Carrie And Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story Part 16

Sent: July 16, 2001

Hi Baby,

Loved the song you wrote. I'll love it even more when I can hear you sing it. Sweetheart, there's no reason on earth that you can't "do it all." After all, isn't that what you've always done?

Love, Mama

After she left Pepperdine, Carrie began to actively pursue her acting and singing career. In 1985 she landed the continuing role of Reggie Higgins in the TV version of the movie musical Fame, about a group of students attending New York City's High School of Performing Arts. In its way, the show was a precursor to Glee. Reggie fit Carrie like a glove; a kind of kooky, bohemian girl who was the first in her school to wear dark nail polish and experiment with pink highlights in her blond hair! (These were Carrie's ideas for her character, not to mention the boas!)

I was invited to be a guest one week. The script was t.i.tled "Reggie and Rose." The story line featured me as Rose, a cafeteria worker befriended by Reggie. As a finale, we wound up performing the cla.s.sic "We're a Couple of Swells" dressed like hobos.

Carrie and me as Reggie and Rose in an episode of Fame

We had a ball, and it was the first of several times Carrie and I were to act together. We appeared in a TV movie, Hostage. We played a musical mother and daughter on an episode of Carol & Company, and again in an episode of Touched by an Angel, where Carrie wound up being voted by the crew as their favorite guest star of all nine seasons. Why? Aside from always being on time, knowing her lines, and hitting her marks, I think it was because she never went back to her trailer between takes, preferring to sit and joke with the crew while waiting for the next setup. She also made it a point to know each and every crew member by name. She never forgot a single one.

Carrie and me as mother and daughter in an episode of Touched by an Angel

Earlier, in 1988, Carrie starred in what was to become a cult cla.s.sic, Tokyo Pop, where she played an American singer who goes to j.a.pan and gets involved with a j.a.panese singer and his band that makes it into the top ten on Tokyo's pop charts. She also wrote and sang the closing number that played during the end credits.

She received rave reviews for her performance, including this one by Los Angeles Times film critic Sheila Benson:

April 15, 1988

Loping through downtown Tokyo with her seven-league stride, her shades on her nose, her white-blond hair tucked up under a leopard pillbox, Carrie Hamilton stalks through Tokyo Pop and straight into our hearts.

When you leave the movie, all that stays clearly in focus is Hamilton. Even silhouetted against a Niagara of neon, she sucks in all the scene's energy, inadvertently, and probably even unconsciously. It's useless to try to concentrate on anyone else when Hamilton is up there, radiating away.

Carrie as Wendy in Tokyo Pop

Carrie was on her way. The phones kept ringing with new job offers. She even got a call from Marlon Brando, who had a project in mind. And what did she do? She turned them all down and decided to form her own band, Big Business, and to write and sing her own music in clubs.

To my surprise, I found myself turning into a stage mother, and begging her to reconsider. "Honey, opportunities like this won't keep knocking at your door forever!"

"No, Mama, I don't care about being a 'star.' I just want to concentrate on something else that I love for a while. I don't know, I guess I do want to do it all."

From: Carrie

To: Mama

Sent: July 19, 2001

Hi Mama,

I'm feeling so very much better today. Still in bed, though. My doc here is bad at calling back but a good doc, so all should be fine.

Woke up early again, and am excited to get back to "Sunrise." I thought of a couple more scenes to help fill out the middle part of the story as I was drifting off to sleep last night. I'll send you what I get as it comes.

I've been thinking about Kate's "memory" of her life. There's something about women's lives being cyclical and fragmented as opposed to men's lives, which seem to go like a straight shot. I think this is mostly true. Seems that our lives are like a patchwork quilt, and we weave together threads of ideas, loves, losses, dreams, notions, into the fabric that becomes our lives. Feels like I'm st.i.tching together Kate's life here-at least that's what I hope I'm doing!

It's very cold this morning, but the sun woke me up shining through the windows and I thought why not stay put? I'm fine to sit up now at my desk, but I kind of like the decadence of the whole working from the bed thing!

From: Carrie

To: Mama

Sent: July 22, 2001

I did a bonehead thing today. I accidentally smacked myself in the face with the mudroom door, leaving a big upside-down V-shaped welt on my cheek, like some sort of gang-related ceremonial mark. I shall adorn it somehow tonight (maybe with surgical glue and a few sequins), cause a fuss in Gunnison, and next week, perhaps, everyone I see shall have big red sequined Vs on their cheeks. I think wearing one of my boas will cap the whole thing off!

From: Mama

To: Carrie

Sent: July 22, 2001

That's my girl!

From: Carrie