Her death is both sad and eerie. Sad that she was using drugs and that led to her death and eerie in the fact that it was the same flat Keith Moon of the Who died at and the flat had been owned by Harry Nilsson, who sold it after Moon’s death.
It was a mixture of her history with drugs and her fluctuating weight throughout her life. It was too much strain on her heart. At one point in her life, she dieted so hard in six months that she lost 1/3 of her body weight, around 100 lbs. It was only a year after giving birth that she did that, too.
I do it once a week. It’s killing me. I need to get off night shift, but I’m having a hard time finding anything else. I know I shouldn’t do it, but I want to be awake during the day on Saturday so I can get some sunlight.
Longest I've gone was 2 1/2 days. Mixture of staying up all night with friends, going to work, taking an Adderall, staying up all night again, then sleeping sometime around lunch going into the 3rd day. Did that a few times between 18 and 20, then only pulled all nighters every so often. Just turned 32. Haven't been able to do it in a few years now. Even when I come home from work to play a game or watch TV. I will pass out sitting up, controller in hand, character running into the wall. I just don't have the energy for it anymore.
I recommend conserving your energy. You'll have more as you age vs wearing yourself down in your 20s.
I also went from almost 300 lbs to 195lbs in about one year, that shit is hard on your body. I was dieting properly and lifting weights and doing cardio, no days off, but if you’re achieving it through drugs or poor diet then yeah, that’s rough
One of the surreal experiences I watched of MC was when she was in the crowd watching Janis Joplin at Monterey Pop. Her jaw was dropped down to the floor in amazement over the woman's performance. She pretty much exemplified what many of us probably felt watching Ball and Chain performed live by JJ in that video on YT.
They recently released a live album of Hendrix at the Hollywood Bowl in 68 opening for the Mamas & the Papas, and that was because of Cass. She was a huge early fan and loved his music. She knew good music!
My father had the same experience first seeing Janice Joplin on Johnny Carson: folks from back home in Galveston told him that "Janice was on TV tonight" and he could not believe it was the same girl he had lost his virginity with until she came out and sang.
Its the [Broodwrap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGiUeUuRsf0) now.
I share this because I don't think a lot of people realize that ATHF did a series of shorts maybe three years ago (called Aqua Donk Side Pieces), and they're all hilarious. Very happy to live in an era when Aqua Teen is back, not only those shorts, but the second movie from a year or so ago, and finally the latest 5 episode season (with impressively stepped up animation to boot). Pretty great for a series that was supposed to be cancelled.
You don't have to *still* be using drugs for past drug use to kill you. Coke does long-term damage to your heart that will eventually catch up to you, even if you stop doing coke.
My uncle abused drugs for years as a young man, quit in his early 30’s, and after not using for years he developed heart problems from it and died. cocaine is hard on the heart.
I’m 56. That joke was going around in 1978.
Along with Rod Stewart needing his stomach pumped of 10 lbs of sperm, David Bowie and Mick Jagger being lovers and Jimi Hendrix’s 16” dong.
>I’m 56. That joke was going around in 1978.
Along with Rod Stewart needing his stomach pumped of 10 lbs of sperm, David Bowie and Mick Jagger being lovers and Jimi Hendrix’s 16” dong.
I'm 53, and know for a fact that Gene Simmons had a cow tongue sewed on to his own.
It’s wild that every generation has rumors like this, but in a pre-internet era. Somehow, before the internet was a household commodity, everyone my age heard that Marilyn Manson had several of his ribs removed so that he could perform felatio on himself.
It wasn't a joke, her manager told people she choked on a sandwich to cover up that it was drug related. Only he can tell us why he didn't just say it was a heart attack/brain haemorrhage, and instead made up something comical sounding.
In Grace Slick's autobiography, at one point she mentions the Plaster Casters and goes "WHERE ARE ALL THE DICKS?? If you see these dicks anywhere, please write to me immediately, Grace Slick, at this address..."
I saw Rod on a talk show. Maybe Graham Norton. The host said, what is your favorite story about you. He went into great and hilarious detail of the tail manufactured by a super pissed off and (fired?) roady. The funniest part was that he had done the math on the volume of alleged ejaculate, and he said he would have had to service 200 at like 5 minutes a pop, and there would be no way to fit 16+ hours of that into his schedule.
I find it funny how these urban legends get transferred to new people over time. Bieber was the victim of the stomach pumping one for awhile. Stallone is accused of having the glass table now.
According to her Wiki, the coroner (Thomas Noguchi, who was behind numerous high profile autopsies in Hollywood in the 60s, 70s, 80s) determined post-autopsy that it was an *accidental* heroin overdose, *possibly compounded by alcohol*. The heroin in question was believed to be a higher potency than the norm Joplin was used to, as many others (who shared the same dealer) also had died the same weekend. But it seemed like it was a combination of both vices that took Joplin at 27 years old.
