Cass Elliot - Interview (Russell Harty Plus, 28.10.1972)

now here's a big lady bigger in the United States and she is here she has an IQ of 160 and she has deep misgivings about publicity and she's suspicious of giving interviews she is cast Elliott mama cows that was that's a very suspicious of what giving interviews where does that put me for God said right there you said that you you were were suspicious about giving interviews and had deep misgivings about publicity yet I've read about you in lots of places and seen you in lots places so how do you reconcile those two differences well you haven't seen me on many chat shows no not here um this is the first one I've done and it says on my many trips tingling this is the first time I've done the show of this type I do a lot of variety television that's scripted you know that doesn't get too personal and but I have started to give more interviews than ever before because I've been convinced by other people around me that there are things that I should perhaps tell they'll make you nervous about being unscripted oh no not at all really it isn't more freedom because then I can say what I really want to say and not what somebody else has deemed it wise for me to say I think we ought to make one thing very clear or make one thing clear that in fact you are engaged actively on changing all kinds of lifestyles aren't you I mean not formally you were Mama Cass and you were a bit of a hippie if that's not pushing things too far and a bit it's just the hippies and women no but but you are in fact changing everything aren't you well if you mean politically no no no let's talk about politics in it I mean from becoming a sort of way out rather extreme kind of figure you are slithering if I may say that into the establishment um you have to realize that if I have the image of being a hippie type person I've been in the business for 13 years I certainly didn't start off that way I achieved fame and notoriety through that kind of offbeat group that I was in so I can't say that I'm slithering back into the establishment I think I always really was part of the establish when I was in musical comedy theater and someone forgot to tell me that there I was totally equipped with a few tap dance steps and a little shuffle off and that's what I had and there wasn't any market for it so I had to create kind of my own market you know which is a more structured kind of entertainment you know in the earlier days and when needed with me were the Mamas and Papas what kind of a life started you have wait word was it free abroad it's very broke you were initially oh yes it really was I mean if we all move together in the same house it was really a matter of economic expediency rather than a great incestuous love for one another well the to want incompatible but we were kind of a conventional course we looked very unconventional and we were the first singing group to be integrated sexually to have men and women in the group usually up until then had been on men mostly and so we had that was one of the things I think that made it successful I think that our very very fact that we combined men and women and that we dressed the way we pleased and not in funny little cute tuxedos you know everybody wearing the same shirt in time I think that was one of the things that was appealing about us and our music was also quite different it wasn't the kind of music that people have been listening to but now you're staying in smarter tells and you're having a hair handed at Leonards and lived a year shopping at Harrods and I mean it's all kind of as I said different kind of scene now isn't it well it's been this way for quite some time I don't know how old or if it's not something there I was 31 in September so it's about time I went to Herod so you think yes it is just about your age well when I was here in May I was here I made a record album here and I was here made June in July and I went to Harrods and got robbed in Harrods that show was in the papers that robbed yes a little old lady beat me about the head and shoulders with her shopping bag my money was taken from me so but doesn't just come up to you in the club you did she know I was standing and cute advice I was crocheting something and I needed to get some wool and I had some single pound notes and a couple of ten pound notes as I pulled the single pass out this lady said put it in and they fell to the floor the tenors and I bent down to pick them up and she started stashing me on the head with a shopping bag what was I doing there and so on and can you tell her what you said in reply no I was very polite you know I felt that I was very polite I said I'm sorry I didn't mean to inconvenience you but you see I've dropped my and she wouldn't even let me finish and by the time I got to the floor again that all the money was gone which is rude I thought it for repatriation or whatever the money whatever the word is you've done a lot of kinds of different jobs other than seeing you haven't Doolin I have heard that in there it says it says in small friends cutting attitude um I have heard or read that that in the Baltimore days that you practically run a newspaper single-handed pretty much so well I when I got out of high school I wanted to go into theater and I couldn't find a job and so um I had to take a job because my parents