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To Tell the Truth: I Wanted to be Kitty Carlisle!
by Davidson Garrett
For Kitty Carlisle Hart
Number One: What does pianissimo mean?
Number Two: Who was Franz Lehar?
Number Three: Who starred in A Night at the Opera
with Grocho Marx?
That 60’s game show, To Tell the Truth,
introduced America to Orson, Peggy, Bud, & Kitty.
Urbane, cosmopolitan-types
burning black & white televisions
with sunny personalities. But it was Miss Carlisle
who furnished the Class. Behind a panelists’ desk
glowing with a lacquered bouffant
& smart Chanel dress, she flashed champagne smiles
at slick imposters stumping with false identities—
prompting her to bestow on these tricksters
a slow, ha-ha-ha laugh, like a grand doyenne
amused at a ritzy Park Avenue party.
Such radiant sophistication earned envious affection
from us hicks in the hinterlands, who, for a few minutes each week
were vicariously transported by Kitty
to glittery Broadway or Café Society—
as we sat transfixed on designer couches
from the chic catalogues of Montgomery Ward.
originally published in Sensations Magazine, Issue 40
© 2006 Davidson Garrett
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