Darlings, This Was One Of the Saddest Stories In Show Business!!!!!

Girls, the day can only get better from here, even with the Christmas shopping that has to be done!!!!!! I just finished "Little Girl Blue--The Life Of Karen Carpenter" by Randy Schmidt, and, darlings, I want you to know I cried REAL tears!!!!! Not since watching "The Wizard Of Oz" on TCM a few weeks back, have I done that!!!!

I so vividly recall The Carpenters bursting on the scene while I was still a teen!!!! Visiting my cousins in Florida, riding back to their house one day, when "Close To You" came on the air!!!! Oh, my God!!!! That voice just stopped me in its tracks!!!! And to this day it does; a day or two ago, while blogging to you girls, Karen came on, with her rendition of "White Christmas." Once again, I just stopped to listen--the phrasing, the purity of diction and tone, the way she squeezed every ounce of feeling from that lyric--honey, this is what the Mother of all us Aritists and Addicts (though I am NOT an addict!!!) Judy Garland taught us, and I know Judy would have been damned impressed by Karen.

What is so fascinating about this book is that while it claims to be the first one actually sanctioned by Richard Carpenter, certain things about Karen's story, no matter how it was told or not over the years, are inescapable. Chief among these is that Mother-Daughter relationship; like Judy and Ethel, no matter how you cut, slice, and dice the Carpenters story, it all comes down to one person--Agnes!!!!!!

Mama Agnes Carpenter was one piece of work; and not for nothing was Louise Fletcher chosen to play her in the 1989 TV movie!!!! A controlling, castrating, bigoted bitch, she emasculated hubby Harold, dismissed her more talented daughter in favor her pwecious Wichard, and thought nothing of making anti-Semitic remarks to folks in public. What gives with this woman???? Unfortunately, Schmidt's book does not delve into Agnes' background enough to make us understand what made her this way; but I am telling you, sure as Rue McClanahan is watching over me, Agnes Carpenter destroyed her daughter as much as any of the eating disorders and drugs Karen took to aid that disorder!!!!!! In the pantheon of Mothers From Hell, she is certainly in the Top Ten; only someone like, say, Susan Smith, could trounce her. And the full flavor of Agnes is raging throughout this book; though, at the end, when she faces the tragedy of Karen's untimely death, one cannot help but be sorry for her--because her grief IS genuine, and because she has no comprehension of the part she played in the tragedy that was her daughter;s life!!!!! Can you imagine--you are 29, worth millions, still living at home, and when you tell your Mother you are getting a place of your own, she tells you you are BETRAYING her!!!!! What a fucking bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But Agnes is one component. The real star here is Karen; she would be 60 today, and I predict she would have gone on to standards--Gershwin, Sondheim, etc. Imagine her on "Send In The Clowns." Better than Liz Taylor, I can tell you!!!!!!!!

Darlings, you have to read it!!!! It captures a moment in time, an artist, and a voice that stunned us for a short time, left a legacy of stuff behind--and an even more tragic one of what might have been.

Share those horizons, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!