felt that it was a very bad taste for me to be unemployed so I took a job working for the Baltimore Jewish Times which was the newspaper that came out once a week and on the Saturday actually yes something to do while you're at home and I used to do well the society bits you know all the bar mitzvahs and the weddings and the engagements and I also did classified advertising and I also did all the obituaries and how I would do the obituaries was I would get the Sunday paper and then I would take out all the names that sounded Jewish or said please don't MIT flowers put them on what happened is it sometimes I would end up with some German Catholics because as you know how do you know that some names that you can't really tell you know Hoffman looks like that but you just write it down anyway and it was a great job it really was I mean it taught me nothing about the newspaper business but a lot about graft because I was in it because all the women who wanted their daughter's weddings and their sons bar mitzvahs to be listed first would send me gifts you see now looking under the head hair shouldn't be lurking found on your bosom is a badge from the government yes why are you pinning your badge not to your bosom but to his flag if he's earning well before you go into that a lot of people would obviously think nah standing where he where was done though in view of the election in two or three weeks standard that you will be backing a loser well you know as long as people think like that they're right you know that's being my attitude all along I started campaigning for Senator McGovern about a year and a half ago and I've never been politically active in my country at all I've voted but I never really got into it very deeply as to what I just the presidential elections and the major elections but I never really concerned myself with city charters and you know runs of that nature but I started to become very concerned about the way things were going in my country and there's a kind of privilege at a-- to de mung entertainers like you know we'll just all make the money and we'll go live somewhere else you know and let those people there handle it but i got to the point where i figured that if I didn't stand up and start to handle my own responsibilities as far as my country's concerned that pretty soon we wouldn't have a country I mean the majority of Americans don't approve the war and not just a few you know wild-eyed intellectuals who run around screaming it is the majority opinion and the welfare system in our country is really not it's not good you know and in order for a family to collect welfare if the man is capable of working cannot find a job his family cat collect welfare unless he deserts them which is terribly did I mean incredibly demeaning and you know they just said there are some incredible inequities and I feel that Senator McGovern really cares about what's going on at home I mean I think it's terrific that President Nixon went to to Russia and that he went to China but while President Nixon's eating Chinese food there are 14 million Americans going to bed hungry every night so there are other priorities I feel and I feel that McGovern concerns himself with let's build up America you know then we'll deal with right what other what other stars of your category is supporting McGovern first I hate I'm not trying to be falsely modest or anything but no performer really has any idea of what their star caliber is so when you say that to me I have to sort of well I mean nasty intuition linner well now let me see Jack Nicholson Candice Bergen Warren Beatty Shirley MacLaine and you get together to have John Murray's doo-doo well we're going to have a great Jamboree coming up at the end of this month in New York with Dionne Warwick and Betty Davis and Tina Turner and myself and just a whole mess of people at Madison Square Garden and women for McGowan rally with just chauvinists male chauvinists in the audience if you want to come here more than welcome don't know hates just shows I'm just showing this but I think that's dreadful male chauvinist pig I hate that the whole women's lib movement turns me off do actually do you ever think of coming to live in London well I have that I did on a house here and and every I've been coming to London since 1964 what's preventing it from sucking down the rain I think the rain waiting rain your father must love the ottoman worldís well you had the most dreadful summer in world history I'll tell you and rained every day for eight weeks while I was here but that's how I roll so buted the complexioned and so cool i think that's why you're all a little daft from our brains do something all right actually I I do love England a lot I when I first came here everybody made me feel very much at home and I did look for a house and every time I come back I think well I would like to come back very much but I'm very concerned now with what's happening at home so I think I'll stay there for what well let you go back home sort out your home affairs and come back if you're in then we'll talk talk after that thank you to Cass Elliot

Channel: Cass Elliot

Views: 181,504

Rating: 4.9403167 out of 5

Keywords: Cass Elliot, Mama Cass, Mamas & Papas, Chat, ITV, Interview, Rare

Id: Zc0vQoh4_9o

Length: 11min 1sec (661 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019