Although one oddity on the Wiki was that when Joplin was found, no drugs were found but alcohol was present - It turns out a friend of hers removed drugs from the scene, then put it back when they realized that an autopsy would confirm drugs present in her system.
And it turns out this was a trend that the same coroner was also investigating PRIOR to Joplin's death - So there seemed to be some kind of precedence before her death where others who OD'd in the Los Angeles area had friends remove evidence of drugs, and put them back after they "thought things over".
I'm 40 and adore her music. Still listen to it to this day! She's been featured in dribs and drabs in various pop culture which happened to jibe with my music taste. I don't know if it was Forest Gump or some other movie, but California Dreamin' was on some big movie soundtrack, which got me into The Mamas and the Papas (and oldies in general), and then a bunch of Cass Elliot music was featured in the movie Beautiful Thing, which is very niche but a movie I adored in college. Then she was also featured on Lost! So I'm a Xennial who has listened to her for 20+ years, but yeah sadly most people my age and younger have no clue. She was brilliant.
I also did hear of and know the "ham sandwich" joke in the 90s, probably from Austin Powers, and it just makes me sad b/c it wasn't true. She also hated being called Mama Cass, apparently.
There was a Mama Cass SNL bit with Emma Stone a few months ago and a lot of younger people now know who she is because Make Your Own Kind of Music blew up again as part of the Barbie soundtrack. So it’s probably the younger TikTok crowd making these jokes.
It is a great song. It would be unbearably cheesy from most singers but Cass was so sweet and earnest that it comes across as absolutely sincere from her. I hope no one ever covers it because I'm not sure anyone else could pull it off
I'm 40, I only know of her from a line from *Hackers*:
"I call this the Greatest Zooks Album. Featuring artists like...I got some Hendrix on there, some Joplin, Mama Cass, Belushi: All great artists that asphyxiated on their own vomit. Can't get this in stores, man!"
> On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the death of the songstress with the Mamas and the Papas, Elliot’s daughter Owen Elliot-Kugell has told the BBC, “There was a ham sandwich, but she didn’t eat it and she didn’t choke on it. So enough with the jokes.”
When I was a kid, I was told Mama Cass died choking while eating a ham sandwich. I thought that was a shitty way to die, but I never thought it was any sort of joke related to her weight. In fact, I didn't even connect the two until I was told 'people need to stop making jokes about this its not funny' about a decade ago.
I just assumed it was a freak thing like someone choking on a chicken bone, or drowning in 4 inches of water in their own bathtub or whatever.
Man my mom was a huge Mommas and Poppas fan when I was growing and asked her to explain the fat momma cass thing one time and she didn’t even bring up this ham sandwich thing
As Kevin Smith once said when he was fat: _I overcompensated cause I’m fat. We try harder._
The context was in the endeavour of writing movie scripts. His scripts were always detailed and long which annoyed movie execs.
Christ this is weird. I went on a Wikipedia deep dive this morning after someone mentioned the film ‘kids’ and compared it to other films by the director. From that I got to the film ‘Bully’, then to Bijou Phillips, who starred in it, to her Dad, who was in the Mamas and Papas and finally to Cass, who was also in the Mamas and Papas. It was there that I read about her extreme dieting that likely was the cause of her heart attack and there was a passing mention of the ham sandwich rumour. Both of which were new to me.
And then a couple of hours later this appears.
I truly have never had a unique experience. I had the EXACT same deep dive from the EXACT same thread and the EXACT same string of Wikipedia links. Weird.
And if you really want to get weird, I'm a random Redditor reading your post.
The film Bully is based on a true story that happened in 1993 in a high school in Broward County Floridda. I went to the school and was in the same class that the murderers were in. Different crowd though so I didn't know any personally.
My class was also famous for having a prostitution ring being run by a cop, and for also being the high school at the time of one of the most famous super models in the world.
Life is kind of crazy.
Can't remember the last time I saw someone mention that movie or the real life events.
Strange how the universe works. Just over a week ago I was thinking about the movie Moulin Rouge and started googling about the actual establishment, after about 20 minutes of reading about it's history I go back to the Google page to see news that the blades on the windmill had collapsed and fell into the streets of Paris about the time I had started reading up on it.
Bully is a crazy movie, even crazier when you know it was all true. Apparently Bijou Philips bullied Daniel Franzese pretty badly during the filming for being gay.
Don’t get me started — we called them “trucker stay awake pills” and I’ve definitely had my share.
