Karyn closed strong. She would have dug the show.
She was Irv and Essee K.’s first child. They named her Roberta Lynn and called her “Cookie.” Their son, Jerry, was born three years later.
Essee came from money. Try came from zilch. He played pro football. He called Bears games on radio and TV. He wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times. He hosted Kup’s Show–a gabfest with real legs.
Kup lobbed softballs in his column. People loved him. He loved the Joe Blow Chicagoan impersonally. He loved celebs for real.
Essee loved celebs and culture. She took Cookie and Jerry to ballets and stage shows. She doted on Cookie. She said she should be an actress. She pushed her that way. Cookie bought the program.
Essee stressed beauty and thinness. She got Cookie some childmodel gigs.
Cookie loved drama. She loved to act. She loved Kup’s World.
It was glamorous. It was who you knew and who blew who. It was ringside seats and a special guest for dinner every night. Cookie dropped names like most kids dropped vowels.
She went to the Francis Parker School. She excelled at kid theatrics. She got summer-stock gigs in and around Chicago. She played the tomboy role in a boffo rendition of Picnic.
She finished high school. She went to Pine Manor College for a year and a half. She played leads and second leads in school shows. She put on a little weight. She took it off and put it on again. She moved to New York City in ‘6o.
She gained weight and lost weight. She never got fat. It was all crazy shit in her head.
She changed her name to Lynn Roberts. A plastic surgeon reshaped her chin.
She lived off money from home. She auditioned and got a few gigs. She gained weight and lost weight. She got depressed. She dropped “Lynn Roberts” and renamed herself “Karyn Kupcinet.”
Kup was tight with Jerry Lewis. Jerry liked Karyn. He offered her a bit part in his flick The Ladies’ Man.
Karyn flew out to L.A. She dug it and decided to stay.
Essee’s mother moved out and played chaperone. They found a pad on Hollywood Boulevard. Essee set Karyn up with Mark and Marcia Goddard. Kup set her up with A-list contacts.
Karyn started a new datebook on 3/9/61. She recorded her weight in most entries. She got a nose job on 5/16. She weighed 115½ pounds.
“Awake during operation. AGONY. Felt needles, cutting, everything!”
Karyn thought her new nose looked like a pig snout. Other people disagreed.
5/29/61. In Vegas with Kup and Essee:
“Nose much better!” “So many compliments!” Warren Beatty: “You’re so beautiful.” Eddie Fisher: “Thought you were Liz.”
5/27/61:
“I’m pretty! So happy!”
Karyn got a guest shot on Hawaiian Eye. Bob Conrad was “a doll.” “Me–so-o complimented!”
Karyn auditioned. Karyn went to brunch, lunch, and dinner. Karyn shopped and got her hair done. Karyn got her weight down to 1131/2.
She got a series gig on 7/2 5. The show starred Gertrude Berg. It was called Mrs. G. Goes to College.
She started work on 8/2. Her weight stood at 1 14. The director said she had a “wild body.” Karyn played a kooky college kid.
Karyn worked. Karyn hung out at Pj.’s and the Crescendo. Karyn ate at Linny’s and the Hamburger Hamlet. Karyn shopped atJax and Saks.
8/17/61:
Gertrude thought she wore too much makeup. “Everyone around there makes me nervous.”
8/18/61:
“Gertrude impossible. Finally–got my close-up and took four or five takes. Couldn’t get damn thing straight.”
9/11/61: 113 pounds. 9/12/61: “Hardly ate at all!” 9/15 and 9/16/61: “Ate & ate.”
10/4/61: The Mrs. G. pilot airs. 109 pounds, “My hair darling–lots of compliments.” 10/ 15/6 1: 116 pounds. “Ate 3 Danish,” “Eating too much.”
Karyn logged male compliments. Karyn logged male encounters. She met men. She kissed them. They got schizzy and blew her off. 10/22/61: 110 pounds, “No one calls me.” 10/28/61: 114 1/2 pounds. “Eating too many sweet rolls.”
Karyn worked on the Berg Show and tried out for other gigs. She went out on bad dates and hung out with her girlfriends. She went to twist clubs and movie premieres.