A Graceful Exit At the eleventh hour, actress and art patron Kitty Carlisle Hart added a codicil to her will that was generous to a housekeeper and equalized . gifts to her children n April 17, 2007 , the nation lost to that will, dated Jan. 24 , 2007 , was added a grande dame of th e arts and less than three months before her death. 0 culture: Kitty Carlisle Hart, chair The codicil increased a bequest to Kitty's of the New York State Council on the Arts housekeeper , Ester Sonne, from $10,000 from 1976 to 1996 , a woman who had an to $50 ,000 . The codicil also includes a extraordinarily long and varied career in provision that forgives any indebtedness By HerbertE . Nass, show business. from Kitty's two children , Catherine Hart managing partner, Born with the name Catherine Conn (who has the same first name that her Herbert E. Nass & (pronounced Cohen) to a Jewish family liv­ mother was born with) and Christopher Associates, NewYork ing in New Orleans , La., in 1910, Kitty was Hart. The clau.se states: "If the amount 96 years old when she died in New York given to them , including any forgiveness of City. In between , she appeared in numerous debt, are unequal, then I give to the child films, including the Marx Brothers' A Night having received a lesser amount, a sum at the Opera (1935), Woody Allen's Radio sufficient to equalize the monetary gifts Days (1987) and Six Degrees of Separation to my children. Monetar y gifts to a spouse (1992). She also starred in many Broadway shall be includ ed in the computation of plays and musicals . And she was married gifts to a child . I do not intend to equalize to the playwright and director Moss Hart monetary gifts to my grandchildren since from 1946 until his death in 1961. Moss was they are unequal in number ." Although famous for such plays as You Can't Take ft grandma apparently made lifetime gifts to With You (1936 , Pulitzer Prize), The Man her grandchildren, there are no bequests Who Came to Dinner(1939) , My Fair Lady mentioned in her will to any of her three (1956) and Camelot (1960) . surviving grandchildren . It was after Moss was gone that Kitty There is also a $5,000 bequest in the will became known to popular culture, all over to the "KITTY CARLISLEHART THEATRE America really;through appearan ces on such in Albany, New York." (Not too many popular television game shows as To Tell people would be able to make a bequest to the Truth, What's My Line, Password and a theatre named after themselves.) The Match Game, on which she was always As for her tangible personal property, charming, fashionable and sophisticated. Kitty's jewelry was bequeathed to her only This famous lady left a last will and tes­ daughter Catherine; the rest was divid­ tament dated May 17, 2002. A first codicil ed equally between both Catherine and 62 TRUSTS & ESTATES/ trustsandestates.com AUGUST2007 .,r Christopher-with the request that they perpetuat e. the name of MOSS HART, by "give a portrait or picture of me to the a separate fund or similar arrangement." KITTY CARLISLE HART THEATRE." We If the Dramatists Guild were no longer in can only wonder which portrait it will be existence , the executor had the discretion and where the theater will hang it. to distribute the residuary estate to tax Although Kitty was survived by two adult exempt organizations "for the benefit of children who are the only beneficiaries of her playwrights and to encourage writing for residuary estate, Kitty named her attorney, the theatre , endeavoring to use the name David Grossberg, as the executor of her will. MOSS HART in connection with this." The 96-year-old Hart wisely named a person Even though Moss had died 46 years younger than herself as her executor. Attorney earlier in 1961, Kitty did not forget Grossberg is only in his Bo's and was obvi­ him in her will. ously very trusted, as he'd served as Hart's Moss Hart's plays and Kitty's attorney for more than 45 years. Hart's will appearances will live on in the provided that if attorney Grossberg "shall memories of those fortunate cease for any reason to act" as executor, then enough to have seen his dramas Kitty appointed her two adult children , or her performances. I Catherine and Christopher, as successor co-executors. On the probate petition filed with the New York County Surrogate 's Court, the value of the Hart estate is listed as being Kitty Carlisle,c irca193 4, right, whenshe was in excess of $500,000. But clearly the a Hollywoodfilm actressunder contract with emphasis here should be on the "in excess Paramountand appeared with Bing Crosbyin of." In New York, $500,000 is the thresh­ SheLoves Me Not. old that requires a payment of the state 's Below,in 1964, then Kitty largest probate filing fee in the amount CarlisleHa rt, on a celebrity of $1,250. The documents do not list the panelof the television gameshow ToTell the full value of Hart's estate. The court file Truth,with host Bud also reveals that Grossberg followed all Collyer (standingrear ) proper procedures and had his client sign and actors ~he attorney-as-fiduciary disclosure form TomPoston (left) ) in accordance with New York Surrogate's and OrsonBean . Court Procedure Act Section 2307-a, which allows an executor to receive a full executor's commission , instead of one-half, which is payable in the absence of the signed disclosure form. We do not know what a full commission would be wit h­ out knowing the gross value of the Hart estate. Hart's will provides that were she to have had no survivors, her entire residuary estate would have been left to the Dramatists Guild Fund, Inc. "with the request that this be administered in such a way as to AUGUST2007 TRUSTS & ESTATES / trustsandestates .com 63 .