Kay Thompson

Kay Thompson (actually Catherine L. Fink, born November 9, 1908 in St. Louis, Missouri, † July 2, 1998 in New York City ) was an American singer, arranger, composer, actress and writer.

Life and work

Career as a musician, arranger and actress

As the second of four children of immigrants from Austria, Leo George Fink and his coming from Kansas American wife Hattie Catherine Fink grew up in St. Louis, where her father ran a jewelry store. At the age of four, she got piano lessons; the age of 16 she made her debut as a pianist at a concert of the Symphony Orchestra of their hometown with interpretations of the works of Franz Liszt, and had their first appearances as a singer with a local dance band.

In 1929, she went to California, where she soon found employment under the stage name Kay Thompson in radio and as a singer, first with the orchestra Tom Coakley, then appeared also with the Mills Brothers. In the early 1930s it was then for the vocal ensemble " Waring 's Pennsylvanians " by Fred Waring except also worked as an arranger and composer as a singer.

In 1935, she played at Brunswick Records, a first their own recordings and worked in the studio with the orchestra of André Kostelanetz together. With their first own ensemble, the Kay Thompson Swing Choir, she was henceforth regularly heard on the radio, including the Saturday Night Swing Club at CBS, where she temporarily with Kay Thompson & Company also presented his own radio show. In 1937 she made a guest appearance in the Hollywood musical Manhattan Merry- Go-Round. In the same year she married trumpeter Jack Jenney; the marriage was childless divorced in 1939.

With the assistance of composer Hugh Martin took film producer Arthur Freed Kay Thompson in 1943 to Hollywood, where they to 1947 the soundtrack of numerous musical adaptations coined as an arranger at MGM and designed vocal numbers for stars such as Lena Horne, Judy Garland, June Allyson and Frank Sinatra; in The Kid from Brooklyn (1946 ) she played with herself.

For a short time it was in these years with the radio producer William Spier (1906-1973) married. In 1946 she was Liza Minnelli's godmother, their daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli.

1948 Kay Thompson left MGM and built together with the choreographer Robert Alton own stage show, with which she regularly guested until the late 1950s, on smaller music and cabarets across the USA; the ensemble were at times the Williams Brothers by Andy Williams, who she had met during the filming of The Harvey Girls ( 1946). Your embossed from jazz and musical program, which were part of some self-written songs, was often heard on the radio; next she appeared in a number of popular television shows.

1957 Thompson was in the role of a fashion journalist " Maggie Prescott " in the musical film Funny Face ( Funny Girl ) with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire to see, for she also contributed music arrangements. In 1962, she collaborated on the song choreography for the Judy Garland Show with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as a consultant.

Your last film appearance was Kay Thompson in 1970 at the side of her goddaughter Liza Minnelli in Otto Preminger's Tell Me That You Love Strip Me, Junie Moon.

Career as a writer

In the 1950s, Thompson invented the literary form of the awakened six year old girl, " Eloise ", who lives with her nanny, her pug " weenie " and their turtle " Skipperdee " at New York's Plaza Hotel ( where Thompson himself until the early 1960s was at home ) and there experienced numerous adventures. In 1955 she published together with the illustrator Hillary Knight under the title Eloise. A Book for Precocious Grown-Ups ( Eloise. A book for young and old ) a first children's book with stories about Eloise, which quickly became a first edition of 150,000 copies a bestseller. As part of the television game series Playhouse 90 the book, directed by John Frankenheimer was also made into a film; Thompson himself appeared in the film as a narrator.

In 1957 the band Eloise in Paris, which is located in the Paris Hotel "Relais Bisson " and even spent for Thompson and Knight almost a month there. Also the turn gambling in New York third volume Eloise at Christmastime ( Christmas with Eloise ) was similarly successful. In February 1959 she traveled with Knight to Moscow, where the published later in the year book Eloise was born in Moscow. Your visit to Moscow also inspired Thompson to their 1959 released album also Kay Thompson Party: Let's Talk about Russia.

The Plaza Hotel Thompson hosted the late 1950s, regular festivals for children, where they slipped into the role of Eloise. About her own company " Eloise Ltd.. " drove them also to the mid-1960s numerous merchandising items such as dolls, children's fashion and radio records.

The " Eloise " books are popular to this day and have been translated into several languages , in some cases also German. Four years after Thompson's death was published in 2002, a fifth band Eloise Takes a Bawth she had completed in 1964, but then withdrawn. Since then, the number of other authors continues.

2003, the television movies Eloise at The Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime with Sofia Vassilieva emerged as " Eloise " and Julie Andrews as " Nanny". For 2009, a film adaptation of Eloise in Paris is planned with Jordana Beatty and Uma Thurman.

Last years and death

In the early 1960s, Thompson moved from New York's Plaza Hotel in the Palazzo Torlonia in Rome. After her last film appearance in 1970, she retired from show business, was still working in the 1970s, but as a choreographer for fashion shows of American designer Halston.

In the late 1980s she moved into the New York apartment of her goddaughter Liza Minnelli, with whom she shared a close friendship for life. There died in Thompson, recently confined to a wheelchair, on 2 July 1998 a few months before her 90th birthday.

As a musical tribute to her godmother Liza Minnelli developed in 2008 for their concert appearances a show, with songs by Kay Thompson, who closely follows Thompson's stage show of the 1950s and 1960s and the Minnelli in December 2008 in their Broadway show Liza 's at The Palace. ..! integrated.

Filmography

Films as an actress and also vocal arranger

Movies as vocal arranger

TV appearances (selection)

Discography

Original Singles

Origin albums

Compilations on CD

Own compositions

Au Revoir, Paris
Bazazz
Bout You 'n ' Me
Charades
Dasvidanya
Eloise
Follow Me
Hola Hola, It's the Jubilee
Holiday Season
How To Raise a Child
I Love a Violin
I'm In Love with Paris
Is not It Wonderful
Katie 's Blues
Love on a Greyhound Bus
More Than Wonderful thesis
Morning Song
Moscow Cha -Cha -Cha
Myrtle
Old- Fashioned Hammock
On a Summer Evening
On the Caribbean
Poor Suzette
Promise Me Love
Quel Joi
Stop Teasing Me
Straight From My Heart
Subito
Summer Love
This Is The Time
This Reminds Me of London
Vive l' Amour
You Gotta Love Somebody

Children's Books

Kay Thompson ( with illustrations by Hilary KNIGHT ): Eloise. A Book for Precocious Grown-Ups. . New York: Simon & Schuster, 1955 (First German edition: Eloise A book for young and old, translated by Ursula Renate Munich / Vienna / Basel: Desch, 1959 [ No ISBN ]; second German edition: .. . Eloise. A book for precocious adults, translated by Joachim Kalka Berlin. Berlin Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-8270-0362-8 ). .
Kay Thompson ( with illustrations by Hilary KNIGHT ): Eloise in Paris. New York City. Simon & Schuster, 1957 ( German edition: Eloise in Paris, translated by Elisabeth Åkerhielm Berlin. Berlin -Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-8270-0426-8. . )
Kay Thompson ( with illustrations by Hilary KNIGHT ): Eloise at Christmastime. New York City. Simon & Schuster, 1958 ( German Edition: Christmas with Eloise, translated by Elisabeth Åkerhielm Berlin. Berlin -Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-8270-0382-2. . )
Kay Thompson ( with illustrations by Hilary KNIGHT ): Eloise in Moscow. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 1959.
Kay Thompson ( with illustrations by Hilary KNIGHT ): Eloise Takes a Bawth. [ posthumously, manuscript 1964 ]. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Films

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