Eldergays: Tell me about Nell Carter

Coke whore.

Listen to her sing, watch an episode of Gimme A Break! and get back to us.

She had the ability to make lesser talents shine without holding back her own abilities.

In brief: she was, OP.

She was surprisingly agile for somebody who was so fat.

I blame her for Joey Lawrence's bankruptcy.

She was a blast in "Hair". (apparently was a bit of a wild child in the 70's before she found Jesus.)

[quote] Eldergays: Tell me about Nell Carter

Try Google, you fat whore!

The optics of a black woman terrorizing mostly white children sunk her ANNIE.

Is she was such a coke whore, why was she so fat?

Ask Chris Farley.

Bell being AMAZING at the Tonys

^Nell

Her vocal tone was supremely irritating.

Sorry, the Oscars

Love her voice! I have a cd of her singing with the SF Gay Man’s Chorus somewhere

Behold, NBC’s 60th Anniversary Special:

She really wanted a break, OP.

All she got was a piece of the cake.

she licked your momma's cunt, op.

while you were coming out.

Is no one sacred on here?

r22

Nell and Andy Gibb sing Up Where We Belong. There wasn't a single gram of cocaine left in Hollywood the day they filmed this.

34:08

Were the reports of her lesbianism true?

r31 ... she might have phrased it another way, but yes.

Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza & Nell

i think we can all google if we like, ocd freak.

Nell was living with woman when she died. They were a couple.

Her brother was gay and died of AIDS. Here she is talking and singing about her brother, defying the zealots.

r34 You were taking too long. Youth these days really have no attention span. So, why leave it to chance?

you are still an ocd freak and i'm an eldergay.

God'll get you for that one, R26

R30, she talks about being in love with a man during that interview

I can smell OP's cunt from here.

She never found her diaphragm, too nasally. Perhaps there was too much weight pressing on it?

*3* GIRLS *3*

As I recall, Miss Carter's turn in ANNIE did not inspire either critical adulation or a rush to the box office. But she was pretty wonderful in AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', and I believe she was the inspiration for the character of Effie in DREAMGIRLS. That's not nothing.

Whats Gimmie a break? I don’t recall there being on TV in Canada

* that being on

lucky, we got family ties here too.

I loved her rendition of "Amazing Grace" featured in this episode of Gimme A Break:

omg r42, thanks for sharing that! Telma, you in danger girl!

R42, that episode just aired on COZI-TV a couple of hours ago.

Noone could vacuum up fish better than Nell.

Catfish! Grrrrrrrr.....

Nell was NOT the inspiration for Effie.

I saw her cabaret act at The Rainbow Room back in the 90s.

Unfortunately, I got extremely drunk on the room’s very large martinis and ended up rushing the stage after her performance.

Her manager was not happy - but I still have her autograph!

Not my finest hour.

R53, tell us more! Was it a good performance? Was she nice to you (in spite of her manager)?

[quote] "Is she was such a coke whore, why was she so fat?"

Because she also had binge eating disorded, OP.

r17, I watched that to mock it (and Charlotte Rae's warbling did not let me down), but I was stunned by what a powerful voice Marla Gibbs had. Who knew?

r53 sounds fun.

I loved Gimme a Break. I just felt so much love coming out of her character. I was surprised when Rosie O'Donnell said that she was a very angry woman. (You know it's bad if Rosie, of all people, calls you angry.)

From the **OFFICIAL** SUMMER STOCK THEATER MEMORIES thread of many years ago...

During rehearsals for a workshop production of a new musical by Galt MacDermot (of HAIR fame), I was confronted by an angry Nell Carter. I can’t remember the details exactly, but I think I was sent out to retrieve lunch and brought back the wrong thing. I do remember how she reacted – she kicked me. Once again, I was surprised and startled, and once again, I said nothing. I hate it when people whose talent I admire disappoint me by childish, inappropriate behavior. I can never watch them again without remembering these moments of reality.

I'm surprised you're not wearing an iron lung after that kick, R59.

I can confirm that she was lesbian. A friend was her assistant years ago.

