Ellen Naomi Cohen was known professionally by the stage name Cass Elliot, was an American singer-songwriter, actress, comedian, and television personality. A member of the singing group The Mamas & the Papas (1965–1968), she was also known as “Mama Cass”, a name she stated she disliked After the group broke up, Cass released five solo albums. She received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance for “Monday, Monday” (1967). In 1998, she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her work with The Mamas & the Papas.
After the breakup of The Mamas and & Papas, Cass embarked on a solo singing career. Her most successful recording during this period was 1968’s “Dream a Little Dream of Me” from her solo album of the same name, released by Dunhill Records, though it had originally been released earlier that year on the album The Papas & The Mamas.
In October 1968, Cass made her live solo debut headlining in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, scheduled for a three-week engagement at $40,000 per week with two shows per night. According to Cass, she went on a six-month crash diet before the show, losing 100 of her 300 pounds. However, she attributed a stomach ulcer and throat problems to her severe regimen, which she treated by drinking milk and cream—rapidly regaining 50 pounds in the process.
She was confined to her bed for three weeks before the first performance while the musical director, band, and production supervisor attempted to put together a show in her absence. She was scheduled to rehearse for a full three days before the show opened, but she managed to get through only part of one run-through with the band before saying that she was losing her voice. She skipped the remainder of rehearsals and drank tea and lemon, hoping to recover and pull herself together for opening night.
An audience of 950 people filled the Circus Maximus theater at Caesar’s Palace on the evening of Wednesday, October 16, including Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Liza Minnelli, and Mia Farrow, who had sent flowers to Elliot’s dressing room, but backstage she had developed a raging fever. Friends urged her manager to cancel the show, but she felt that it was too important and insisted on performing. Sick and having barely rehearsed, she began to fall apart during the course of her first performance; her voice was weak and barely audible, and the large crowd was unsympathetic, despite the celebrity well-wishers. At the end of the show, Cass returned to the stage to apologize to the audience; “This is the first night, and it will get better”, she said. She then sang “Dream a Little Dream of Me” and left the stage as the audience applauded half-heartedly. She returned later that night to perform the second show, but her voice was worse, and many of the audience noisily walked out.
Reviews were harsh. Esquire magazine called the show “Sink Along with Cass” and “a disaster” that was “heroic in proportion, epic in scope”. The Los Angeles Free Press called it “an embarrassing drag”, while Newsweek compared it to the Titanic disaster: