I miss her so much already. (Mac, she’s not dead yet!) She left New York. Same difference.
OH DOCTOR CARR
think how bad things could possibly be and add another suitcase of bad
we're bigger on the inside / turn left / what we're all about
“Today our staff gathered in the lobby to offer well wishes to the one-and-only Elaine Stritch as she checked out of The Carlyle to move back to her home state of Michigan.”
Our Managing Director Giovanni Beretta said it best, “since Elaine Stritch moved into The Carlyle over ten years ago, she has become a beloved member of our family and one of our biggest supporters. We will greatly miss her vibrant and witty personality.”
From tonight’s talkback. Audio TK.
(Source: google.com)
That time I read a prompt in Elaine’s Last Show.
at Cafe Carlyle
I assume tonight will sound something like this?
Here’s Elaine. And looking spectacularly good and wearing a pants suit in tie-dyed blue suede that’s doing it’s best to look like denim and failing majestically.
We have a pre-lunch drink.
‘I’ll have a Bloody Shame, please.’
‘A Bloody Mary without the vodka.’
‘I’ve heard it called a Virgin Mary… . ‘
‘Really?’ Elaine draws on her cigarette and gives me a look, one of those looks which makes me feel thoroughly provincial. ‘I don’t see why we should drag the Virgin Mary into our drinking habits. Mind you, did I tell you about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In Boston? You know the line about Jesus H. Christ? They changed it to—wait for it—“Mary H. Magdalene”! I can just see God up there sighing, “Are they still picking on that poor girl?”’
Elaine Stritch, as quoted in After Dark by Scot Finch, March 1975
“
But ‘boys’ were still serious business. I am reminded here of a story told me by the Broadway star, Elaine Stritch. She was dating the actor Jack Cassidy. Her parents, Mildred and George Stritch, came to New York from Birmingham, Michigan, to meet him. They were Old Guard Roman Catholics and Mr. Stritch worked for the B.F. Goodrich tire company. (He always referred to it as the G.D.B.F. Goodrich tire company.) Jack Cassidy had charm, humor and talent galore. But after the four of them dined at ‘21’, things didn’t work out well. When the Stritches returned to the St. Regis, George began to pace, wearing out the carpet.
Finally, Mildred asked, ‘What’s the matter with you, George?’
He spluttered: ‘Mildred! Did you see that guy Elaine is going with? Did you notice? Why that SOB was wearing suede shoes!’
This may not seem so funny these days, but was a perfect comment on the stringencies with which parents still behaved and judged their children’s significant others during the forties and fifties. I recognized instantly that to Mr. Stritch, suede shoes on a man were tantamount to ‘makeup’ or ‘wearing jewelry’, a question of character. I could just see my own father reacting in the same narrow-minded manner.
”
– Liz Smith, Natural Blonde: a Memoir, 2000