[quote] I hate it when people whose talent I admire disappoint me by childish, inappropriate behavior. I can never watch them again without remembering these moments of reality.

Which is how I felt when i heard about the cancer survivor who worked for Rosie's magazine, and who played a voicemail in court of Rosie screaming on her voicemail, "YOU'RE A LIAR! AND DO YOU KNOW HAPPENS TO LIARS? THEY GET CANCER!"

(Ironically, Rosie had previously testified that she did not leave a voicemail like this before the voicemail was indeed played in court... showing that Rosie is herself a liar. And of course Rosie has said many times the greatest trauma of her adolescence was her own mother's death from cancer)

Sorry for the random bump, but now I'm curious about what R26 posted and the only way I can see that is by referencing their post.

Also, I never saw Nell live, but thought she was spectacular in the filmed production of Ain't Misbehavin.

[Quote] I believe she was the inspiration for the character of Effie in DREAMGIRLS. That's not nothing.

No, she was considered for the lead of Dreamgirls for a hot second but Jennifer Holliday was the far better choice

She was probably at her fattest when this was filmed, but she still performed at top caliber, along with being very light on her feet. I love her energy in this.

hot minute

The correct song title for r65 is "Get Some Cash For Your [bold]Trash[/bold].

Her voice has that turn-of-the-century squawk to it that made her singing ideal for "Ain't Misbehavin'" (her big breakthrough), but harder for her to play a more modern character like Effie.

Okay, the author of this profile MUST be a Datalounger. It's appropriately bitchy. Excerpts below...

[quote]Nell Carter was a series of contradictions and conundrums: Black, Southern, Jewish, Lesbian, Right-Wing Conservative. She was a giant talent in a tiny (4 foot 11 inch), if expansive frame. Those contradictions in Carter’s personality made her a unique performer. She possessed a little girl voice that was capable of belting to the back row of the balcony.

[quote]Carter got interested in cocaine during the run of Ain’t Misbehavin’. She later claimed that at one point, she was spending $2000 a day on drugs. In the mid-1980s her pal Liza Minnelli, like a shimmering, shiny guardian angel, personally accompanied Carter to rehab at Hazelden in Minnesota. Carter got clean, and she later said: “Thank God I got help. God and Liza Minnelli.” And I thought God was Liza Minnelli.

[quote]Carter was cast as Effie in the original production of director Michael Bennett‘s 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls based upon the showbiz dreams and triumphs of R&B acts like The Supremes and The Shirelles. She left the production just before rehearsals were to start to take a role on the soap opera Ryan’s Hope. We all know how that turned out.

[quote]Carter starred for six seasons playing the “mammy” role to a white family on the off-putting, obnoxious and oddly popular prime time sitcom Gimme A Break!. The cast included a young and closeted Rosie O’Donnell, who fought with Carter on the set.

[quote]During a 1990 Los Angeles run of the moppet musical Annie, playing Miss Hannigan, Carter attempted suicide. Even though she had been given a brand new musical number added to the score just for her, she was distraught when ads promoting the show used a different actor, a white actor, as Miss Hannigan. The producers claimed that the commercials, which were made during an earlier production, were too costly to reshoot. Carter cried racism: “Maybe they don’t want audiences to know Nell Carter is black.”

how is that catty? is it you. r69?

I liked the episode where Nell taught the girls how to do coke.

R64, I didn't say that she was offered the part -- just that she was the inspiration for the character.

and eat catfish.

This is her as Effie when she was still part of the Dreamgirls workshop.

She was Jewish and a right wing conservative??!

WTF

R74, wow-thanks for posting.

I think she could have been a formidable Effie

The did a Dreamgirls-like storyline for one of the Gimmie A Break episodes, in which Nell, when she was part of an ambitious girl group, was dumped for being fat (11:06).

(This episode was performed with The Pointer Sister, for your added enjoyment.)

Nell; real name Eleanor.

r75 You should clear your mind, put your modern biases on the backburners and review African American and other black conservatives of the 1950s-1980s. . . and contrast them to liberals (and others that were leftwing but liberal would be a misnomer) at the time. You'll want to investigate the federal archives for this history too.

