CURTAIN CLOSES ON BROADWAY'S LONGEST RUNNING SHOW KITTY CARLISLE HART AT 96

Veteran actress Kitty Carlisle Hart, who visited American homes as a panelist on "What's My Line?" and "To Tell The Truth," has died in New York at 96. The versatile Carlisle Hart, who died Tuesday of heart failure, began her career on Broadway, acted in films and opera, and was singing on stage as recently as last fall.For two of her 10 decades of life in public, Carlisle Hart was an arts advocate, lobbying state and federal legislators for funding to support rural string quartets, theater groups and inner-city dance troupes. She married Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Moss Hart in 1946, and the couple were often at the center of New York's theatrical community until his death in 1961, the Times said. In later years, Carlisle Hart was popular on the lecture circuit. She occasionally performed a one-woman show, "My Life on the Wicked Stage," an anecdotal performance about friends Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Robbins and George and Ira Gershwin. She was in a Broadway revival of "On Your Toes" and appeared in the films "Six Degrees of Separation" with Will Smith, Woody Allen's "Radio Days" and the Marx Brothers "A Night at the Opera."

Note: Kitty was a gem She came from the old school of Hollywood. The old school had class. Kitty Carlisle Hart had class. I met her in the early 1980's. I was just starting out as a Celebrity Photographer and didn't know what to expect from her. Here I was, talking to Kitty, the woman who I grew up watching on TV in 'To tell The Truth' and in the Marx Brothers movie "A Night At The Opera". She was with her old best friend actress Arlene Francis who was also on TV with her. Kitty posed for photos, talked to me was interested in what I had to say. I sent photos to her and Arlene and they sent thank you notes. This was the way Hollywood used to act. They had class, style and heart. I photographed Kitty for the last time last year. She was with Celeste Holm and Leroy Neiman. Kitty and Celeste had matching canes,they were the best of friends. Seeing Kitty again brought back such wonderful memory's of my start in show business. She was once again classy, full of conversation and alive with excitement. It was like a Broadway show that has been running for a hundred years that you keep going back again and again to feel the love. Today the curtain closed on Broadway's longest running show, Kitty Carlisle Hart !

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