OBITUARIES - Dec. 2, 1999

Alvin Cash; Singer Had Hit With ‘It’s Twine Time’

Alvin Cash, 60, who had a hit dance tune in 1963 called “It’s Twine Time.” A native of St. Louis, Cash began his career as a tap dancer and performed with his brother in a group called the Step Brothers. He started singing later, hitting the Chicago scene with his group Alvin Cash and the Registers. “It’s Twine Time” won them bookings for television shows hosted by Ed Sullivan and Dick Clark. Among their other dance tunes were “The Funky Washing Machine,” “The Ali Shuffle” and “The Philly Freeze.” On Nov. 21 in Chicago after suffering stomach problems.

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Eleanore Phillips Colt; West Coast Editor of Vogue

Eleanore Phillips Colt, 89, onetime “legwoman” for gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and for 42 years the West Coast editor of Vogue and House and Garden magazines. Brought up in Los Angeles wealth and graduated from Mt. Vernon Seminary in Washington, D.C., the former Eleanore Roberts wrote articles for The Times about her year’s stay during the Depression with an aunt in London. Hopper was so impressed with her writing (which earned Colt 75 cents for each column-inch printed) that she asked Colt to work for her, visiting studios and capsulizing new films for the columnist. Colt went on to write for such magazines as Town and Country and to work in public relations. But her most famous and longest tenure was with Conde Nast as West Coast editor of its leading magazines of fashion and taste, Vogue and House and Garden. Known professionally as Eleanore Phillips from her nearly 30-year marriage to Franklyn Phillips, she not only guided West Coast coverage for 42 years but also introduced top Eastern writers to the wonders of Los Angeles. When Vance Muse did an article for House Beautiful this August, it was Colt who showed him around downtown Los Angeles. Among other things, she told him, “Garbo loved all the old buildings and parks but especially the commotion in the street--people dashing about, doing business, living their lives. Downtown was fabulous. And compared to Hollywood and Santa Monica it was so invigorating.” After a divorce, in 1981 she married Samuel Barrymore Colt, the son of Ethel Barrymore. He died in 1986. She retired in 1990 at the age of 80. On Nov. 24 in Montecito, Calif.

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Thomas Pitfield; British Composer, Author, Artist

Thomas Pitfield, 96, a composer, author and poet whose music was noted for its humor. Pitfield taught composition at what is now the Royal Northern College of Music from 1947 to 1973. His compositions included a choral suite, “Night Music”; “The Sands of Dee” for voice and piano; and “Adam and the Creatures,” a musical morality play. Though never considered in the top rank of British composers, Pitfield composed music throughout his life in a variety of forms. He was also a versatile artist who wrote several books of memoirs and verse, produced watercolors and pencil drawings and designed his own home. “He regarded as one of his finest achievements a remarkable book, ‘The Poetry of Trees,’ in which beautiful drawings combine with often touching poetry and his own wood and leather bookbinding,” said John McCabe, who studied composition with Pitfield. On Nov. 11 in London.