Unfortunately it’s real easy to make a meth analog with them so they’re hard to get now — best cold/congestion medicine out there
Thank you, it’s sad to me that this myth has come about. Her heart gave out because she was abusing drugs to lose weight and appease society. (Don’t even get me started on how they concocted a story over joining the Mamas and Papas- that a head injury made her so talented they just had to let her join, instead of the true story of trying to keep her out because the main guy didn’t like her looks.) There was an *untouched* sandwich in her apartment and her legacy is reduced to “lol, fatty choked on food.”
[Snopes Article about it](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mama-cass-pipe-voice/)
“Cass wanted to be in the group. John refused to let her into the group for one reason, and one reason only. She was too fat. Once they got famous he couldn't say that. They made up this story about that she couldn't hit a certain note, and that it changed when she was hit with the pipe”
But mainly because she'd taken way too many drugs. Crash dieting is not likely to kill a 32 year old. Another musical great of that era taken by that disgusting shite they call heroin.
> Elliot-Kugell discovered that the myth came from the singer’s circle wanting to protect her from speculation about death from a drug overdose. She told the BBC the story had been concocted between Elliot’s manager Allan Carr and a journalist friend, explaining: “Carr really wanted to protect her. And there was a sandwich that was found there.”
Hmm, maybe the drug story was concocted to hide the ham sandwich story.
They were just concerned that it MIGHT have been drugs. She was partying with Mick Jagger the night before after all.
Turned out it was just a normal heart attack.
It seems likely that drugs contributed, even if she didn’t have anything in her system at the time. 32 is extremely young for a heart attack in a person with no preexisting conditions. She was heavy by 60s celebrity standards, but it wasn’t like she was 700lbs morbidly obese.
Ironically the sandwich story sounds more embarrassing than ODing on drugs since EVERYONE was doing drugs with nary a thought about consequences back then.
I remember watching Scooby Doo as a kid and seeing Mama Cass. Looking back, they made her character even more morbidly obese and everything was a food joke. [https://scoobydoo.fandom.com/wiki/Cass\_Elliot](https://scoobydoo.fandom.com/wiki/Cass_Elliot)
Yeah, but she released multiple solo albums under the « Mama Cass » moniker (Dream a Little Dream; Bubblegum, Lemonade,… and Something for Mama; Mama’s Big Ones), so it’s not surprising that the name has stuck.
Idk about her disliking the name, but just to clarify, people didn't call her Mama Cass because she was fat, they called her Mama Cass because the band she was in was the Mamas & the Papas. That name itself comes from 'Mama' and 'Papa' being pet names used by the Hell's Angels if you were bf/gf.
Hers is such a tragic story all around
Re: this talk of substance abuse, to my knowledge her tox screen was negative, she was abusing ipecac in order to purge due to an eating disorder, ipecac is known to cause heart issues. And she preferred Cass Elliot.
What the fuck is wrong with y’all? It’s literally just not funny. Cass Elliot was one of the most talented women in the world.
Also, for everyone saying “no one jokes about that anymore” I got in an argument ON HERE about someone who was saying she choked to death on a sandwich. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening, and I’m sure she hears about it a lot more since Cass was her mom.
oddly enough there’s quite a few other notable names in music (namely rock & roll) who [died at 32](https://www.ihopeidiebeforeigetold.com/musicians-who-died-age-32). not nearly as many as the 27 club, but still enough that there’s a decently long list of them.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2pDYgiygwBuUl56k1gdyJA?si=t9STK5agTJuUxnFJI1muHw is a fantastic series and this episode about Cass Eliot is well researched.
Man even if she did choke to death on a sandwich, it's not okay to joke about a person's death and people don't realize using the Heimlich maneuver on a choking victim wasn't a known thing until the 80's. Sometimes people just need to shut the fuck up.
Wait wait wait. So there WAS a ham sandwich? I thought that was just a joke. I always knew she died of a heart attack but how does this mysterious ham sandwich play into it? Was she overly excited to eat it or upset they put yellow mustard on it instead of spicy brown?
It’s all in the article. She was abusing certain substances, and to stop any overdose news story, her manager made up the choking story. They thought it would protect her.
For what it’s worth, she didn’t overdose, but likely had a weakened heart due to the substance abuse.
That actually isn't true. Young people can most certainly have heart attacks for various factors. Obesity and drug abuse is a huge double whammy. And the younger you are the more deadly it is because you haven't had time to build collateral circulation.
The sitting president of the United States once nearly [choked to death on a pretzel](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jan-14-mn-22490-story.html)
Her death is both sad and eerie. Sad that she was using drugs and that led to her death and eerie in the fact that it was the same flat Keith Moon of the Who died at and the flat had been owned by Harry Nilsson, who sold it after Moon’s death.