As to the rightwing aspect, you could likely see that reflected in her family history, with her children, who some of her closer friends were... more than fair weather celebs, and learning about the attraction of many to Reagan, which requires an ample suspension of belief in what you know and is said about him now. . . particularly with who he spoke to, how and again, the conrtast to the opposing side, i this case of course, sepcifically relating to African Americans.. . . To understand why that is important, you'd need to work your ways backwards to the death of JFK and the turmoil that followed.. .

Or the more simple, she was very family oriented herself.

JFK ws magic but his death left a massive power gap and disruption that induced waves of corruption, through communities big and small... he was the hope when dreams died. And with his death, hope had died as well. . . a community broken with the waves of violence to follow... and watching the community begin to shift more rapidly to those aspects we know all too well now. Democrats would improve with clinton, but really, they struggled on how to communicate with the minority populations.. . . and for the most part, they didn't bother. Republicans ont the other hand used to do really well with localized govt. . . for democrats, it was the national that shaped ldialogue... t and I must stop here.. pardons.

major cities, like chicago machine...

[quote]I saw her cabaret act at The Rainbow Room back in the 90s.

Alex, I'll take tell someone you're gay in 13 words or less for 1000.

How many women have stuck their heads between her hefty thighs and licked her hairy clit?

[quote] Carter starred for six seasons playing the “mammy” role to a white family on the off-putting, obnoxious and oddly popular prime time sitcom Gimme A Break!.

I don't think it's fair to call Nell Harper a "mammy" role. Her character was a friend of the children's mother and she was brought in to act as their mother, not a maid.

tl;dr r79

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I remember when Nell Carter's tv show 'Gimme a Break' was on the air. Watching the series, I remember thinking; I hope she's investing her money well because lightning ain't gonna strike twice for her again.

r83 Yes, I know. learning about history and being informed is tedious, it is better to be blissfully ignorant.

Though one does wonder why the impact of the Daleys on wider African American politics isn't explored as it should be in schools across the nation. We still only get a highlight reel with a scattering of figures that reduced to quirks over the substantive form of their characters. .. like most are aware of who George Washington Carver was but it's a blip often whittled down to inane trivia facts than how important this man was during the war... the very war that would later energize not only african americans for the civil rights march but civil rights including feminism and gay liberation as a whole to make those changes towards a massively radical social change in our nation.

but yeah, you collect your Zzzs like the rest of your gentardation.

Caneface.

She was good. Acted very well, and not just in comedy, and she had a great singing voice. I watched "Gimme a Break" because of her!

r82 a "working" lounge singer with a disapproving family, which meant she ran out without deveoping skills to get a proper day job and got roped into a situation by a friend, and having been burned by rocky relationships with men, found the love of a good woman, who would die and the only memory of her she'd have is their kids... and the disgruntled sperm donor. Yeah, people don't like reality, so much. . . the cosby's it wasn't.

and you smell "pungey."

r85 it's a fucking thread about Nell Carter. Piss off.

I loved working with the ladies who loved the ladies!

r91 And if you don't make the effort to understand the experience, then how will you ever understand her?

Do you know what attracted her to Hair?

Or why she progressively sought roles with mixed casts?

Or what a Jeffersonian republicanism was?

She had a tough traumatic childhood, children too young and found direction too late.. she struggled with whatever group she was in. She was too fat but yet never enough for anyone. Drugs was the necesary exchange to be all that she could be... it wasn't just the weight that held her down... like many African Americans with her background, she had diabetes and her lifestyle didn't make it any easier. . . the heart condtion was also likely amplified by all that. Every time she worked, she never thought she'd be able to work again. . . she was always in a heigtened state of fight or flight. She loved being on stage but not so much offstage. . . she was far from introverted but obviously a very private person. Those good friends in her hayday are some of the more unexpected, Jerry Lewis, as much of a temperamental asshole he could be, always had a space for her to perform.. and that was great publicity for her, it kept her working longer than her managers did.

she's no Marsha Warfield, though. Then as you said, it's a Nell Carter thread. . . but if you want to talk cunts, she ws a mega one.

