Cass Elliot (The Mamas and the Papas)
Born: 19 September 1941
Died: 29 July 1974 (32 Years)
Cause: That night, Elliot, age 32, died in her sleep at the London flat where she was staying. According to forensic pathologist Keith Simpson, who conducted her autopsy, her death was due to heart failure. "There was left-sided heart failure," he wrote, "she had a heart attack which developed rapidly." A drug screen that was part of the forensic autopsy revealed there were no drugs in her system.
Died: 29 July 1974 (32 Years)
Cause: That night, Elliot, age 32, died in her sleep at the London flat where she was staying. According to forensic pathologist Keith Simpson, who conducted her autopsy, her death was due to heart failure. "There was left-sided heart failure," he wrote, "she had a heart attack which developed rapidly." A drug screen that was part of the forensic autopsy revealed there were no drugs in her system.
The Mamas and the Papas
Ellen Naomi Cohen (September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974), known professionally as Cass Elliot, or Mama Cass, was an American singer and actress. She was a member of the singing group The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, Elliot released five solo albums. In 1998, she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her work with The Mamas & the Papas.
Elliot was married twice, the first time in 1963 to James Hendricks, her group mate in the Big 3 and the Mugwumps. It was a marriage of convenience to assist him in avoiding being drafted during the Vietnam War; the marriage was never consummated and was annulled in 1968. In 1971, Elliot married journalist Donald von Wiedenman, heir to a Bavarian barony. Their marriage ended in divorce after a few months.
Elliot gave birth to a daughter, Owen Vanessa Elliot, on April 26, 1967. Owen also grew up to become a singer and toured with Beach Boys member Al Jardine. Elliot never publicly identified the father, but many years later, Michelle Phillips helped Owen locate her biological father, Chuck Day. His paternity was not publicly revealed until his 2008 death. After Elliot's death, her younger sister, Leah Kunkel (then married to Los Angeles-based session drummer Russ Kunkel), gained custody of Owen,then seven years old, and raised her along with her own son, Nathaniel.
Heroin use
Within hours of the end of Elliot's Las Vegas concert, rumors began to spread that she had been taking drugs during the weeks leading up to it. Eddi Fiegel wrote in the biography Dream a Little Dream of Me that Elliot later admitted to a boyfriend that she had shot heroin immediately before going on stage. Embarrassed by the debacle, Elliot plunged into a deep depression.
David Crosby published a memoir in 1988 saying Elliot and he used opiates, cocaine, and heroin together, preferring to use heroin in London because of its availability there.
London hotel theft and court case
In 1967, while staying in London, Elliot was prosecuted for stealing bed linen from an apartment where she had been staying on an earlier visit. She denied responsibility, and the case was brought before the West London magistrates' court, where the charges against her were dismissed in the absence of any evidence. The Mamas and the Papas were forced to cancel the upcoming British concerts as a result of the incident, and the band broke up the next year. On a return visit to London, Elliot admitted to the audience at the London Palladium that she had taken two sheets, saying "I liked 'em so I took 'em". She said she had kept quiet because of the way she had been treated in police custody.
On April 22, 1974, Elliot collapsed in the television studio of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson immediately before her scheduled appearance on the show. She was treated at a hospital and released, then dismissed the incident as simple exhaustion in interviews such as her May 7 appearance on The Tonight Show and the American television talk show The Mike Douglas Show. Her appearance on that episode of The Mike Douglas Show turned out to be her last for television.
In July 1974, Elliot performed a fortnight of concerts as a solo performer at the London Palladium. Many claimed that all of these shows were sold out, but she often was playing to a less-than-full house after the earlier dates.
After her Friday, July 26 appearance at the Palladium, Elliot went on a 48-hour celebration. She first attended a birthday party for Mick Jagger at his home at Tite Street in Chelsea. Debbie Reynolds claimed in her 2013 book Unsinkable: A Memoir that her children, Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher, saw Elliot at the birthday party. Reynolds noted that Elliot was alone when she left. After the party, Elliot went to a "breakfast-lunch" in her honor presented by Georgia Brown. From there, she attended a cocktail party hosted by American journalist Jack Martin. Cass left at 8:00 pm, stating she was tired and needed to get some sleep.
Elliot retired to an apartment in Mayfair at Curzon Place at which singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson allowed her to stay. There, she made an international call to Michelle Phillips. Phillips said many years later that Elliot sounded elated that she had received standing ovations each night. Phillips recalls, "She had had a little champagne, and was crying. She felt she had finally made the transition from Mama Cass."
It was 1974 and Cass was ecstatic that she was going to London to play The Palladium. After she had played two [weeks] there, she called crying with joy telling me that she had got a standing ovation both nights and she had sold out both nights [details unclear], she was just as happy as I'd ever seen her or heard her. The following day, I was having lunch at Warner Brothers and a friend of mine came running out with the terrible news that Cass had died in her sleep of a heart attack, it was just unbelievable that she died on the night that she had called me and been so happy and so fulfilled, it was wonderful for her that she had made that leap from Mama Cass to Cass Elliot, and I do know this one thing—Cass Elliot died a very happy woman.
That night, Elliot, age 32, died in her sleep at the London flat where she was staying. According to forensic pathologist Keith Simpson, who conducted her autopsy, her death was due to heart failure. "There was left-sided heart failure," he wrote, "she had a heart attack which developed rapidly." A drug screen that was part of the forensic autopsy revealed there were no drugs in her system. Elliot died in Flat 12, 9 Curzon Place (later Curzon Square), Shepherd Market, Mayfair, London.
Four years later, The Who's drummer Keith Moon died in the same room, also aged 32 years.
