Kay Thompson (1909–1998)
Author of Eloise
About the Author
Kay Thompson was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1911, the daughter of a local jeweler. She showed early promise as a pianist; she started to play the piano when she was four, and at sixteen played Franz Liszt with the St. Louis Symphony. Shortly afterward, she appeared as featured vocalist with a show more local dance band. Thompson went to California in 1929, when she was seventeen. Her first job was as a diving instructor, but she soon found a job on the radio as a vocalist with the Mills Brothers. Later she joined Fred Waring's band in New York as a singer and arranger. She decided to produce her own radio show, which was aired over the CBS network under the name Kay Thompson and Company. The show was not as big a success as Thompson had hoped and so she signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios as an arranger and composer. Beginning in 1942, she worked with MGM choreographer Robert Alton on such films as The Ziegfield Follies, The Harvey Girls, and The Kid From Brooklyn. She remained with the studio for four years until she created her own night club routine. The show opened at Ciro's night club in 1947 and was successful enough to be taken on the road. That autumn she opened in Chicago and in February 1948 she moved to Miami for a $15,000-a-week engagement. Thompson kept the act going until 1953. Eloise's birth was unexpected. Thompson prized punctuality, but one day she was late to rehearsals with the Mills Brothers. In a high, childish voice, she made her apology. One of her co-workers said, 'Who are you, little girl?' Thompson replied, 'I am Eloise. I am 6.' The others joined in the game, each assuming a juvenile identity, and it became a regular rehearsal pastime. The routine became a book after Thompson began performing in 1954 in a one-woman show at the Plaza. While she was appearing in the hotel's Persian Room, she was introduced to an artist, Hilary Knight, and he became the illustrator of Eloise, which was subtitled A Book for Precocious Grown Ups. Thompson wrote the book during a three-month break from performing. Later she wrote three other books about Eloise, which were also illustrated by Knight. In the first two years after Eloise came out, 150,000 copies were sold. According to records beginning in 1983, 592,000 copies of "Eloise" have been sold in the United States since then. Thompson also wrote "Kay Thompson's Miss Pooky Peckinpaugh and Her Secret Private Boyfriends Complete with Telephone Numbers," illustrated by Joe Eula. Thompson also founded Eloise Ltd., which made recordings and other products related to the Eloise character. In later years, Ms. Thompson acted in movies, including "Funny Face," and on television. Kay Thompson died in July of 1998 (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson's Miss Pooky Peckinpaugh, and her secret private boyfriends complete with telephone numbers (1970) 6 copies, 1 review
Eloise and Eloise in Paris 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Thompson, Kay
- Legal name
- Fink, Catherine Louise (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1909-11-09
- Date of death
- 1998-07-02
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- writer
composer
musician
actor
singer - Short biography
- Kay Thompson, née Catherine Louise Fink, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She showed early talent for the piano, and by age 16 was appearing onstage as a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony. Then she moved to California and became a singer, dancer, vocal arranger, and the producer and host of a CBS Radio program called Kay Thompson & Company. She was a composer. arranger, and singing coach for many MGM musicals such as The Harvey Girls (1946), The Ziegfeld Follies (1946), and The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), in which she made her own debut as a film actor. In 1955, she published her first book, creating with illustrator Hilary Knight the now-classic character of Eloise, the mischievous 6-year-old who lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. She wrote more bestselling Eloise books and continued performing in nightclubs, films, and on television.
- Cause of death
- natural causes
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
Hollywood, California, USA - Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Burial location
- cremated
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
After enjoying the first Eloise book, and then finding the subsequent two rather ho-hum - it's not that there was anything wrong with either Eloise in Paris or Eloise at Christmastime, but their eponymous young heroine's frenetic activity palls a bit, after one's initial exposure - I found this fourth installment of the series quite engaging. Eloise goes to Moscow at the height of the Cold War - published in 1959, Eloise in Moscow is a product Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight's own unusual show more trip to Moscow - and the results are fascinating! Staying at The National Hotel - it's no Plaza, but it has its charms - touring the Kremlin with their guide, Zhenka, and taking a brief trip to the countryside to enjoy some winter sports, Eloise and Nanny enjoy their Russian sojourn, although they are always conscious of the many eyes upon them...