This pretty much sums up her talent and energy. While the clip is amazing (even in such poor quality) it's also kind of depressing to see how low entertainment has sunk. So much talent in that room. I can't imagine them trying to pull this off today.

I saw the original cast in Ain't Misbehavin' quite a number of times and yes she was pretty great in that show. Really a joy. Being so young I waited at the stage door and gushed all over her. She was very kind and acted as if I were the first person to have complimented her on her performance. And she had already won the Tony. I will always love her for that. I've given up going to Broadway anymore but are people still talented in the way that cast was talented? A question for other eldergays who were going to Broadway back then and have continued to go.

Her and Ken Page singing Honeysuckle Rose live...It doesn't get better. You can't imagine the electricity of two performers like that on stage singing such a song.

r93 it's a fucking thread about Nell Carter, save the Black History Experience for another thread.

Rosie said Nell was difficult on the last and awful season that was set in NYC.

Nell was in the Bette Davis musical disaster "Miss Moffat," which closed before it got to Broadway. It was dreadful. Here's a great article about the experience.

Nell was dispatched by Bette to run to a liquor store before the curtain went up!

Both Nell and Ken Paige were customers at the video store that I worked at. Nell was very shy but polite, and Ken was a big flirt. Obviously with him you got what you saw. The whole original cast of Ain't Misbehavin' had charisma up the ying yang.

She was a regular panelist on the crappy late 90s revival of the Match Game.

As good as the obc of Ain't Misbehavin' is it doesn't really come close to capturing the musical excitement of the show. Maybe that's true of most obcs but that one really stands out.

r96 bitch, go get tested for autism.

[quote] I loved Gimme a Break. I just felt so much love coming out of her character. I was surprised when Rosie O'Donnell said that she was a very angry woman.

Rosie was on during a very tumultuous time. The producers had to make great changes or the plug was going to be pulled. There was a lot of pressure on Nell to keep it afloat. Plus her personal life was in shambles - rehab, failing marriage, brother diagnosed with AIDS. Rosie would be a cunt if you brought the wrong dipping sauce for her chicken tenders.

Nell and Rosie must've smoothed things over, because she appeared on her talk show years later. The only allusion she made to rough moments on the Gimmie A Break set was at 1:20, where Nell said "When we would have problems on the set, I'd just get up and say 'I'll be in my dressing room,' because I would never fight with them."

Hold the mustard!!

r104 Tom Cruise and who?

[Quote] Rosie said Nell was difficult on the last and awful season that was set in NYC.

Was it the coke?

r106 dyke drama. . . too many similarities between them but with too wide of an age gap. Actually, I'm not sure if there can ever be more than one lesbian faghag in a room at a time without bloodshed.

The comments by r93 are interesting.

The Andy Gibb episode was one of the most absurd story lines ever. Wasn't there an episode where Chief puts Nell out of the house because she was bringing her johns home?

The promo shots were not nice to Nell.

[quote] The Andy Gibb episode was one of the most absurd story lines ever.

No it wasn't. Andy Gibb is recording a song in town, Julie wants to meet him so she sneaks into the recording studio even though she's grounded. Where's the absurdity?

Nell Carter was a great talent both on stage and screen.

Another from "Ain't Misbehavin'"

R55 here. My R55 was for R10. Not OP. Apologies.

Where was Gimme a Break set? What city?

Originally it was in the fictional Glenlawn, California. It was filmed at Metromedia Square in Hollywood.

I remember reading an article that said she was making 30k a week on Gimme A Break! Hard to believe she had to file for bankruptcy not once but twice!

I read that the actresses who played the girls on Gimme a Break attended her funeral, which is sweet considering they were let go before the last season and they obviously still respected her.

Yeah, there was a photo of them and Telma Hopkins at the funeral. But it wasn't Nell's choice to fire them. It was the producers.

Nell Carter's bankruptcy proceedings did not go smoothly, well not one of them anyway.

Nell Carter did not have an entirely happy nor easy life.

At least one bankruptcy was caused by Nell Carter owing debts exceeding $2 million USD, with over half that amount owed to IRS for back taxes.

Did Nell take care of extended family?

