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Thursday, April 19, 2007

Kitty Carlisle Hart (1910-2007)

For people of a certain age (we know who we are), "To Tell the Truth" was must see TV.

The prime-time CBS game show featured three contestants who all claimed to be the same person. With host Bud Collyer at the helm, celebrity panelists asked the contestants questions to determine which was telling the truth. "To Tell the Truth" ran from 1956 to 1967 and included panelists such as Polly Bergen, Johnny Carson, Bill Cullen and Don Ameche, but it was Kitty Carlisle who caught my young eye because she was drop-dead gorgeous, well spoken and very funny.

Carlisle Hart, who died this week at age 96 after a long bout with pneumonia, parlayed those assets into a diverse career that included cabaret and opera, Broadway shows and film. Her best known role was Rosa Castaldi in "A Night at the Opera," the 1935 Marx Brothers Classic.

Her late husband was Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Moss Hart, who wrote "You Can't Take It With You" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner" with George S. Kaufman and won a Tony for directing "My Fair Lady" on Broadway.

More here.

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