Cass Elliot - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

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Cass Elliot, (September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974), born Ellen Naomi Cohen, was a noted American singer, best remembered as Mama Cass from the pop quartet The Mamas & The Papas. Afterward, she had a successful solo career, releasing nine albums. She died in her sleep, of heart failure, in London, England after two sold-out performances at the Palladium.

Early life and career

Ellen Cohen was born in Baltimore, Maryland and grew up there and in Alexandria, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, DC). She adopted the name "Cass" in high school - possibly, as Denny Doherty tells it, borrowing it from the actress Peggy Cass; but in any case, it was just 'Cass,' not 'Cassandra.' She assumed the surname "Elliot" sometime later, in memory of a friend who had died. Ellen/Cass reportedly had an I.Q. of 165 (in top of the genius range)

She started her acting career with a part in the play The Boy Friend while she was still in school. After leaving school, she went to New York City, where she appeared in The Music Man but lost the part of Miss Marmelstein in I Can Get It for You Wholesale to Barbara Streisand in 1962.

While working as a hat check girl at "The Showplace" in Greenwich Village, Elliot would sometimes sing but it wasn't until she returned to the Washington area, to attend American University, that she began to pursue a singing career. As America's folk music scene was on the rise, Elliot met banjoist and singer Tim Rose and singer John Brown, and the three began performing as "The Triumvirate." In 1963, James Hendricks replaced Brown and the trio was re-named "The Big Three." Elliot's first recording, Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod," with The Big Three, was released by FM Records in 1963.

When Tim Rose left The Big Three in 1964, Elliot and Jim Hendricks teamed up with Canadians Zal Yanovsky and Denny Doherty as "The Mugwumps." This group lasted eight months, after which Cass performed as a solo for a while. Yanovsky joined with John Sebastian to co-found The Lovin' Spoonful while Doherty joined The New Journeymen with John Phillips and his wife, Michelle. In 1965, Doherty finally convinced Phillips that Cass should join the group. She did so, officially, while they were vacationing in the Virgin Islands. In August 1968, Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski moved across the street from Cass, and the couple quickly became friends with her. They also became good friends with Cass's bandmate Michelle Phillips.

The Mamas and The Papas

Now that The New Journeymen was half-female, it needed a new name. Denny Doherty writes on his Website (www.dennydoherty.com): "We're all just lying around vegging out watching TV and discussing names for the group. "The New Journeymen" was not a handle that was going to hang on this outfit. John was pushing for "The Magic Cyrcle". Eech, but none of us could come up with anything better, then we switch the channel and, hey, it's the Hell's Angels on this talk show . . . And the first thing we hear is: "Now hold on there, Hoss. Some people call our women cheap, but we just call them our Mamas." Cass jumped up: "Yeah ! I want to be a Mama." And Michelle is going: "We're the Mamas! We're the Mamas!" OK. I look at John. He's looking at me going : "The Papas ?" Problem solved. A toast ! To The Mamas and The Papas. Well, after many, many toasts Cass and John are passed out. And Michelle and I slip out unto the balcony for a little air and we're in an instant embrace and I lean on the door to the empty apartment next door. It falls open . . . and we fall . . . inside. Very slippery stone."

Elliot was in love with Doherty (though married platonically to Jim Hendricks at the time), but not too pleased when he told her about the affair. John Phillips found out when he saw Denny and Michelle making out in the house. The two men decided to make her choose between them, with the result she ran from the house and they wrote I Saw Her Again. When Michelle then embarked on another short-lived affair, this time with Gene Clarke of The Byrds, the other three members of the group kicked her out and replaced her with Jill Gibson. Michelle was formally fired by Dunhill Records on 28 June 1966, Gibson having been hired two weeks earlier. But the chemistry of the group was not right without Michelle, according to John Phillips - and there was at least one instance of fans carrying signs and chanting at a concert, "Where's Michelle?" and "We want Mama Michelle!" By the end of August 1966, after just two months in the group, Gibson was out. Michelle was back in the group, and she and John Phillips also reconciled their personal lives, though they eventually did divorce a few years later.

