Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise

His father, John Jenney, was a horn salesman who, according to family legend, was the basis for Harold Hill in The Music Man, the Broadway musical written by fellow Mason City native and family friend Meredith Willson. That’s why, in later years, Kay often referred to Jack as “the son of the Music Man.”

The great jazz vocalist Mel Tormé was only 11 years old when he first discovered Kay on Chesterfield. He was enthralled by her innovative use of voices and the fact that her group was the very first “to approximate a band.” “Kay knows more about vocal-group writing than any other person alive,” Tormé wrote in his book My Singing Teachers. He partic

No exaggeration. They built a little wooden stage and set up “table microphones” at his feet to capture the rhythm of his tap shoes. Kay later dubbed the platform their “Astaire-way to Heaven.”