Nell Carter's estate went to her domestic partner Ann Kaser, who also inherited custody of Ms. Carter's two young sons.

There wasn't much of an estate, worth about only $2 million, and much of that likely was property owned by Ms. Carter (house).

Ms. Carter had filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2002 a year before she died. Back taxes were part of one if not both proceedings they can only be discharged after meeting several unique criteria. Even then only actual back taxes can be discharged in bankruptcy, fees, interest and penalties cannot. This *may* have had an impact on Ms. Carter's estate.

If anyone got anything out of Ms. Carter's estate besides her common law wife it would have been the three children IMHO.

It's a shame Nell Carter never played Big Maybelle. It would have been a plum role for her.

Is Ann Caser a white woman?

Her ahow was promoted in ads with the tagline, "All Nell breaks loose!"

show

Big Maybelle!

Yeasss!

She had been married to a man and even reconciled with him after breaking up. She had a daughter from a rape at age 16 and two adopted sons

Was it rape rapte, r130?

Oh, dear. My fat fingers.

It wasn't funny the first time, Whoopi, nor is it funny for the millionth time. OCD posters run tired shit into the ground.

[quote] "Dolph Sweet, sharing a sweet roll with Nell and Constance Ford in heaven."

Constance Ford is NOT in heaven, R92.

Liza M. evidently felt some responsibility for Nell’s coke problem. I remember an interview where Nell confessed that the first time she did it was at the after party of the 1978 Tony Awards, where she was introduced to it by a fellow winner. She almost immediately became addicted (remember, Nell was originally the medium sized gal in “Ain’t Misbehavin’,”) as it helped counteract her food issues and keep her energy up. Gee, who could the fellow winner in ‘78 might have been? Jessica Tandy? Barney Hughes? John Cullum? Had Madeline Kahn won, she’d definitely be a suspect, but it has to be Liza, who won that year for The Act and was the height of her Studio 54 coke years. Nell later guest starred on the 1980 special “Baryshnikov on Broadway,” with Mischa and Liza.

I just remember watching that show as a kid and thinking Telma Hopkins was the most beautiful woman I ever saw.

Nell and Telma

Wasn't Miss Out Here On My Own fired from Ain't Misbehavin' for using?

Telma had fucked up teeth.

Telma was great but nobody could beat scene-stealer ANGIE!!

I don’t know why they *called* her that — she was a fat black woman, not an effeminate gay white man!

Did Nell and Rosie bump pussies?

I think the Chief had the AIDS and they covered it up.

This show had two LGBT episodes that were positive.

In one episode, Nell sets up the Chief on a blind date with a woman named Melissa. It turns out Melissa used to be a man; she's a post-op transgender. Melissa runs off, leaving Nell to break the news to the Chief. After he predictably blows up at Nell, he calms down and says, "It's gonna be hard to find another woman like him."

There's an episode where the Chief goes on a stakeout with another officer. He's using homophobic slurs and telling an anti-gay joke to the other officer, when the officer reveals that he's gay. The Chief argues that the officer can't be gay and continues to make homophobic remarks, making an ass of himself. The Chief tells a story from his youth that reveals why he's homophobic. Later things get heated in the stakeout, and the gay officer wins the Chief's respect. The episode ends with a very awkward but sweet moment between the Chief and Nell.

Did Joey also attend Nell's funeral? I didn't even know Telma and the girls were there.

I remember when Dolph Sweet died during the summer of 1985, forcing the producers to scrap part two of the season-ending cliffhanger.

Huh? He died like two days before the season finale aired. There was nothing to scrap.

Nell has always sounded a lot like Esther Phillips to me.

R147, the 4th season finale ended with Nell looking terrified as the Chief was walking into the kitchen because Julie and Jonathan had just come home after eloping. From what I remember hearing about the show that summer, had Sweet lived the plan was for the premiere to pick up at that same moment but, given his death, the producers were forced to pivot and scrap that plan, instead opening season 5 three months after the Chief had passed away. Now perhaps none of that is accurate (I'm no GAB expert by any means) but it is what my memory recalls from that time.

But you are right that Sweet did not die "over the summer" as I had stated but in May just as the season was ending.