Veteran NY cabaret star Hart still singing at 96

NEW YORK, Sep 18: It's been 70 years since Kitty Carlisle Hart made her name as a singer in a Marx Brothers film, but she's still kicking up her heels and rehearsing for a show celebrating her 96th birthday.

The grande dame of New York entertainers, Hart has appeared on Broadway, TV, the silver screen and at the Metropolitan Opera.

''I made a film called 'A Night at the Opera' with the Marx Brothers and they fired me after that,'' Hart recalled.

''They said I wasn't material for the screen and I cried all the way home in the train,'' she said in an interview at her elegant Manhattan apartment, which was adorned with paintings by theater giants Noel Coward and Irving Berlin.

She bounced back and became one of the biggest singing stars of the stage. In the 1960s, she became a household name as a panelist on the television game show ''To Tell The Truth.'' From September 26 to 30 she'll share stories from her colorful life in the show ''I Walk with Music'' at the New York cabaret Feinstein's.

Recalling her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Prince Orlofsky in ''Die Fledermaus'' when she was in her fifties, she kicks up a leg to show off her still trim calf.

''I looked good in those tights. I had good legs,'' the perfectly coiffed Hart says with mischievous smile.

Stepping carefully in high heels, the petite performer shows a visitor around her apartment, pointing out old posters of her shows, signed photographs of show business legends and a picture with President George W Bush at the White House.

A photo of composer and former sweetheart George Gershwin is signed: ''For Kitty, in appreciation of a grand girl. Much admiration, George.''

'SINGING HAD MADE MY LIFE'

Gershwin asked Hart to marry him, but she held out for Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Moss Hart. The couple married in 1946. Nearby she points out an empty hook. ''There's the Pulitzer Prize. It fell down,'' she says, adding it would be too much trouble to move the piano to retrieve the prize her husband won for the drama ''You Can't Take It With You'' in 1937.

Though Moss Hart was widely thought to have been gay, they had two children and Hart speaks fondly of him.

He died in 1961 and Hart never remarried, but she says: ''I have two beaus. I had three, but one of them died.'' ''I have one who's 103 and he's sharp as a tack. And I have another one who takes me to the opera and takes me to dinner.

He's younger than I am, he's only 90,'' she said.

Born in New Orleans on September 3, 1910, Hart moved to Switzerland with her mother after her father died in an influenza epidemic in 1920. She says her mother was determined to nurture her musical talents, and she studied drama in London before coming to New York, where she made her name in the 1930s.

''Singing has made my life, and now that I'm 96 I have had the most wonderful renaissance of my career. I do gigs all over the place and they pay me a fortune,'' she said.

Hart says she still gets nervous before a show, but she practices every day, playing the piano for 30 minutes and singing at the grand piano in her living room.

''You have to do the work if you want the kudos,'' she said.

The secret of her longevity? Hard work, exercise and clean living, she said. ''I get on the floor, not every day, and I can put my legs over my head and touch the ground behind me, and I can get up all by myself,'' she said.

She drinks in moderation and has always eaten well, she said, but adds with a smile: ''Today I don't bother what I eat.

I eat everything I want to. I decided I'm so old it doesn't matter any more.''

REUTERS