cover image Kitty

Kitty

Kitty Carlisle Hart, Kitty Carlisle. Doubleday Books, $18.95 (263pp) ISBN 978-0-385-24425-1

Kitty is a perfectly coiffed autobiography, as glossy, gracious and glamorous as its famous author. Currently Chairman of the New York State Council for the Arts, Hart is probably best known for her 23-year stint on the TV game show To Tell the Truth . Born Catherine Conn, an only child both awed and terrified by her formidable, socially ambitious mother, Hart spent much of her early life abroad, literally buckling under the weight of their combined luggage as this wily battleship of maternal contradictions steamed ahead to prepare her daughter for a ``brilliant'' marriage. These kaleidoscopic, vagabond years ultimately seamed themselves into what husband Moss Hart later called ``a great cloak labeled Kitty Carlisle.'' With notable charm, a ``small'' vocal talent and a knack for ``sweeping down the stairs dressed in black velvet,'' Hart enjoyed a modest theatrical career and a phenomenal social one, crossing paths with some of most memorable figures of the 20th century. Her satisfying and indeed ``brilliant'' marriage to theatrical legend Hart forms the warm core of this breezy and occasionally poignant memoir. Photos. (Oct.)