I'm not sure that Eloise in Moscow will have quite the same appeal for young readers that it had for me, as quite a bit of my enjoyment here stemmed from the contrast between Eloise's exuberant joie de vivre, and the solid un-smiling Russian atmosphere surrounding her, as well as the insights offered into Cold War politics. I have seen this book described as "paranoid," but given the realities of life in the Soviet Union during this period, and the distrust between the USSR and the USA, I would be very surprised if the portrait offered here of being very much in a fishbowl, and constantly under surveillance, weren't fairly accurate. Certainly, it offers a realistic depiction of an American's view of Russia at this time. Looking back on it now, I find some of it sad, and quite a bit of it amusing. The artwork, in particular, kept me entertained, with a spy following Eloise and Nanny wherever they go - Eloise certainly kept him busy! - and even "ordinary citizens" (or are they?) keeping an eye on them. Recommended to Eloise fans, of course, but also to readers interested in the depiction of the Cold War in children's books. show less
I'm not sure that Eloise in Moscow will have quite the same appeal for young readers that it had for me, as quite a bit of my enjoyment here stemmed from the contrast between Eloise's exuberant joie de vivre, and the solid un-smiling Russian atmosphere surrounding her, as well as the insights offered into Cold War politics. I have seen this book described as "paranoid," but given the realities of life in the Soviet Union during this period, and the distrust between the USSR and the USA, I would be very surprised if the portrait offered here of being very much in a fishbowl, and constantly under surveillance, weren't fairly accurate. Certainly, it offers a realistic depiction of an American's view of Russia at this time. Looking back on it now, I find some of it sad, and quite a bit of it amusing. The artwork, in particular, kept me entertained, with a spy following Eloise and Nanny wherever they go - Eloise certainly kept him busy! - and even "ordinary citizens" (or are they?) keeping an eye on them. Recommended to Eloise fans, of course, but also to readers interested in the depiction of the Cold War in children's books. show less
The frenetically active Eloise, once described by Maurice Sendak as a "little girl monster," made her debut in 1955 in this eponymous chronicle of her many adventures at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, where her antics kept the staff (and her nanny) on their toes. Possessed of a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy, Eloise liked to ride up and down the elevators, make noise in the hallways, and enjoy room service with Nanny. A six-year-old with a mind of her own, and with very decided show more tastes, she was never at a loss for something to keep her occupied...
Like Madeline, or Harold of the Purple Crayon, Eloise is one of those beloved picture-book characters that I somehow missed reading as a girl reader. I have no childhood memory of her, and with her shenanigans, I'm sure I would have! Read for The Picture-Book Club to which I belong, where our theme this month is "Classic Picture-Book Characters," Eloise is a book I couldn't help enjoying, even as I groaned at its heroine's behavior. My sympathy is with the employees who have to put up with this pint-sized terror - anyone who has worked retail, or in the service industry, probably has some horror stories to share when it comes to being made to put up with bad behavior from poorly supervised children - but my affection is with their tormenter. Eloise has such a strong voice, such an obvious sense of herself, that I couldn't help but enjoy her antics. In fact, I think that the very things which would make her impossible to deal with in real life - the lack of adult supervision, the insistence upon doing anything and everything she likes - make her story into a wonderful childhood fantasy. She seems to have appeared during a period when the naughty girl, the one who is not reformed in the course of the story - think Ramona Quimby, Junie B. Jones, and Ivy and Bean - began to be such a popular figure.
All in all, an enjoyable read, one that I am glad to have finally gotten to. This edition, created for the 50th Anniversary of the character, includes an afterword about the author and illustrator, providing some fascinating background information about their creative partnership. Recommended to young readers who like stories about trouble-making girls. For my part, I think I will continue on to the next Eloise book... show less
Like Madeline, or Harold of the Purple Crayon, Eloise is one of those beloved picture-book characters that I somehow missed reading as a girl reader. I have no childhood memory of her, and with her shenanigans, I'm sure I would have! Read for The Picture-Book Club to which I belong, where our theme this month is "Classic Picture-Book Characters," Eloise is a book I couldn't help enjoying, even as I groaned at its heroine's behavior. My sympathy is with the employees who have to put up with this pint-sized terror - anyone who has worked retail, or in the service industry, probably has some horror stories to share when it comes to being made to put up with bad behavior from poorly supervised children - but my affection is with their tormenter. Eloise has such a strong voice, such an obvious sense of herself, that I couldn't help but enjoy her antics. In fact, I think that the very things which would make her impossible to deal with in real life - the lack of adult supervision, the insistence upon doing anything and everything she likes - make her story into a wonderful childhood fantasy. She seems to have appeared during a period when the naughty girl, the one who is not reformed in the course of the story - think Ramona Quimby, Junie B. Jones, and Ivy and Bean - began to be such a popular figure.