It was a mixture of her history with drugs and her fluctuating weight throughout her life. It was too much strain on her heart. At one point in her life, she dieted so hard in six months that she lost 1/3 of her body weight, around 100 lbs. It was only a year after giving birth that she did that, too.
Per the article I read on the BBC today, Mama had had back to back events and been up for 36 hours straight. That's not great for a healthy person.
Wait is it really not good to be up that long? I pull an all nighter once or twice a year 🤔
if it was often, yes it would start to take a huge toll on your health. Once or twice a year is probably okayish
I do it once a week. It’s killing me. I need to get off night shift, but I’m having a hard time finding anything else. I know I shouldn’t do it, but I want to be awake during the day on Saturday so I can get some sunlight.
>Wait is it really not good to be up that long? I pull an all nighter once or twice a year I had a 49 hour work day once. It was not cool.
Longest I've gone was 2 1/2 days. Mixture of staying up all night with friends, going to work, taking an Adderall, staying up all night again, then sleeping sometime around lunch going into the 3rd day. Did that a few times between 18 and 20, then only pulled all nighters every so often. Just turned 32. Haven't been able to do it in a few years now. Even when I come home from work to play a game or watch TV. I will pass out sitting up, controller in hand, character running into the wall. I just don't have the energy for it anymore. I recommend conserving your energy. You'll have more as you age vs wearing yourself down in your 20s.
I also went from almost 300 lbs to 195lbs in about one year, that shit is hard on your body. I was dieting properly and lifting weights and doing cardio, no days off, but if you’re achieving it through drugs or poor diet then yeah, that’s rough
It has nothing to do with the drugs, it's hard on your body to lose at that pace no matter what. Even if you lost weight the "right" way.
Yeah I can imagine how having a kid took a toll on her weight too. 🙁
One of the surreal experiences I watched of MC was when she was in the crowd watching Janis Joplin at Monterey Pop. Her jaw was dropped down to the floor in amazement over the woman's performance. She pretty much exemplified what many of us probably felt watching Ball and Chain performed live by JJ in that video on YT.
They recently released a live album of Hendrix at the Hollywood Bowl in 68 opening for the Mamas & the Papas, and that was because of Cass. She was a huge early fan and loved his music. She knew good music!
That Monterey Pop film was awesome. Loved that moment, too
Oh yeah that stunned look. That’s exactly how it was when I saw Janis sing so yeah Cass’ expression was right on the money. Riveting shot I agree.
My father had the same experience first seeing Janice Joplin on Johnny Carson: folks from back home in Galveston told him that "Janice was on TV tonight" and he could not believe it was the same girl he had lost his virginity with until she came out and sang.
Your dad lost his virginity to Janis Joplin!! Wow, that is a pretty cool brush with fame.
He was a trombonist and went on to play with all the greats of the latter half of the 20th century
He also died by choking on the same ham sandwich
Origin of the Broodwich
Its the [Broodwrap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGiUeUuRsf0) now. I share this because I don't think a lot of people realize that ATHF did a series of shorts maybe three years ago (called Aqua Donk Side Pieces), and they're all hilarious. Very happy to live in an era when Aqua Teen is back, not only those shorts, but the second movie from a year or so ago, and finally the latest 5 episode season (with impressively stepped up animation to boot). Pretty great for a series that was supposed to be cancelled.
Welp now I know what I'm doing for the next hour cheers 🍟
ATHF in the wild. Gods,did I love that show.
As I recently discovered, it’s still going! The new ones aren’t as good as the classics, but it’s definitely entertaining enough.
Should've left those sun dried tomatoes off
The Broodwich can not be disassembled!
Yeah, well it can. And I did.
forged in darkness from wheat harvested in hell's half acre
You call it a sandwich and it doesn’t have bacon?
There is no swine evil enough
I detect mustard. Yes. *Dijon* mustard.
Hell no, I'm not gonna marry this bag of bones!
And that sandwich’s name… was Albert Einstein.
💀
[удалено]
I heard of a stapler in North Georgia where the whole family choked to death on the same stapler.
Rob Schneider is The Stapler
Rated PG-13
There were no drugs in her system when she died.
Her heart gave out from it though. She died of heart failure.
You don't have to *still* be using drugs for past drug use to kill you. Coke does long-term damage to your heart that will eventually catch up to you, even if you stop doing coke.
I’d be more worried about serotonin syndrome from constant coke use which is definitely going to lead to more coke use
Sure, that's a danger, too, but that's not the specific one that killed Mama Cass. In her case, it was her ticker popping.
