Kay Thompson Website

from Funny Face to Eloise

Reviews

Kay Thompson

Complete Reviews

David Noh, Gay City News, 9/14/2011: Out in paperback on November 15, 2011, is Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise (Simon & Schuster), Sam Irvin’s jaw- droppingly researched, mesmerizing book about the woman who may just have committed the greatest act of theft in film history, if only for the way she grabbed the spotlight clean away from Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face. Thompson not only gave a brilliant, triple-threat, satiric musical portrait of Diana Vreeland in this one, but was a total Renaissance woman in real life. She was a brilliant vocal arranger who taught the likes of Judy Garland and Lena Horne how to sing, created what many consider the greatest nightclub act of all time, wrote the eternally popular “Eloise” series of children’s books, and found time to be an inspirational godmother to Liza Minnelli, who paid total tribute to her in her last Broadway outing. Irvin’s lifelong obsession with Thompson (née Kitty Fink) answers every question you may have ever had about this fascinating, difficult talent, from her rumored lesbianism to her affair with her one-time chorus boy Andy Williams, her endless litigiousness, and her involvement with the revolutionary 1974 Versailles fashion show in which black models sporting American ready-to-wear designer duds fully triumphed over Parisian haute couture. Minnelli was the big get for Irvin in terms of interviewees and, after what he described to me as quite the merry chase, she rewarded him with a wealth of memories that help to make this one of the best performer bios ever done. Check out Irvin’s incredible website www.KayThompsonWebsite.com for all things Kay, where you can also order “Think Pink!” a miraculous compilation of all her rare recordings, including her actually doing Eloise, in all her soignée brattitude.