All in all, an enjoyable read, one that I am glad to have finally gotten to. This edition, created for the 50th Anniversary of the character, includes an afterword about the author and illustrator, providing some fascinating background information about their creative partnership. Recommended to young readers who like stories about trouble-making girls. For my part, I think I will continue on to the next Eloise book... show less
This edition compiles the four original Eloise books--Eloise, Eloise in Paris, Eloise at Christmastime, and Eloise in Moscow--along with a "scrapbook" by Marie Brenner, which tells a brief history of the Eloise books and provides lots of photos of the author and illustrator. I was new to Eloise--I'm sure I'd seen her image before, but I didn't know much about her and certainly never read any of the books before--and this collection was (mostly) a delight. The scrapbook was interesting, and I show more loved loved loved the first book, Eloise, which tells of Eloise's life living with Nanny in the Plaza hotel in the fifties. It's part absurd, part adorable, part silly, and all wonderful. I also liked Eloise at Christmastime very much. The other two books didn't do as much for me, but Eloise in Paris was a good deal more enjoyable than Eloise in Moscow, which I wrinkled my nose at and actually said, "I don't get it." Perhaps, more than the others, it was a product of its time and doesn't translate well to someone born twenty-five years after it was written. So though I cawn't quite unequivocally say, "Oooooooo I absolutely love Eloise," I will recommend checking her out if you've never met her. Just skibble down to your library and get a copy. But maybe skip the trip to Russia. show less
Eloise returns stateside in this fifth picture-book chronicling her frenetic fun, causing chaos at the Plaza Hotel by taking the longest, messiest (and most entertaining) bath on record. As that pint-sized terror lolls about in the water, splashing here and there, playing imaginative games of all kinds - from surfing, to pirating, to underwater diving, she has the aquatic activities covered - and generally creating a mess, the consequences of her actions are felt all over the hotel, as leaks show more spring up here and there. Will the Venetian Masked Ball have to be cancelled, or will hotel manager Mr. Salomone be able to pinpoint the source of all the trouble...?
Although it was originally written by Kay Thompson in the 1960s, Eloise Takes a Bawth never saw print in her lifetime, being suppressed by the author for reasons unknown. This edition, which was published in 2002, was authorized by her estate, and features newly updated artwork by Hilary Thompson. Still, as the story and the basic art ideas were all created back in the early 1960s, I consider it the last of the "original" Eloise books, and as such, decided to include it in my recent classic picture-book character reading project. I'm glad I did, as it is an amusing tale, and reminded me of some of the pleasure I took in baths myself as a girl - the games I would play, the slip-sliding I would do, the general mess I would make. I don't know that it has the feeling of a series "ending" to me, but as it is the end - I don't intend to read any of the contemporary tag-along, coat-riding titles written and illustrated "in the style of" the original creators - I can say that I have enjoyed meeting its heroine, even if she isn't destined to become one of my favorite picture-book characters. At least now I know what all the fuss is about... show less
Although it was originally written by Kay Thompson in the 1960s, Eloise Takes a Bawth never saw print in her lifetime, being suppressed by the author for reasons unknown. This edition, which was published in 2002, was authorized by her estate, and features newly updated artwork by Hilary Thompson. Still, as the story and the basic art ideas were all created back in the early 1960s, I consider it the last of the "original" Eloise books, and as such, decided to include it in my recent classic picture-book character reading project. I'm glad I did, as it is an amusing tale, and reminded me of some of the pleasure I took in baths myself as a girl - the games I would play, the slip-sliding I would do, the general mess I would make. I don't know that it has the feeling of a series "ending" to me, but as it is the end - I don't intend to read any of the contemporary tag-along, coat-riding titles written and illustrated "in the style of" the original creators - I can say that I have enjoyed meeting its heroine, even if she isn't destined to become one of my favorite picture-book characters. At least now I know what all the fuss is about... show less
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