Cass Elliot

Personal problems within the group and Elliot's desire to go solo led to their dissolution in July 1968. Cass gave birth to a daughter named Owen Vanessa Elliot on April 26, 1967 without naming the father. After the breakup of The Mamas & The Papas, Elliot went on to have a successful solo career. Her most successful recording during this period was 1968's Dream a Little Dream of Me from her solo album of the same name, released by Dunhill Records, though it had originally been recorded for and released on the album The Papas & The Mamas Presented By The Mamas and The Papas earlier that year. She headlined briefly in Las Vegas for the whopping contract of USD$40,000 per week. She was a regular on TV talk shows and variety shows in the 1970s including The Julie Andrews Hour and The Carol Burnett Show. She also made a memorable guest-star appearance on The New Scooby-Doo Movies. At the height of her career in 1974, having just finished performing at the London Palladium theatre, she died of a heart attack. The coroner surmised her heart had weakened to the point of failure owing to Elliot's weight and the effects of several crash diets over the years. She died in the same bed, in the same room - albeit four years earlier - as manic drummer of The Who, Keith Moon, in an apartment owned by singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson. Elliot was married twice. In 1963 she married then-bandmate James Hendricks; they divorced in 1968. In 1971 she married Baron Donald von Wiedenman, a journalist, thus becoming Baroness von Wiedenman.