Remembering Mama Cass: Sue Cameron last saw The Mamas & the Papas singer Cass Elliot on a beautiful summer night in late July 1974. The two had supper at Mr. Chow’s in Beverly Hills.
The author tells PEOPLE, “It was the night before she was flying to London to open her solo concert series at the Palladium.” We took a leisurely drive down Mulholland Drive in her dark blue Cadillac. She began singing “Monday, Monday” as soon as it came on the radio. She was ecstatic. She had succeeded quite well.
A few days later, on July 29, Cameron learned that Elliott had died at the age of thirty-two. She immediately rang her London flat number. “Allan Carr, her manager, was distraught when he picked up the phone.
Allan said, “You have to tell them that she choked to death on a gammon sandwich.” That needs to be typewritten on your typewriter. There is half of a gammon sandwich on her nightstand.
Cameron, who was a columnist for The Hollywood Reporter at the time, claims she didn’t ask any questions. She went on to write the backstory of the incident in her 2018 book Hollywood Secrets and Scandals. She didn’t choke on a gammon sandwich, as far as I was aware. Even though I didn’t trust Allan, I reasoned that something wasn’t right and should be done.
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Remembering Mama Cass
A few days after the singer’s death, Cameron met Carr, and the two of them shared their friend’s grief. She says, “We held each other and cried and cried.” “Thank you for writing that; I was attempting to salvage her reputation,” he answered. It was an awful loss.
The autopsy revealed that Elliot had suffered a heart attack; no drugs were found in her system. In the years after her death, further details about the singer’s drug use became available to the public. This included details about her occasional crash diets before shows, which may have harmed her heart.
“Those who had been in her immediate vicinity would ask, ‘You mean you didn’t know?'” recalls Cameron. However, I never saw any drugs. I was so morally upright that I avoided being near folks who used narcotics.
The day before Elliot died, Cameron wrote her obituary and rushed over to her house.
“The entrance was open. Its front door was ajar. I went there merely to keep everything safe because occasionally, on the day of a celebrity’s death, individuals attempt to break into the house. I had a feeling that I should head upstairs. Regarding a gammon sandwich, why lie? Cameron adds, “I went up to her bedroom and looked in the cabinets, and everything was completely clean.”
When the topic of Cass somehow came up, she said, “I was the one who was there and cleaned out the drugs. I was a guest at a party many years later, and there was a famous model from that time [there].” Three decades had gone by, so it seemed weird. I must have arrived little after her.
The Legacy
By the time Elliot began her London gigs, she had broken up with her folk-rock group, which included John Phillips, Dennis Doherty, and Michelle Phillips, and had embarked on a solo career. Despite her passing years ago, Cameron continues to see her friend as “a free spirit and very sophisticated,” bonding with her via their shared love of musical theatre.
“A few blocks away, in Laurel Canyon, we lived in the same apartment block. The neighbour was Joni Mitchell. The entire Laurel Canyon movement was started by them. Cass and I clicked so well. We would go play tennis outside.
She also remembers how hurtful Elliot’s assault of her weight was to her. “We didn’t call it body shaming then, but there was a lot of it when Cass was overweight,” says Cameron. She kept it hidden. Her nickname was “the funny one.” It was awful for her to be seen as “the fat one” and Michelle [Phillips] as the lovely one. Others would say that right in front of Cass. She had to swallow it and laugh it off.
On their last night together, Cameron recalls that Elliot had handed her some personal belongings to keep secure. She said that the people she had hired to live in her house were dishonest. She gave me her grandmother’s blanket, some of her grandmother’s lace, some photos, and some sentimental mementos. “When I return, I’ll pick them up,” she said.