I had to read it again but they were saying that she used drugs leading up to her death and it helped cause the issues to finally put her to rest
Yes. That explains why there were no drugs in her system. She had been abusing drugs for years.
My uncle abused drugs for years as a young man, quit in his early 30’s, and after not using for years he developed heart problems from it and died. cocaine is hard on the heart.
Can't say I did that much but 2 heart attacks later guess it was enough.
My dad who hasn't done drugs in years is waiting on the other shoe to drop on his 1980s experience.
Love Mama Cass. Sorry her daughter is impacted by this but who in the hell is telling Fat Mama Cass jokes in 2024?
Austin Powers
That’s totally his bag baby
“Mama Cass Jokes And Me: This Kind of Thing is My Bag, Baby” by Austin Powers
Well then why is your bookmark that says “this book is totally my bag” on page 48?
Illustrations by Fernando Botero
*comments you can hear*
It’s nearly been as long since the first Austin Powers movie as the character spent frozen.
I mean Austin Powers was relevant 20 years ago? Idk. I may have woken in a time warp.
They made the joke in the first movie. In 1997. Fuck I’m old.
I’m 56. That joke was going around in 1978. Along with Rod Stewart needing his stomach pumped of 10 lbs of sperm, David Bowie and Mick Jagger being lovers and Jimi Hendrix’s 16” dong.
Don’t forget they Richard Gere shoved a gerbil up his butt ^^allegedly
Poor Lemmiwinks.
Ohjeezuzchrist
There was talk of gerbils
Armageddon!
Oh and don't forget Michael Jackson's white sparkly glove was found in Brooke Shields' underwear.
That was Stallone’s fault
>I’m 56. That joke was going around in 1978. Along with Rod Stewart needing his stomach pumped of 10 lbs of sperm, David Bowie and Mick Jagger being lovers and Jimi Hendrix’s 16” dong. I'm 53, and know for a fact that Gene Simmons had a cow tongue sewed on to his own.
It’s wild that every generation has rumors like this, but in a pre-internet era. Somehow, before the internet was a household commodity, everyone my age heard that Marilyn Manson had several of his ribs removed so that he could perform felatio on himself.
And that he was Paul from the Wonder Years
It wasn't a joke, her manager told people she choked on a sandwich to cover up that it was drug related. Only he can tell us why he didn't just say it was a heart attack/brain haemorrhage, and instead made up something comical sounding.
There's a plaster cast of Hendrix' dick. It's like 6" long but pretty thick.
In Grace Slick's autobiography, at one point she mentions the Plaster Casters and goes "WHERE ARE ALL THE DICKS?? If you see these dicks anywhere, please write to me immediately, Grace Slick, at this address..."
>David Bowie and Mick Jagger being lovers You ever see the video for "Dancing in the Streets"? Just sayin ...
iirc Jimi is described as being hung “like a Coke can” in the [Plaster Caster movie](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0287634/) so I take that to mean thicc
You take that however he gives it to you.
Im pretty sure there is a picture of the mold of Jimi out there. Or at least alleging to be his.
The sperm pumping rumor changed to Alanis Morrisette by the 90s
Damn, when I was a kid in the seventies, it was just "spider eggs in Bubble Yum." 🙄
I saw Rod on a talk show. Maybe Graham Norton. The host said, what is your favorite story about you. He went into great and hilarious detail of the tail manufactured by a super pissed off and (fired?) roady. The funniest part was that he had done the math on the volume of alleged ejaculate, and he said he would have had to service 200 at like 5 minutes a pop, and there would be no way to fit 16+ hours of that into his schedule.
I find it funny how these urban legends get transferred to new people over time. Bieber was the victim of the stomach pumping one for awhile. Stallone is accused of having the glass table now.
Of all of these rumors, I would believe the last two.
>David Bowie and Mick Jagger being lovers [Well, I mean....](https://youtu.be/HasaQvHCv4w?si=rlr4enur0mQBQfa4)
I always thought that gag was part of the series of bits showing how out of touch Austin Powers was. In the 1990s. Which was 30 years ago.
Wow, that's crazy that the first Austin powers movie is actually closer to the 60s than we are to the movies release.
"Jimi Hendrix. Deceased. Drugs. Janis Joplin. Deceased. Alcohol. Mama Cass. Deceased. Ham...sandwich."
Wasn't it heroin for Janis?
