Cass Elliot

Background

Cass Elliot was born on September 19, 1941, in Ellen Naomi Cohen, Baltimore. She was the daughter of Philip Cohen and Beth Levine, who were in the restaurant business.  

She grew up in Baltimore and Arlington, Virginia, in homes that were always filled with music.  Her father was an opera buff; her mother played the piano.

Education

Cass Elliot developed an interest in acting, especially musical comedy, and appeared in high schooltheater productions and sang with the choir.  She left Forest Park High School in Baltimore shortly before graduating, however, and never got her diploma.

Career

At nineteen, Elliot moved to New York City to try for a stage career, winning a few small parts Off-Broadway and a role in a touring company of The Music Man. She also directed at Cafe La Mama. She soon became involved in the city's folk music scene.

She sang with her first husband, James R. Hendricks, with a short-lived group, the Big Three, which evolved into the Mugwumps with Denny Doherty and Zal Yanovsky. The group went electric and received some acclaim from critics, but little response from the public.

When the Mugwumps broke up, Elliot fronted a jazz trio before moving to Los Angeles. In 1965, she joined up with Doherty and the husband-and-wife team of John and Michelle Phillips. They recorded backing vocals for records on Lou Adler's newly formed Dunhill label, then got their own contract with him as the Mamas and the Papas.

The foursome had immediate success. According to one account, "They were the right group at the right time, still redolent of nostalgia for the flower-power era, the last time pop music could be commercial and still appear to be innocent. "

The Mamas and the Papas had a hit in 1966, with their first single, "California Dreamin, ' " which was rapidly followed by five more top five singles, including the number one hit, "Monday, Monday. "

The group was famous for its unique harmonies and warm melodic voices. Elliot sang contralto and, as the New York Times put it, "served as the large, homey foil to the ethereal beauty and the soprano of Michelle Phillips. "

Despite their commercial success, the Mamas and the Papas broke up in 1968 as the Phillips' marriage crumbled. Elliot embarked on a solo career, appearing at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas for $40, 000 per week in October 1968. The show was canceled after the first night because of illness.

After the Las Vegas debacle, Elliot said she gave up drugs and alcohol. She scored her biggest solo hit single in 1968 with "Dream a Little Dream of Me, " and recorded an album with British rock star Dave Mason.

She became a familiar figure on television variety shows and specials In 1967.

Elliot died in her London apartment two days after the closing of a successful two-week show at the Palladium. She was about to begin a five-week tour of British nightclubs. Initial reports stated that she had choked on a ham sandwich.

That was later discounted by the British coroner, who listed a heart attack caused by obesity and stress as the cause of death. No traces of drugs or alcohol were found. Her manager, Allan Carr, said she had slimmed down from 294 to 224 pounds in the months before her death, but the coroner's report said it was too little, too late.

Achievements

• Elliot was one of four members of the late 1960s pop sensation The Mamas and the Papas. The City of Baltimore dedicated August 15, 1973 as "Cass Elliot Day" in her honor for her homecoming.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Mama Cass - Cass Elliot/Road Is No Place For A Lady/ DonT Call Me Mama

    (Digitally remastered two CD set containing a trio of solo...)

  • Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Music of

    (Dream a Little Dream Features the most comprehensive cros...)

  • Bubble Gum, Lemonade AND Something For Mama LP VINYL

    (Mama Cass - Bubble Gum Lemonade And Something For Mama - ...)

  • The Mama Cass Television Program

    (The year 1969 was a magical time for music. Nothing captu...)

  • Mama's Big Ones: The Best of Mama Cass Us Import by Mama Cass Elliot (1987-09-28)

    (Brand New)

  • American Girl Scout Magazine - Mama Cass Elliot feature - June 1970

    (11" x 8.25"; 58 pages plus the cover. From 1917 to 1979 G...)

  • book

  • Cass Elliot (With Bonus Tracks)

Views

Quotations: "I didn't develop a sense of humor as a defense for being heavy.  I've always had a weight problem.  I simply learned that's the way I am and so I live with it".

"Honesty is all you need. "

"I don't think it's so important who you vote for - you vote for who you believe in. The important thing is to vote, because it's our way and it's the best way. "

"You've got to make your own kind of music, sing your own special song, make your own kind of music, even if nobody else sings along. "

"My advice is precisely the advice my mother gave me. If you believe you have talent, the next thing you must have is determination. If you keep working, keep striving, and try always to move forward a little bit with every job you do, you'll eventually make it. And I believe that!"

"I've always been so apathetic. I figured, OK, maybe the world is going to fall down around me. Now I want to make a better world. .. that's motherhood. "

"There's so much talk about the Drug Generation and songs about drugs. That's stupid. They aren't songs about drugs; they're about life. "

"Leadership is helping yourself and other people achieve goals. The ability to direct your life to get the results you want is leadership. "

"I've heard that story about kids are high naturally, but I've seen kids that aren't high, kids who've had the high taken out of them. "

"When you're famous, you don't get to meet people because they want you to like them when the present themselves to you, and you don't see the real people. "

"My role in the Mamas and Papas was basically just to sing. "

Personality

By seventeen, Elliot had adopted the name Cassandra Elliot. Her father nicknamed her Cass, after the ill-fated prophetess of Greek mythology, as a girl; "Elliot, " she said once, was in honor of a friend who had died in a car accident.

She was probably the most popular member of the group because of her earthy, often self-deprecating humor. Always overweight, she was living proof that one didn't have to be thin and beautiful to be a star.

The five-foot-five-inch brunette said her weight, which swung wildly at times and reached 300 pounds, didn't hurt her career.

Interests

• Music & Bands

  Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Blossom Dearie

Connections

In 1963, Cass Elliot married James R. Hendricks. Elliot had a daughter outside of her marriage to Hendricks, whom she divorced in 1969.  

In 1972, she married a German nobleman, Baron Donald von Weidenman, but the marriage was annulled shortly thereafter.

Father:

Philip Cohen

Died in 1962.

Mother:

Beth Levine

1915 – 1994

Sister:

Leah Kunkel

Born on June 15, 1948.

Daughter:

Owen Vanessa Elliot

Born on April 26, 1967.

husband:

Donald von Wiedenman

husband:

James R. Hendricks

References

• California Dreamin': Cass Elliot Before The Mamas & the Papas
• American Legends: The Life of Mama Cass Elliot
• Dream a Little Dream of Me - The Life of 'Mama' Cass Elliot by Fiegel, Eddi
• Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Life of 'Mama' Cass Elliot