Elliot, known for her sense of humor and optimism, was considered by some to be the most charismatic member of the group. Her warm, distinctive voice was a large factor in their success. She is best remembered for her vocals on the group's Billboard hits California Dreamin', Monday Monday, and Words of Love, and particularly for the solo Dream a Little Dream of Me, which the group recorded in 1968, after learning about the death of the Fabian Andre, one of the men who co-wrote it -- and whom Michelle Phillips had met years earlier.) Elliot's version is noteworthy for being a ballad, whereas all earlier recordings of "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (including one by Nat King Cole) had been quick, up tempo versions - the song having actually been written in 1931 as a dance tune for the nightclubs of the day.

The Mamas and the Papas soldiered on for two more years, finally disbanding in July 1968. They continued to record, however, to meet the terms of their record contract until their final album was released in 1971. Cass Elliot's voice is noticeably weak on that album, as she herself was physically weak from crash dieting.

Solo career and death

After the breakup of The Mamas & The Papas, Elliot went on to have a successful solo career. Her most successful recording during this period was 1968's Dream a Little Dream of Me from her solo album of the same name, released by Dunhill Records, though it had originally been recorded for and released on the album The Papas & The Mamas Presented By The Mamas and The Papas earlier that year. She headlined briefly in Las Vegas for the whopping contract of USD$40,000 per week. She was a regular on TV talk shows and variety shows in the 1970s including The Julie Andrews Hour and The Carol Burnett Show. She also made a memorable guest-star appearance on The New Scooby-Doo Movies, and she guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. Cass also guested as a panelist for a week in late 1973 on the hit game show "Match Game '73"

At the height of her solo career in 1974, Cass Elliot performed two sold-out concerts at the London Palladium. She telephoned Michelle Phillips after the final concert, utterly elated that she had received standing ovations each night. She then retired for the evening, and died in her sleep of a heart attack. Standing 5 feet, 5 inches tall, she had weighed as much as 300 pounds since high school. The excess weight combined with numerous attempts to reduce her size with extreme crash dieting put a great strain on her heart, until it finally gave out.

Family life

Apart from her time with Denny Doherty, Cass was married twice: first, to bandmate Jim Hendricks in 1963. This was reportedly a purely platonic arrangement, however, to assist him in avoiding conscription into the Vietnam War. The marriage was never consummated and they got an annulment in 1968. In 1971, Elliot became the Baroness von Wiedenman, when she married the journalist, and baron, Donald von WiedenmanFor a photo, see the Official Cass Elliot Website. That marriage ended in divorce after a few months.

Elliot gave birth to a daughter, Owen Vanessa Elliott, on 26 April 1967. She never publicly identified the father, but many years later, Michelle Phillips helped Owen locate her biological father. Owen grew up to become a singer as well.

At Elliot's death, her sister, Leah Kunkel, received custody of daughter Owen, then just seven years old. Kunkel is also a singer and charted in 1984 as a member of the Coyote Sisters on the single "Straight From The Heart (Into Your Life)." Kunkel was interviewed by VH1 in 1997 and discussed her famous sister for the "Mamas & Papas" episode of the network's documentary series Behind The Music.

Urban legends

An urban legend holds that Elliot died choking on a ham sandwich. This is incorrect. Speaking to the press shortly after her body was discovered, the police noted that a partly eaten sandwich had been found in her room and speculated that she may have choked while eating it, or that she may have died in her sleep of some other cause. When the coroner's autopsy was performed the following week, no food was found in her trachea and the cause of death was determined to have been heart failure. She had indeed died in her sleep. But by then, the Fatal Ham Sandwich story was already making the rounds and the real cause of death was ignored by press and public for quite some time.Snopes The story even makes an appearance in the 1996 film Beautiful Thing, which features a number of Cass Elliot's songs - notably, "Make Your Own Kind of Music." And, of course, this is the urban legend behind the joke that, "If Mama Cass had given the ham sandwich to Karen Carpenter, they'd both be alive today".

Another popular legend about Elliot is that her vocal range was improved after she was hit on the head by copper tubing shortly before joining the group. The story is that Cass was hit on the head by some copper tubing while the group was in the Virgin Islands, after which she had three extra notes at the top of her range. She was indeed hit on the head by some copper tubing, but the story that it caused her voice to change was started by John Phillips as a justification for letting her into the band after initially refusing to allow her to join. He repeats the story himself on the PBS special California Dreamin': The Songs of the Mamas and the Papas, insisting it is true. Casey Kasem repeated the story during his show.