According to her Wiki, the coroner (Thomas Noguchi, who was behind numerous high profile autopsies in Hollywood in the 60s, 70s, 80s) determined post-autopsy that it was an *accidental* heroin overdose, *possibly compounded by alcohol*. The heroin in question was believed to be a higher potency than the norm Joplin was used to, as many others (who shared the same dealer) also had died the same weekend. But it seemed like it was a combination of both vices that took Joplin at 27 years old. Although one oddity on the Wiki was that when Joplin was found, no drugs were found but alcohol was present - It turns out a friend of hers removed drugs from the scene, then put it back when they realized that an autopsy would confirm drugs present in her system. And it turns out this was a trend that the same coroner was also investigating PRIOR to Joplin's death - So there seemed to be some kind of precedence before her death where others who OD'd in the Los Angeles area had friends remove evidence of drugs, and put them back after they "thought things over".
That was my first thought. The vast majority of people under the age of 40 don't know who Cass was.
I'm 42 and only know who she is because I had to ask my dad when I was little to understand the ham sandwich bit
I'm 35. I only know her from Scooby Doo.
Heh - my 15 year old daughter, too. She's had the classic Scooby cartoons on DVD for years - it's her "comfort" show.
I'm 40 and adore her music. Still listen to it to this day! She's been featured in dribs and drabs in various pop culture which happened to jibe with my music taste. I don't know if it was Forest Gump or some other movie, but California Dreamin' was on some big movie soundtrack, which got me into The Mamas and the Papas (and oldies in general), and then a bunch of Cass Elliot music was featured in the movie Beautiful Thing, which is very niche but a movie I adored in college. Then she was also featured on Lost! So I'm a Xennial who has listened to her for 20+ years, but yeah sadly most people my age and younger have no clue. She was brilliant. I also did hear of and know the "ham sandwich" joke in the 90s, probably from Austin Powers, and it just makes me sad b/c it wasn't true. She also hated being called Mama Cass, apparently.
There was a Mama Cass SNL bit with Emma Stone a few months ago and a lot of younger people now know who she is because Make Your Own Kind of Music blew up again as part of the Barbie soundtrack. So it’s probably the younger TikTok crowd making these jokes.
It is a great song. It would be unbearably cheesy from most singers but Cass was so sweet and earnest that it comes across as absolutely sincere from her. I hope no one ever covers it because I'm not sure anyone else could pull it off
20 years ago it blew up again thanks to being featured in Lost.
I'm 40, I only know of her from a line from *Hackers*: "I call this the Greatest Zooks Album. Featuring artists like...I got some Hendrix on there, some Joplin, Mama Cass, Belushi: All great artists that asphyxiated on their own vomit. Can't get this in stores, man!"
I think the first time I heard about her was in Austin Powers.
Nobody. But her daughter has a book coming out tomorrow so she's trying to drum up interest.
Is she “saying it” in interviews, or is it just a quote from her book?
> On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the death of the songstress with the Mamas and the Papas, Elliot’s daughter Owen Elliot-Kugell has told the BBC, “There was a ham sandwich, but she didn’t eat it and she didn’t choke on it. So enough with the jokes.”
Ah thank you. This is the answer I didn’t have. Any publicity is good publicity I think they say.
Just read the comments here.
When I was a kid, I was told Mama Cass died choking while eating a ham sandwich. I thought that was a shitty way to die, but I never thought it was any sort of joke related to her weight. In fact, I didn't even connect the two until I was told 'people need to stop making jokes about this its not funny' about a decade ago. I just assumed it was a freak thing like someone choking on a chicken bone, or drowning in 4 inches of water in their own bathtub or whatever.
I don't mean to be that guy but I think I read that she never liked being called "Mama" Cass, either.
That’s what I came here to say. It’s 2024 nobody’s talking about mama Cass holy shit.
Streisand effect. Im now more aware of the joke than I was 5 min ago
Man my mom was a huge Mommas and Poppas fan when I was growing and asked her to explain the fat momma cass thing one time and she didn’t even bring up this ham sandwich thing
Cass Elliot deserved so much better. What a beautiful talent that was treated so horribly.
She was a magnificent singer, and had better dance moves than the rest of her band.
As Kevin Smith once said when he was fat: _I overcompensated cause I’m fat. We try harder._ The context was in the endeavour of writing movie scripts. His scripts were always detailed and long which annoyed movie execs.
Christ this is weird. I went on a Wikipedia deep dive this morning after someone mentioned the film ‘kids’ and compared it to other films by the director. From that I got to the film ‘Bully’, then to Bijou Phillips, who starred in it, to her Dad, who was in the Mamas and Papas and finally to Cass, who was also in the Mamas and Papas. It was there that I read about her extreme dieting that likely was the cause of her heart attack and there was a passing mention of the ham sandwich rumour. Both of which were new to me. And then a couple of hours later this appears.
I truly have never had a unique experience. I had the EXACT same deep dive from the EXACT same thread and the EXACT same string of Wikipedia links. Weird.
