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Thompson began entertaining fellow performers with the prattle of the little girl. The other performers each invented a juvenile identity and joined the game.
Knight sends a Christmas card to Thompson - his first conception of Eloise. According to Thompson, the card was "an interesting, beautifully executed and highly stylized picture of an angel and Santa Claus, streaking through the sky on a Christmas tree. On the end of the tree, grinning a lovely grin, her wild hair standing on end, was Eloise. It was immediate recognition on my part. There she was. In person."
Kay Thompson's Eloise: A book for precocious grownups is published on November 28 by Simon and Schuster.
Eloise endorsed Kalistron luggage and Kay Thompson recorded the song "Eloise" with Archie Bleyer on Cadence Records. Playhouse 90 presents Eloise "based on the hilarious best-selling story about the sprightly six-year old girl who runs -- and often runs ragged -- the lives of the celebrated guests and devoted employees of a distinguished New York hotel." The script departed wildly from the book. In it, Eloise was caught in the middle of her parents' threatened divorce in a hotel filled with intrigue. The reviews were savage and Thompson resolved that she would never allow Eloise to be dramatized again.
In Paris, Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight went to work on a sequel. Thompson put Eloise in a small Left Bank hotel, the Relais Bisson. Knight sketched Paris scenery -- the Pont Neuf, pigeons at Fouquet's. Kay Thompson's Eloise In Paris is published on November 14 by Simon and Schuster.
Eloise endorsed Renault automobiles and there was more merchandise: Eloise Easter bonnets and Eloise French postcards debuted in the spring. At the Plaza Hotel, Thompson staged tea parties at which she vamped as Eloise. She helped to mastermind the special Plaza menu for children with "Teeny Weenies" and "Eggs Eloise." Kay Thompson's Eloise at Christmastime is published on September 30 by Random House.
Thompson was so famous, that when she came back she made an album, Kay Thompson Party: Let's Talk About Russia. Kay Thompson's Eloise in Moscow is published on October 30 by Simon and Schuster.
Eloise Takes a Bawth was scheduled for a November release. Just as it was ready to go to press, Thompson pulled it from the publisher. It has never been published.
Kay Thompson, now living in Rome, returns to the Plaza for the new edition of "Eloise." Thompson says that she hopes to design a line of children's clothes of the sort she thinks suit Eloise and her empire."
Decades earlier, Kay Thompson had ultimately refused to allow Eloise in Paris, Eloise in Moscow, and Eloise at Christmastime to remain in print.
Kay Thompson refused to authorize the use of Eloise to promote the hotel and the work was never done. Why did she sever her relationship with the Plaza? Trump refused to provide Thompson with a free room at the hotel where she had lived rent-free for years, courtesy of the previous owners.
A special anniversary edition of the book is published by Simon and Schuster.There were limited editions of 250 signed and numbered by Knight for special collections. Hilary Knight designs an anniversary lithograph and original artwork to commemorate the occasion.
Ms. Thompson's rights have passed to a sister, Blanche Hurd, who lives in California, said the estate's lawyer, Arthur F. Abelman. With Hurd's assent, Simon & Schuster plans to reissue sequels first published in the late 50's. "Eloise in Paris" is on the spring list, to be followed by "Eloise at Christmastime" in the fall 1999. Also planned for next spring is a new edition of the original, "The Essential Eloise," which will include annotations about its colorful author.
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