Contrary to popular belief, mom Cass Elliot didn’t die from choking on a ham sandwich. Her daughter wants people to know about it.
On the eve of the 50thTh Anniversary of the singer’s death with the moms and dads, Elliot’s daughter told the BBC.
Owen Elliot-Kugell explained: “There was a ham sandwich but she didn’t eat it and didn’t choke on it. “Okay, enough with the jokes.”
Mama Cass died in 1974, aged 32, at the London apartment of fellow singer Harry Nilsson, after two weeks of performing at the London Palladium. The autopsy confirmed it was a heart attack.
It is reported then, and in many cultural sources since, that she choked to death on a ham sandwich found next to her bed.
Your daughter, who wrote a book My mom, Cass About the couple’s relationship, she told the BBC that she had compiled the last hours of her mother’s life for her book, including her last concert and several parties:
“When she returned to her apartment it was already evening the next day. She was hungry, and her dancer made her a sandwich out of the only thing available in the apartment, ham, and left it on her bedside table. She didn’t even take a bite.”
Elliot-Kugell discovered that the myth came from the singer’s environment to protect her from speculation about death from a drug overdose. She told the BBC that the story was concocted between Elliot’s manager Allan Carr and a journalist friend, explaining: “Carr really wanted to protect her. And a sandwich was found there.”
Elliot-Kugell believes the myth contributed to her mother being perceived as an overweight songbird, which caused distress for Elliot, although her daughter sees her as a trailblazer:
“She paved the way for today’s other young women of larger stature to break into the music business and be accepted for who they are. I really think she helped lay the foundation for a lot of people.”
Elliot moved from her native Baltimore to New York in the 1960s, where she joined the emerging folk scene. She gained fame in California as one of the main voices of the Mamas and the Papas and sang on some of their biggest hits including California dreams, Monday Monday And Dream a little dream. She made her solo debut in 1968 and continued to perform until her untimely death.