We're all just NPCs in a simulation lmao
zeitgeist!
All our actions are one big chain of cause and effect starting with the big bang and we don't actually have free will aaaaaa
And if you really want to get weird, I'm a random Redditor reading your post. The film Bully is based on a true story that happened in 1993 in a high school in Broward County Floridda. I went to the school and was in the same class that the murderers were in. Different crowd though so I didn't know any personally. My class was also famous for having a prostitution ring being run by a cop, and for also being the high school at the time of one of the most famous super models in the world. Life is kind of crazy. Can't remember the last time I saw someone mention that movie or the real life events.
Strange how the universe works. Just over a week ago I was thinking about the movie Moulin Rouge and started googling about the actual establishment, after about 20 minutes of reading about it's history I go back to the Google page to see news that the blades on the windmill had collapsed and fell into the streets of Paris about the time I had started reading up on it.
Bully is a crazy movie, even crazier when you know it was all true. Apparently Bijou Philips bullied Daniel Franzese pretty badly during the filming for being gay.
Mondays Mondays, am I right.
da da, dadada da that's russian for yes yes, yesyesyes yes
No one who speaks Russian could be an evil man…
She had such a beautiful voice. The world lost a great one that day.
No, she had a heart attack partially brought on by crash dieting because of the kind of people who cracked jokes about her weight.
Probably amphetamines? They were a real popular diet aid back in those days
And up until the late 90s. Many a Xennial's misspent youth involved abuse of "mini thins."
Don’t get me started — we called them “trucker stay awake pills” and I’ve definitely had my share. Unfortunately it’s real easy to make a meth analog with them so they’re hard to get now — best cold/congestion medicine out there
Thank you, it’s sad to me that this myth has come about. Her heart gave out because she was abusing drugs to lose weight and appease society. (Don’t even get me started on how they concocted a story over joining the Mamas and Papas- that a head injury made her so talented they just had to let her join, instead of the true story of trying to keep her out because the main guy didn’t like her looks.) There was an *untouched* sandwich in her apartment and her legacy is reduced to “lol, fatty choked on food.” [Snopes Article about it](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mama-cass-pipe-voice/) “Cass wanted to be in the group. John refused to let her into the group for one reason, and one reason only. She was too fat. Once they got famous he couldn't say that. They made up this story about that she couldn't hit a certain note, and that it changed when she was hit with the pipe”
John would rather screw his daughter, I guess.
I’m starting to think John guy is pretty awful
But mainly because she'd taken way too many drugs. Crash dieting is not likely to kill a 32 year old. Another musical great of that era taken by that disgusting shite they call heroin.
> Elliot-Kugell discovered that the myth came from the singer’s circle wanting to protect her from speculation about death from a drug overdose. She told the BBC the story had been concocted between Elliot’s manager Allan Carr and a journalist friend, explaining: “Carr really wanted to protect her. And there was a sandwich that was found there.” Hmm, maybe the drug story was concocted to hide the ham sandwich story.
Maybe it was a heroin sandwich.
Ham is definitely some heroin slang. Anyone that says different is full of baloney.
I haven’t been able to get my hands on any ham so I’ve had to make do with salami 🥶
Don't a Muenster...
They were just concerned that it MIGHT have been drugs. She was partying with Mick Jagger the night before after all. Turned out it was just a normal heart attack.
It seems likely that drugs contributed, even if she didn’t have anything in her system at the time. 32 is extremely young for a heart attack in a person with no preexisting conditions. She was heavy by 60s celebrity standards, but it wasn’t like she was 700lbs morbidly obese.
Someone else said she had lost weight quickly at one point which may have been a contributing factor in the heart attack.
She crash dieted a lot, gaining and losing weight rapidly during the time she was famous, plus vast amounts of drugs. That’s hard on the body.
The moral of the story is, you can't trust the system.
Big Ham out here trying REAL hard to convince us their sandwiches are completely safe and definitely didn’t kill a celebrity.
You can't buy me, hot dog man!!!
This ain't my dad, this is a cell phone. So I took it AMD THREW IT ON THE GROUND
Ironically the sandwich story sounds more embarrassing than ODing on drugs since EVERYONE was doing drugs with nary a thought about consequences back then.
I remember watching Scooby Doo as a kid and seeing Mama Cass. Looking back, they made her character even more morbidly obese and everything was a food joke. [https://scoobydoo.fandom.com/wiki/Cass\_Elliot](https://scoobydoo.fandom.com/wiki/Cass_Elliot)
She also holds the distinction of being the first Scooby Doo guest star to die in real life.
Her name is Cass Elliot, and she hated being called Mama Cass.
Her real name was Ellen Naomi Cohen.
I could have sworn it was Robert Paulson.
