Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise

The parallels between play and musical are well observed, for Romeo meets Juliet at a ball, gets his close friend Mercutio killed through interference in a duel, and avenges him by killing Tybalt—and this is all in the musical. It does end differently: Maria survives. The authors were considering killing her as well, but Richard Rodgers advised the

the older cats would always be pullin’ me aside to drop some advice. The phrase that they’d all say—everyone from Count Basie, to Coleman Hawkins, to Benny Carter—was, “Youngblood, step into my office for a few ticks. Let me pull your coat” (slang for “Come over here. Let me teach you something.”).

Ernest already had plans for the royalties from the book. He was going to establish a trust fund for his family with the earnings from the first 70,000 copies; everything beyond that was going toward the purchase of a boat.

Gaga met performance artist Colleen Martin, aka Lady Starlight, at a party in Manhattan, they became fast friends, and Gaga began to realize that there was more to a music career than just playing music. Eleven years her senior, Starlight became Gaga’s mentor. Starlight taught the aspiring performer how to make over-the-top costumes.