{"id":84994,"date":"2022-10-02T20:43:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-02T20:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mama-cass-elliot-receives-posthumous-hollywood-walk-of-fame-star\/"},"modified":"2022-10-02T20:43:21","modified_gmt":"2022-10-02T20:43:21","slug":"mama-cass-elliot-receives-posthumous-hollywood-walk-of-fame-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mama-cass-elliot-receives-posthumous-hollywood-walk-of-fame-star\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Mama’ Cass Elliot Receives Posthumous Hollywood Walk of Fame Star"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tThere’s a famous photograph by Henry Diltz of Joni Mitchell playing guitar in Mama Cass Elliot’s Laurel Canyon backyard, with David Crosby holding up a joint in back and Eric Clapton sitting cross-legged watching transfixed. There, in the foreground, is Cass’ nine-month-old daughter Owen, teething on a film canister. \u201cI often wonder what I was thinking,\u201d says the now-55-year-old mother of two kids in their 20s, who lives in Encino with her husband of 31 years. \u201cClearly, I was thinking about that movie canister. It was all pretty surreal, pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tOwen Elliot-Kugell, the only child of Mama Cass of the Mamas & the Papas, the seminal co-ed group that came to define the sound of 1960s hippie culture, has for years spearheaded the campaign to get her mother a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The ceremony will finally take place on Monday, Oct. 3 on a stretch of Hollywood Blvd. between Sycamore and LaBrea alongside the stars of Sidney Poitier and Tyne Daly, with the likes of bandmate Michelle Phillips and good friend John Sebastian on hand to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cI can’t tell you the number of people over the years who have told me how much my mother’s music and who she was affected them, and made a major difference in their lives,\u201d says Owen, who was seven when Mama Cass died in a London flat in 1974 at 32 of a heart attack, most definitely not choking on a raw sandwich, as urban legend had it.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tFrom left to right, Denny Doherty, Michelle Philips, unknown, ‘Mama’ Cass Elliot and John Phillips<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\u201cThe childhood memories I have are not numerous, but they are vivid,\u201d says Owen, who was raised by Cass’ sister Leah and her husband, noted drummer Russ Kunkel, in both Los Angeles and western Massachusetts. \u201cI do have a treasure trove of written and video interviews, including one from ‘The Dinah Shore Show,’ when she brought me along. Getting to see our interaction was incredibly meaningful for me. I can see her caressing my head, giving me a hug because she knows I’m shy. When I find out these things, I can feel them on a cellular level that they’re true. I can just tell instinctually. I’ve had to learn about her, and I’m constantly seeking out more information.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tOwen is using the star ceremony as a springboard to finish her own biography of Mama Cass, expressing displeasure at the previous one, British writer Eddi Fiegel’s 2005 book, \u201cDream a Little Dream of Me: The Life of Cass Elliot.\u201d With the help of rock estate specialist Jeff Jampol, she is exploring other options for her mom’s story, including a biopic.<\/p>\n

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\tAnd what a life it was. A larger-than-life figure in many ways, Graham Nash referred to Cass Elliot as the \u201cGertrude Stein\u201d of the nascent Laurel Canyon scene, helping introduce him to David Crosby and Stephen Stills as part of the communal parties she held in her home .<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cCass pretty much designed rock ‘n’ roll for me at a certain point,\u201d says John Sebastian, who first met her in Washington, DC, when she was part of the folk trio the Big 3 with Tim Rose and Jim Hendricks. Elliot went on to introduce him to his future Lovin ‘Spoonful partner Zal Yanovsky at her Gramercy Park apartment in New York on February 9, 1964, the day the Beatles performed on \u201cThe Ed Sullivan Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cWe both had our guitars, immediately started playing together and didn’t stop,\u201d recalls Sebastian. \u201cIt was a pretty remarkable afternoon. She didn’t just bring people together; it was her taste in who she was bringing together. I remember us wondering who could sing harmonies with Crosby and Stills, and deciding it had to be either Phil Everly or Graham Nash. Sure enough, two weeks later, Graham Nash was in her swimming pool. \u201d<\/p>\n

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\tWhen Cass Elliot passed away, she was in the midst of celebrating two sold-out weeks of performances at the London Palladium, fueled in large part by trying to put aside her \u201cMama\u201d persona and be accepted on her own.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cShe wanted to shed that moniker with everything she had,\u201d says Owen, who wrestled with whether to include it on her mom’s star, and finally deciding to do so with quotes around it. \u201cBecause that’s how most people knew her. My psychic told me my mom is really exited about getting this star. If she had lived longer, I’m sure she would have reinvented herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tOwen admits her mother’s lifelong weight issues \u2014 including rapid gains and losses issues \u2013 probably led to her heart condition, \u201cwith the muscles turned to fat.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cShe died in her sleep, and that meant a lot to me, especially as a young girl,\u201d says Owen, who admits to being \u201ctraumatized\u201d by her mom’s death at the time.<\/p>\n

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\tWith her mother’s string of failed relationships, Owen says Cass was often lonely. Her own birth was the result of Cass ‘one-night stand with a Mamas & Papas touring bassist named Chuck Day, whom she met years later after Michelle Phillips found him via an ad.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cThat’s the greatest tragedy in my mother’s life,\u201d says Owen. \u201cShe never got to experience what being in a real relationship was about, the ups and downs, highs and lows. When she was on stage and the crowd was screaming that they love you, then you go back to your hotel room alone. That’s why my mom had me\u2026 She wanted someone who was never going to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cThe thing was, she had so many boy friends<\/em>, though they were not necessarily sleeping with her,\u201d says Sebastian. \u201cWe all adored her and she would have taken a shot if we’d had the chance. There were times when I’d say, ‘Cass, what are you doing tonight?’ And she’d answer, ‘John, I’d put you in the hospital.’ That was how she got around folks with whom she she wanted to maintain a friendship. Her weight was n’t an issue with me. I’m Italian. Every beautiful thing that ever happened to me as a kid happened as a result of very large women.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tOwen \u201chovered around music most of my life,\u201d singing occasionally with her friends Carnie and Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips in groups that predated Wilson-Phillips, and even recording an album for MCA \u201cthat’s somewhere in their vaults.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cI just want people to remember my mom’s legacy,\u201d she says of getting the Walk of Fame star, pointing out Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion and even a pre-weight loss Adele as performers her mother paved the way for. \u201cThis honor is such a great accomplishment. I’m sure she’d be over the moon. A hundred years from now, that star will still be here. If my mom knew the effect she’d had on so many people’s lives in making them feel good, that would have made her happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n