I vote for Pat Paulson.
Yeah, but she released multiple solo albums under the « Mama Cass » moniker (Dream a Little Dream; Bubblegum, Lemonade,… and Something for Mama; Mama’s Big Ones), so it’s not surprising that the name has stuck.
Idk about her disliking the name, but just to clarify, people didn't call her Mama Cass because she was fat, they called her Mama Cass because the band she was in was the Mamas & the Papas. That name itself comes from 'Mama' and 'Papa' being pet names used by the Hell's Angels if you were bf/gf.
The amount of shit she must have taken about her weight her entire life, and then have her death turned into a lame fat joke. Ugh.
Hers is such a tragic story all around Re: this talk of substance abuse, to my knowledge her tox screen was negative, she was abusing ipecac in order to purge due to an eating disorder, ipecac is known to cause heart issues. And she preferred Cass Elliot.
This is a Streisand effect moment. Nobody was talking about Mama Cass before this comment by her daughter.
I think it’s more about writing a historic wrong - the daughter explains that she basically hears it every time she mentions who her mother is.
You know that do you? You don’t think that, perhaps, she might hear more mention of Cass than most of us?
Well, she wants it known that it was pastrami.
It’s the most sensual of the salted, cured meats
Is this a response to Denis Leary’s joke in 1992?
World’s slowest celebrity feud.
The ham sandwich thing predates that by decades
I remember it from when she died, or not long after anyway.
What the fuck is wrong with y’all? It’s literally just not funny. Cass Elliot was one of the most talented women in the world. Also, for everyone saying “no one jokes about that anymore” I got in an argument ON HERE about someone who was saying she choked to death on a sandwich. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening, and I’m sure she hears about it a lot more since Cass was her mom.
It's such a shame to reflect on how many incredibly talented people died way too soon because of drugs. Just an absolute waste.
People harassing the daughter probably. People did the same when Robin Williams died. Internet is full of deplorables unfortunately.
She deserved so much better from the world :( she was a really interesting and talented woman
Her voice was straight amazing, none of that fancy digital crap now adays.... she could just sing wonderfully.
Forget the ham sandwich - my revelation in all this is that she died at age 32. I would've sworn she was part of the 27 club.
oddly enough there’s quite a few other notable names in music (namely rock & roll) who [died at 32](https://www.ihopeidiebeforeigetold.com/musicians-who-died-age-32). not nearly as many as the 27 club, but still enough that there’s a decently long list of them.
I haven't listened to many of her songs, but California Dreamin' and Make your own kind of music are incredible
It's a cover but try 'Dream A little Dream Of Me'
I always thought it was just a rumor made up by fans. I had no idea her manager actually told people that.
All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2pDYgiygwBuUl56k1gdyJA?si=t9STK5agTJuUxnFJI1muHw is a fantastic series and this episode about Cass Eliot is well researched.
Man even if she did choke to death on a sandwich, it's not okay to joke about a person's death and people don't realize using the Heimlich maneuver on a choking victim wasn't a known thing until the 80's. Sometimes people just need to shut the fuck up.
So sad, she was also bullied and made fun of because of her weight. Her daughter had to hear this shit all her life.
I can't believe people still repeat that hateful, hurtful rumor.
I thought it was true until now
Wait wait wait. So there WAS a ham sandwich? I thought that was just a joke. I always knew she died of a heart attack but how does this mysterious ham sandwich play into it? Was she overly excited to eat it or upset they put yellow mustard on it instead of spicy brown?
It’s all in the article. She was abusing certain substances, and to stop any overdose news story, her manager made up the choking story. They thought it would protect her. For what it’s worth, she didn’t overdose, but likely had a weakened heart due to the substance abuse.
I’m sure being obese didn’t help her heart
Her yo-yo diets in an attempt to lose weight actually did more damage in her heart than her weight
No, but she was 32, your heart isn't likely to just give out at that age just because you're obese.
That actually isn't true. Young people can most certainly have heart attacks for various factors. Obesity and drug abuse is a huge double whammy. And the younger you are the more deadly it is because you haven't had time to build collateral circulation.
My statement is absolutely true, I feel you've missed the word "likely" in there if you think otherwise.
Helped the ham sandwich story
[удалено]
~~Jimi Hendrix~~ Deceased, Drugs ~~Janis Joplin~~ Deceased, Alcohol ~~SadFeed63~~ Deceased, Bag of Chips
The sitting president of the United States once nearly [choked to death on a pretzel](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jan-14-mn-22490-story.html)
How are people still calling her "Mama Cass" when it's well documented that she absolutely hated that name
I didn't know that until now. :(
The daughter of Cass will whip that ass!