Kay Thompson (1909–1998)
Autor von Eloise: Ein Buch für frühreife Erwachsene über ein kleines Mädchen im New Yorker Plaza
Über den Autor
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 mehr anzeigen 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) weniger anzeigen
Bildnachweis: 1996 Hilary Knight portrait of Kay Thompson By Vanity Fair: http://www.eloisewebsite.com/library/9612_vanityfair.htm, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13064358
Reihen
Werke von Kay Thompson
Eloise: Ein Buch für frühreife Erwachsene über ein kleines Mädchen im New Yorker Plaza (1955) 1,766 Exemplare
Eloise's Guide to Life: Or, How to Eat, Dress, Travel, Behave, and Stay Six Forever (1905) 157 Exemplare
Eloise Collector's Set: Eloise Breaks Some Eggs; Eloise Has a Lesson; Eloise at the Wedding; Eloise and the Very Secret… (2015) 6 Exemplare
Kay Thompson's Miss Pooky Peckinpaugh, and her secret private boyfriends complete with telephone numbers (1970) 5 Exemplare
On the Go with Eloise!: Eloise Throws a Party!; Eloise Skates!; Eloise Visits the Zoo; Eloise and the Dinosaurs;… (2019) 2 Exemplare
Eloise Ready-to-Read Value Pack: Eloise's Summer Vacation; Eloise at the Wedding; Eloise and the Very Secret Room;… (2012) 2 Exemplare
Eloise The Absolutely Essential Edition 2 Exemplare
The Eloise Classic Storybook Ligrary (Simon And Schuster's Books for Young Readers) (1999) 1 Exemplar
Eloise and Eloise in Paris 1 Exemplar
Eloise Ready-to-Read Value Pack #2: Eloise Breaks Some Eggs; Eloise and the Dinosaurs; Eloise at the Ball Game; Eloise… (2013) 1 Exemplar
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Wissenswertes
- Gebräuchlichste Namensform
- Thompson, Kay
- Rechtmäßiger Name
- Catherine Louise Fink
- Geburtstag
- 1909-11-09
- Todestag
- 1998-07-02
- Begräbnisort
- Cremated
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- USA
- Geburtsort
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- Sterbeort
- New York City, New York, USA
- Wohnorte
- New York, New York, USA
Hollywood, California, USA - Berufe
- writer
composer
musician
actor
singer - Kurzbiographie
- 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.
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Reading level: pk-1
Awards: National Book Award
Awards: National Book Award
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Does this deserve to be a classic? It's certainly remarkable for the audacity of the main character. She's not really likable, but I have sympathy for her. She doesn't go to school or have friends or see her mother. She is not a rascal with a heart of gold. She is pure id.
In a way, this book reminds me of Lord of the Flies.… (mehr)