As the spiel goes, Cass became the last singer hired for the Mamas and Papas only after she got smacked on the head by a pipe during a construction project at a local club...The real reason Phillips didn't initially want to hire the clearly gifted Cass was simply because he thought she was too overweight to be part of a viable pop group.
The fact that she felt she had to perpetuate a false story shows the depth of what she felt she had to hide... The truth was just too painful...Cass experienced relentless fat-shaming throughout the group's career.
The swipes about her weight even played into a widely believed, but false, story about the cause of her death. (The infamous choking-on-a-ham-sandwich bit)... The poignancy of it all forms a central motif in Elliot-Kugell's book...
Even with that cover story to shield her, Cass experienced relentless fat-shaming throughout the group's career, highlighted by the main refrain in their seminal hit Creeque Alley that read 'no one's getting fat except Mama Cass.'
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