Elliot's body was cremated at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Her ashes were later buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
An oft-repeated urban legend is that Elliot choked to death on a ham sandwich. The story spread soon after the discovery of her body and was based on speculation in the initial media coverage. A 2014 article in Haaretz identified the person who started the false rumor as follows: "Unfortunately, the first doctor [in London] who examined her speculated to the press about the cause of death, and that's the version that stuck." An autopsy had not been performed when the physician was quoted, and the Metropolitan Police told reporters that a partially eaten sandwich found in her room might have been relevant to the cause of death. When Keith Simpson performed the autopsy, he determined that Elliot had died of heart failure, and that no food was present in her windpipe.
(wikipedia)
Elliot was married twice, the first time in 1963 to James Hendricks, her group mate in the Big 3 and the Mugwumps. It was a marriage of convenience to assist him in avoiding being drafted during the Vietnam War; the marriage was never consummated and was annulled in 1968. In 1971, Elliot married journalist Donald von Wiedenman, heir to a Bavarian barony. Their marriage ended in divorce after a few months.
Elliot gave birth to a daughter, Owen Vanessa Elliot, on April 26, 1967. Owen also grew up to become a singer and toured with Beach Boys member Al Jardine. Elliot never publicly identified the father, but many years later, Michelle Phillips helped Owen locate her biological father, Chuck Day. His paternity was not publicly revealed until his 2008 death. After Elliot's death, her younger sister, Leah Kunkel (then married to Los Angeles-based session drummer Russ Kunkel), gained custody of Owen,then seven years old, and raised her along with her own son, Nathaniel.
Heroin use
Within hours of the end of Elliot's Las Vegas concert, rumors began to spread that she had been taking drugs during the weeks leading up to it. Eddi Fiegel wrote in the biography Dream a Little Dream of Me that Elliot later admitted to a boyfriend that she had shot heroin immediately before going on stage. Embarrassed by the debacle, Elliot plunged into a deep depression.
David Crosby published a memoir in 1988 saying Elliot and he used opiates, cocaine, and heroin together, preferring to use heroin in London because of its availability there.
London hotel theft and court case
In 1967, while staying in London, Elliot was prosecuted for stealing bed linen from an apartment where she had been staying on an earlier visit. She denied responsibility, and the case was brought before the West London magistrates' court, where the charges against her were dismissed in the absence of any evidence. The Mamas and the Papas were forced to cancel the upcoming British concerts as a result of the incident, and the band broke up the next year. On a return visit to London, Elliot admitted to the audience at the London Palladium that she had taken two sheets, saying "I liked 'em so I took 'em". She said she had kept quiet because of the way she had been treated in police custody.
On April 22, 1974, Elliot collapsed in the television studio of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson immediately before her scheduled appearance on the show. She was treated at a hospital and released, then dismissed the incident as simple exhaustion in interviews such as her May 7 appearance on The Tonight Show and the American television talk show The Mike Douglas Show. Her appearance on that episode of The Mike Douglas Show turned out to be her last for television.
In July 1974, Elliot performed a fortnight of concerts as a solo performer at the London Palladium. Many claimed that all of these shows were sold out, but she often was playing to a less-than-full house after the earlier dates.
After her Friday, July 26 appearance at the Palladium, Elliot went on a 48-hour celebration. She first attended a birthday party for Mick Jagger at his home at Tite Street in Chelsea. Debbie Reynolds claimed in her 2013 book Unsinkable: A Memoir that her children, Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher, saw Elliot at the birthday party. Reynolds noted that Elliot was alone when she left. After the party, Elliot went to a "breakfast-lunch" in her honor presented by Georgia Brown. From there, she attended a cocktail party hosted by American journalist Jack Martin. Cass left at 8:00 pm, stating she was tired and needed to get some sleep.
Elliot retired to an apartment in Mayfair at Curzon Place at which singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson allowed her to stay. There, she made an international call to Michelle Phillips. Phillips said many years later that Elliot sounded elated that she had received standing ovations each night. Phillips recalls, "She had had a little champagne, and was crying. She felt she had finally made the transition from Mama Cass."
It was 1974 and Cass was ecstatic that she was going to London to play The Palladium. After she had played two [weeks] there, she called crying with joy telling me that she had got a standing ovation both nights and she had sold out both nights [details unclear], she was just as happy as I'd ever seen her or heard her. The following day, I was having lunch at Warner Brothers and a friend of mine came running out with the terrible news that Cass had died in her sleep of a heart attack, it was just unbelievable that she died on the night that she had called me and been so happy and so fulfilled, it was wonderful for her that she had made that leap from Mama Cass to Cass Elliot, and I do know this one thing—Cass Elliot died a very happy woman.
That night, Elliot, age 32, died in her sleep at the London flat where she was staying. According to forensic pathologist Keith Simpson, who conducted her autopsy, her death was due to heart failure. "There was left-sided heart failure," he wrote, "she had a heart attack which developed rapidly." A drug screen that was part of the forensic autopsy revealed there were no drugs in her system. Elliot died in Flat 12, 9 Curzon Place (later Curzon Square), Shepherd Market, Mayfair, London.
Four years later, The Who's drummer Keith Moon died in the same room, also aged 32 years.
Elliot's body was cremated at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Her ashes were later buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
An oft-repeated urban legend is that Elliot choked to death on a ham sandwich. The story spread soon after the discovery of her body and was based on speculation in the initial media coverage. A 2014 article in Haaretz identified the person who started the false rumor as follows: "Unfortunately, the first doctor [in London] who examined her speculated to the press about the cause of death, and that's the version that stuck." An autopsy had not been performed when the physician was quoted, and the Metropolitan Police told reporters that a partially eaten sandwich found in her room might have been relevant to the cause of death. When Keith Simpson performed the autopsy, he determined that Elliot had died of heart failure, and that no food was present in her windpipe.
(wikipedia)