Elliot herself lends validation to the story, however, so it may not be false. From an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1968, Elliot was asked, "Is that a true story about a pipe falling on your head…" Elliot responded:

The E! True Hollywood Story biography about Elliot reports (and revives) the completely unfounded and baseless rumor that singer-songwriter John Lennon of The Beatles may have been the father of Elliot's daughter, Owen. This rumor most likely originated from Cass's obsession with the Beatles. Many years after Cass's death, bandmate Michelle Phillips helped Owen find her real biological father.

References to Cass Elliot in media

On The Jim Rome Show emailers frequently reference Mama Cass' choking on a ham sandwich. Rome's typical response: "Well she didn't choke on a salad, did she?
On an episode of Sanford and Son called "The Card Sharps", Skeeter Matthews (Thalmus Rasulala) said, "You must be Poppa Sanford?" Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) replied, "No, I'm Mama Cass!"
"Make Your Own Kind of Music" is prominently featured in two episodes of the television series Lost, "Man of Science, Man of Faith" and "Adrift" along with a sitar arrangement of the song in "Live Together, Die Alone".
In the British film Beautiful Thing one of the protagonists and his closest friend are avowed fans of Elliot's. Several songs by both her and her group can be heard throughout the movie. Of the sixteen tracks on the soundtrack album, fifteen are songs by either Cass Elliot or The Mamas & the Papas.
The "ham sandwich" myth was used as a joke in Austin Powers. Having been defrosted after 30 years (1967-1997), Austin Powers is lamenting the fates of his friends from the 1960s. For Cass Elliot, he writes, "Mama Cass, deceased: ham sandwich."
Denis Leary makes a comment about Elliot by saying, "I think Mama Cass said it best when she said: All the Leaves are (choking sound). Monday (choking sound)."
In Father of the Pride, Larry the lion insults a rude pig by yelling, "You people killed Mama Cass!"
In the film Stranger Inside, directed by Cheryl Dunye, when asked which woman would have the top bunk, the thinner inmate responded, "Do you think I would let Mama Cass and her fat ass sleep on top of me?"
In his "Dancin' and Pantsin'" song (off his 1997 album What's Your Name?), Adam Sandler sings, "Shake your big, round ass with the ghost of Mama Cass. (Blast from the past, the ghost of Mama Cass.)"
In the 2003 film, School of Rock, there was a line cut out of the final version. "Mama Cass was a big lady, too." "Whatever happened to her?" "She died from choking on a ham sand- never mind, that's not the point."
In the first episode of the Australian comedy series Double the Fist during the "Fistory" segment, where the Womp was praising the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, he concludes with, "Iceberg, I think you deserve the Full Fist...for your power that remained unrivalled until a ham sandwich came out of nowhere to take on Mama Cass".
In the "Weird Al" Yankovic song, "Close, But No Cigar" from the 2006 album Straight Outta Lynwood there is a line, "She got me all choked up like Mama Cass."
In the TISM song, (He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River, there is a line, "Mama Cass' sandwhich? I ate the same!"
Cass is one of the names mentioned by Alan Freed as an upcoming act in Stephen King's You Know They Got a Hell of a Band, a short story revolving around a town inhabited by late music legends who perform a concert every night. This story is part of King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes book.

Solo discography

Albums

1968: Dream A Little Dream - US #87
1969: Bubblegum, Lemonade, And... Something For Mama - US #91
1969: Make Your Own Kind Of Music - US #169 (a reissue of Bubblegum, Lemonade... with the hit title song added)
1971: Mama's Big Ones (solo greatest hits) - US #194
1971: Dave Mason And Mama Cass - US #49
1972: The Road Is No Place For A Lady

Singles

1968: Dream A Little Dream Of Me (Mama Cass with the Mamas & the Papas) - US #12 Pop/#2 AC, UK #11
1968: California Earthquake - US #67
1969: Move In A Little Closer, Baby - US #58 Pop/#32 AC
1969: It's Getting Better - US #30 Pop/#13 AC, UK #8
1969: Make Your Own Kind of Music - US #36 Pop/#6 AC
1970: New World Coming - US #42 Pop/#4 AC
1970: A Song That Never Comes - US #99 Pop/#25 AC
1970: The Good Times Are Coming - US #104 Pop/#19 AC
1970: Don't Let The Good Life Pass You By - US #110 Pop/#34 AC

References

External links

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