”

Noël was so inspired by Kay’s éclat, he stepped up efforts to launch
Sail Away
as her Broadway debut. On January 7, 1961, he noted, “ ‘Mimi Paragon’ is certainly a marvelous part for Kay Thompson. I hope to God she plays it and doesn’t make a fathead of herself which, I fear, she is quite capable of doing.”

The following month, his worst fears were realized. “Kay came to dine on Monday and
raved
about everything, but doesn’t want to play Mimi because she has a complex about appearing on Broadway . . . This, of course, is irritating.”

Yes, Kay’s dismissal from
Hooray for What!
was traumatic, but in the
quarter century
that had passed since then, she had become one of the most lauded performers in the realm of live entertainment. Her tiresome “complex-about-appearing-on-Broadway” no longer held water. In truth, she was constitutionally unable to commit to anything unless she could rule the roost. Flummoxed, Noël settled on Elaine Stritch instead.

Similarly, Kay flirted with the idea of playing “Vera Charles,” the acid-tongued best friend and comic foil of Rosalind Russell in the movie version of
Auntie Mame
(Warner Brothers, 1958). However, after weeks of ever-increasing demands, Rosalind and the producers began to wonder just who was the
star of this picture. Ultimately, Coral Browne, a lesser-known actress with a more manageable ego, was cast in the role.

I
n August 1958, Kay
spent some time in Palm Springs, where Roger Edens was developing a musical update of the old Irene Dunne screwball comedy
Theodora Goes Wild,
as a vehicle for Doris Day—with a fresh new title,
Who Is Sylvia?
The movie would also star Thompson, Glenn Ford (the No. 1 Box Office Star of 1958), and Kim Novak in a guest appearance as herself. David Miller (
The Opposite Sex
) was attached to direct; Leonard Gershe was adapting the screenplay; and the score was being composed by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane (though, according to Martin, Blane’s participation was in name only). Edens would have to share his producing credit with Doris’ husband, Martin Melcher, as a condition to secure her services.

Who Is Sylvia?
would tell the story of Emily Pritchett (Doris Day), a writer from a prudish New England village called Pritchett Falls, who, under the pseudonym Sylvia Storm, has written a lurid romance novel called
Babylon Falls,
a thoroughly sexed-up version of her hometown.

After receiving the manuscript in the mail, New York’s most enterprising literary agent, Annabelle Grant (Kay Thompson), convinces Adam Campbell (Glenn Ford), president of Campbell Publishing House, that
Babylon Falls
“will be the next
Peyton Place
.” When Adam asks for the true identity of Sylvia Storm, Annabelle replies that it’s a secret.

“It’s a good gimmick,” Adam agrees. “When the book comes out, the whole country will be asking, ‘Who is Sylvia?’ ”

Cue the musical number “Who Is Sylvia?” sung by Annabelle and her four male assistants—à la Thompson and the Williams Brothers. A montage of vignettes chronicle the overnight sensation of
Babylon Falls
—with everyone around the country joining in the chorus, “Who is Sylvia?”

Everything is rolling along just fine until Adam announces, “I’ve got a million-dollar offer from Hollywood—they want it for Kim Novak.”

When Annabelle fails to get Emily’s signature on the contract, Campbell offers a five-hundred-dollar reward to anyone who reveals Sylvia Storm’s true identity. A media frenzy ensues and soon Emily’s picture is emblazoned on the cover of
Time
magazine as the town of Pritchett Falls is invaded by a Hollywood movie crew for the filming of
Babylon Falls
starring Kim Novak. The chaos escalates from there.

At least on paper, the project seemed like a sure-fire winner, playing to the strengths of all concerned—especially Kay, who would have had a ball bringing
Annabelle Grant to life. And, with Edens and Gershe in her court, there would be no shortage of showstopping moments for Thompson. In addition to owning the title song, Kay would also perform a frothy duet with Doris Day entitled “What in the World Do They Want?” which included such clever lyrics as:
EMILY
: “I’ve been Novak, enchantingly tawdry.”
ANNABELLE
: “I’ve been Garland with tears from every pore.”
EMILY
: “I’ve been Hepburn, both Katharine and Audrey.”
ANNABELLE
: “I’ve been Ga Ga like Zsa Zsa Gabor.”

And the studio wanted even
more
Kay Thompson added to the recipe. “Annabelle ought to be doing a number when she walks down the corridors of that office building in Scene 1,” decreed Columbia Pictures executive James Crow in a memo to Edens.

So why did the movie never get made?

According to biographer David Kaufman, Doris nixed the project “because she did not want to undertake another comedy on the heels of
Pillow Talk
.” However, that reasoning doesn’t wash, since her next picture was
Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
(MGM, 1960).

When asked what
really
happened, Hugh Martin said, “To tell you the truth, I think Doris refused to do the movie because my songs were not up to my standard. I was too busy having fun in Palm Springs and not really focusing on my work the way I should have.”

Whatever the reason, Edens did not give up his dream to team Doris Day and Kay Thompson in a movie. His next attempt would take him back to MGM on an old pet project that just wouldn’t die:
Billy Rose’s Jumbo,
based on the 1935 Broadway musical with songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

Ever since Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra sang a duet of “My Romance” from
Jumbo
on Danny Kaye’s radio show in 1945, MGM had planned to team Judy and Frank in the movie version. However, by the time Edens got assigned to produce the film in 1951, both Garland and Sinatra had been fired by the studio.

Roger got Leonard Spigelgass to write the script and, in 1952, announced that Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor, both hot off
Singin’ in the Rain,
would be reteamed under the direction of Stanley Donen, with Kay Thompson and Jimmy Durante in supporting parts. Unfortunately, the project got stalled in development due to “restrictive clauses in Billy Rose’s contract which prevented tampering with the book and score.”

Flash forward to the end of the decade when Edens returned to MGM to resurrect
Jumbo
—now with Doris Day, Richard Burton, Kay Thompson, and Red Skelton in discussions to star, and Charles Walters set to direct from a newly revamped screenplay by Sidney Sheldon.

The story now revolved around the Wonder Traveling Circus, owned by Pop Wonder (Red Skelton), which is in financial trouble because of his gambling debts. The stars of the circus are his aerialist daughter, Kitty Wonder (Doris Day); a fortune-teller named Lulu Bellula, “the Great Indian Mystic” (Kay Thompson); and last but not least, a beloved elephant named Jumbo. Sam Rawlins (Richard Burton) arrives on the scene supposedly to help save the circus from financial ruin, but unbeknownst to all, he is plotting a hostile takeover. Sam’s scheme grows complicated when he genuinely falls in love with Kitty.

As preparations began in earnest, however, the supporting cast started to unravel. Richard Burton opted to replace Stephen Boyd in the troubled production of
Cleopatra,
while, in a peculiar flip-flop, Boyd would take over Burton’s role in
Jumbo
. Then, for reasons unclear, Red Skelton was dropped in favor of the original choice, Jimmy Durante.

Kay would get to sing a duet with Doris called “Why Can’t I?” (Rodgers-Hart; borrowed from
Spring Is Here
) and join the cast for two big production numbers: “Circus on Parade” (Rodgers-Hart) and “Sawdust, Spangles and Dreams,” a new finale composed by Roger Edens. There was also going to be a solo number for Lulu but perhaps Doris felt threatened by the prospect of being upstaged by the formidable Miss Thompson. Certainly it was not unusual for Day to make her desires known.