![]() Once again, as I had been so many times, I was in awe." "When she came flying out," states Christopher, "there was this incredible look of happiness on her face. Up, up, up Miss Hart fearlessly climbed-three stories high-and down, down, down she came in a labyrinthian tube of rushing water at 50 miles an hour. Miss Hart said, "I want to do it." He replied, "They're not going to let you." They did. Christopher saw a sparkle in her eyes that recalled the time in her late 60s she rode on the back of his motorbike. "She embraced life with both hands."Īt a Tampa resort, Miss Hart observed kids squealing with delight on a water slide. ![]() Miss Hart was game for adventure, even, in her 90s! "Nothing fazed her," reports Christopher. I need more club gigs.' Of course, she had the wherewithal to live her wonderful life but, truth be told, she loved, loved that spotlight! There was nowhere she'd rather be." "It was the reason that late in her life, she began her cabaret career. "I had no choice but to go back to work." "I had two children and little money," said Miss Hart. He bequeathed an estate of millions, but it became tied up in litigation. In 1961, four years after directing the landmark Lerner and Loewe musical, My Fair Lady, husband Moss, the legendary actor-turned-Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, director and producer, died of a massive coronary. Miss Hart attributed the public recognition not to her film and stage career, but to her years on the panels of quiz shows, "To Tell the Truth" and "What's My Line." She went on TV not as a lark but out of need. She loved New York and it was her way of seeing it." Whitehouse, "she found that so convenient, since she lived right across the Park (on East 64th Street)."Ĭhristopher said his mom wasn't a "limo gal." During the years traveling New York for the Arts Council, she had a car but after that "it was taxis and the bus. She loved being in the thick of it." After a gala night at the opera, it was incongruous, to say the least, seeing Miss Hart in her elegant finery hopping the crosstown bus. "Monday nights, you could find her on the first row. "Kitty wasn't one for the Grand-Tier boxes," says Ms. She had two subscriptions, so she could always take a guest. Her great love, however, was the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut in her mid-50s. She visited Broadway, Off Broadway and even the bowels of the East Village to see what was happening Off Off. It's better to do what you want.' She lived her life doing exactly what she wanted."ĭuring more her 15 years as chair of the New York State Council for the Arts, Miss Hart fought passionately for arts funding. She was fond of saying, 'It's boring doing what someone tells you. I loved watching her live, and live she did to the fullest. What impressed Phyllis Whitehouse, Miss Hart's secretary, was her graciousness to everyone she met and her boundless energy. ![]() "She loved to laugh and was comfortable with everyone from doormen and policemen to people on the street." "Mother was down to earth, funny and more than a bit of a card shark," Christopher says. ![]() Though Miss Hart led the rarefied life few will ever be accustomed to, she wasn't a snob. Hart, a specialist in infectious disease and internal medicine, "a deep appreciation for the arts and the artists who bring them alive." Hart, a film director/producer, stated Miss Hart instilled in him and his sister, Dr. She gave a lot, and they remembered her for it." ![]() In her celebrated life, she was honored by the theater, museums, universities, mayors, governors and presidents but, explains son Christopher, "What meant most was the people's love. The death of singer, actress, arts champion and philanthropist Kitty Carlisle Hart on April 17 at age 96 stirred a wealth of remembrances on her indefatigable spirit. ![]()
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