Cass Elliot’s near and dear is still tormented by ham rumors 50 years after death

The legendary death Mamas & Papas Singer sent shock waves all over the world on July 29, 1974.

However, no one was more shocked than the people who were closest to Cass Elliot. Those who knew and loved her were in distrust of the news that Elliot had died at the age of 32.

Elliot died of a heart attack that, after her death, many would suspect was related to abuse and dangerous slimming techniques. At that time, however, rumors were that the singer died after suffocating a ham sandwich.

Friend Sue Cameron Previously, People told About the first time, she had heard that story, after calling Elliot’s apartment after hearing the news.

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“Her boss, Allan Carr, picked up the phone, and he was hysterical. Allan said:” You have to tell them she died suffocating on a ham sandwich. You have to go to your typewriter and write it. There is half a ham sandwich on her bedside cloth. “

“I asked no questions,” Cameron, then a columnist at Hollywood Reportershared. Later she elaborated the experience and The story behind the rumor in her book 2018 Hollywood secrets and scandals. “I knew she didn’t suffocate a ham sandwich. I didn’t believe in Allan, but I just thought to do it because something was wrong.”

“Ham the sandwich went all over the world,” Cameron told People. “Many people do not realize that it is not even true. Although I have said – and written – it is not true, it still continues. I never thought it would last as long as it has done.”

A Autopsy revealed that Elliot had died of a heart attack; No drugs were found in her system, but there were still conversations about abuse in her inner circle.

The day Elliot died, Cameron wrote his death and then rushed to the singer’s house.

“The gates were open. The front door was unlocked. I just went there to protect anything for sometimes, that day a famous person dies, people try to get into the house. Something in my head told me to go up. Why lie about a ham sandwich? So I went up to her bedroom and looked in the cabinet, and it was completely clean.

“Many years later I was a guest at a party, and there was a well -known model from that era (there). Somehow the topic Cass came up, and she said:” I was the one who was there and cleaned the drugs. “It was strange because it was 30 years later.

For Elliot’s Daughter, Owen Elliot-KugellRumors have been an ugly and painful spot on the singer’s legacy. In her 2024 memoir My mom, cashElliot-Kugell shared his hatred against the rumor.

“During my younger years, when people would talk to me about my mom, it was always about the stupid sandwich,” she told People.

“I would go over to a children’s home after school and eventually one of their parents would ask me” does your mother really suffer from a ham sandwich? “First and foremost, Chutzpah is saying that to a child is just crazy but it happened a lot.

It was through this process that Elliot-Kugell learned that Carr hoped to compensate for all other rumors that could arise, especially about drugs, by sharing the detail with Cameron.

After learning the origin of history, Elliot-Kugell began to see things in a different light.

“So many of my mother’s comrades had died of overdoses of drugs – Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison. And I think Allan was afraid they would make the same assumption,” she says.

“I really think they protected her heritage. And they tried to protect me. And in a strange way I am grateful for the crazy story. As much as it caused me sadness, and people made jokes, I now realize that it kept her relevant and ready to shine again.”