Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise
Kay Thompson is chiefly remembered as the author of the Eloise books, but she also led a wild life as an actress and singer in New York and Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. This thoroughly entertaining biography leaves no stone unturned in telling her raucous and rollicking story. She began her career as a radio and singing star in the 1930s, getting her first big break from Bing Crosby. From there, her star soared as did the lofty social circles in which she began to move. She was best friend and mentor to Judy Garland, vocal coach to Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne, and was married twice (though often rumored to be conducting affairs with both men and women). In the 1950s she emerged as the highest-paid nightclub entertainer in the world. In 1957 she costarred in Funny Face and soon thereafter became the best-selling author of the Eloise series. In the 1960s and 1970s she became closer to her goddaughter Liza Minnelli and was a fixture at Studio 54, reveling in the hedonism, glitz, and glamour of the era. --Kathleen Hughes