Little Girl Blue (41 page)

When Karen played the album for Mike Curb, he was struck by her noticeable anxiety. “She was back in Los Angeles and called wanting
me to hear the album,” he recalls. “I went over, and she played it for me, but she seemed very reticent to do the album and reticent to release it—reticent in terms of the effect it might have on her family.”

According to Olivia Newton-John, “It's very hard to follow a Carpenters record. The Carpenters' sound and productions were exquisite. She would have gone through criticisms, no doubt.” Karen played the album for Newton-John with Richard present. “I remember Richard said, ‘You've stolen the Carpenters sound.' That was kind of ironic because she
was
the sound of the Carpenters. Her
voice
was ‘the Carpenters.'”

From the project's beginning, Frenda was certain there would be disapproval from A&M and especially Richard. According to her, his negative opinion of Karen's solo work signaled a turning point in the siblings' relationship and one that Karen never seemed to get over. “He told her it was
shit
,” Frenda says. “All Karen ever wanted was his approval. It could have turned everything in her life around, but it wasn't there. What's sad is that he has to live with that, and I don't think it even fazes him. I
do
think he should be excused to some extent because he had his own problems, but God Almighty, what does it take to just be kind? They could see she was melting away like a snowman in front of their faces, but they couldn't do it. It was brutal.”

Karen's hopes and dreams for the solo album were shattered. After an exhilarating year of creativity, exploration, and hard work, the entire project was rejected by those she loved and respected most in her family and professional life. “We came in with all these high hopes, and then nobody actually liked it,” Ramone says. “Of course, they had the right to not like it, but it was never in our minds that this could fail. But it was over. The game was over! There wasn't going to be a part two or attempts to try and figure it out. This wasn't going to be something we could add a few more songs to and make it OK. Sometimes a mix can change things or save the day, but they didn't think that would help. The whole thing was a flop. Karen was completely down in the dumps, and so was I. There was nothing that could cheer us up. What was there to say? At the time we didn't see it as them against us. For us it was all about what
we
did wrong. ‘
What
did we miss?' ‘
How
did we miss?'”

Karen and Phil left the A&M lot that day under a veil of disillusionment. “She was absolutely destroyed by the rejection,” Itchie says. “You have to understand she was soul searching. She had always felt inferior. She was trying to grow up and start focusing on herself as an artist, a person, a human, and a woman with needs, and it all just went to pieces. It was like somebody just stepped on her and just erased everything she'd worked for.”

R
ETURNING TO
Los Angeles and no longer juggling the demands of a bicoastal existence, Karen found time to reunite with friends like Olivia Newton-John, who suggested a relaxing getaway to the Golden Door health spa in San Diego. There they were joined by mutual friend Christina Ferrare, an actress and wife of auto industry executive John DeLorean. During their stay at the spa, Karen told the women how she finally felt ready to find a husband and settle down, and spelled out her ever-growing list of requirements in a man. This was met with laughs from the other women, who told her she would be extremely lucky to find someone possessing even half of those prerequisites.

It was around this same time that Karen was astonished to learn that ex-boyfriend Terry Ellis had become engaged. She had always regretted the way she ended their relationship and had even hoped they might one day rekindle their romance. After weeks of introspection and the continued urging of Itchie, Karen decided to call and invite Terry to lunch. After all, in her mind he was only engaged. He was not yet married, so perhaps there was still a chance to renew his interest in her. “Listen, I've made a big mistake,” she began. “I really made a big mistake in ending our relationship. Can we get back together again?”

“Well, Karen, I'm engaged,” he told her. “I'm going to be married.”

Along with Olivia Newton-John and Christina Ferrare, Carole Curb was one in a small group of trusted girlfriends who always kept their eyes and ears open in hopes of finding “Mister Right” for Karen. “I have somebody I think you'd like to meet,” she said.

“Yeah,
sure
Carole,” she replied, the sarcastic rolling of her eyes perceived across the phone line.

Though Karen valued Carole's good taste and sensitive discretion, she felt as though she had heard it a thousand times before. Moreover, she wasn't thrilled by the idea of a blind date, even one arranged by a well-meaning cupid. “But he's nice, good looking, and he's philanthropic,” Curb urged reassuringly.

This latest prospect was Thomas James Burris of Newport Beach, whom Carole had met while attending a dinner with her brother, Mike Curb, whose career path had made several unexpected turns coinciding with the dissolution of his own relationship with Karen. Following the 1974 sale of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the MGM Records label by Las Vegas resort mogul Kirk Kerkorian, Curb's work in the record industry was only part time, and he eventually became involved in government. In 1977 he married Linda Dunphy, daughter of popular Southern California news anchor Jerry Dunphy, and by 1980 Curb was lieutenant governor of California and national vice chairman of the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign. The Curbs knew Tom Burris as an enthusiastic Reagan supporter and active member of another organization overseen by Mike Curb, the Commission of Californias, which promoted relations between California and Baja California. “My sister Carole played a role in the matchmaking,” he recalls, “but I did not. It was the busiest time of my life back then. But I did know Tom, and he sure seemed like a nice guy.”

Thirty-nine-year-old Burris met a number of Karen's requirements in a potential husband. “He was very attractive, very nice, and he seemed very generous,” Carole says. “He had just donated some ambulances to some of the hospitals in Baja California.” Burris was not in the music business. A native of Long Beach, Tom had dropped out of
school at the age of thirteen and went to work as a mechanic's assistant. In 1958 he joined the Marine Corps and after being discharged worked in a Long Beach welding shop. He later worked as a steel contractor and general housing contractor before becoming the self-proclaimed “industrial developer” who founded Burris Corp. in Long Beach in 1964. In 1975 he moved the business to Corona, California, where he built the city's first planned industrial complex on Pomona Road. An avid NASCAR fan, Burris was a handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes, seemingly affluent and successful, but he was not single. In fact, Burris was the married father of an eighteen-year-old son. He clarified to Carole that he and his wife were separated and their divorce was underway.

Karen first met Tom Burris on a double date with Carole and then husband Tony Scotti on Saturday, April 12, 1980. The couples enjoyed dinner at Ma Maison, the West Hollywood bistro that launched the career of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Having just returned from the East Coast, Karen was a bit jet-lagged. In fact, she wanted to cancel the date, but Agnes Carpenter urged her to attend. Over dinner, Burris told Karen that he was not familiar with the Carpenters or their music. “
He really didn't know
who I was,” she said. “I hadn't known him an hour, but I said to him on the first date, ‘What, have you been under a rock for ten years?'” Even so, Karen bought Tom's story and found herself instantly attracted. “I automatically liked him. I liked his way, his look, his style, and his
car
,” she laughed. “It was the first time I had actually been attracted on the first date.”

At the end of the evening, Karen phoned Frenda Leffler, who had helped ready her hair and makeup that afternoon. “So, how did it go?” Leffler asked.

“Oh, Frenny,” she exclaimed, “he reminds me of Chard!” (In addition to “R.C.,” “Chard” was one of Karen's many nicknames for her brother.)

After the first date Tom Burris mysteriously disappeared. Karen was disappointed when she did not hear from him right away and blamed herself for running him off. “She told us all about this guy she met and how she really liked him, but she hadn't heard from him” says Frank
Bonito. “What he did was he went off to Las Vegas or somewhere and got a divorce.” But Tom soon returned to the scene with gusto, at which time he and Karen embarked upon a whirlwind romance. “It seemed to go really quickly,” Carole Curb recalls. She was pleased to see the new couple having a great time together. “What was not to like?” she says. “He had a silver Rolls-Royce, and he was very charming. They got along well and seemed to kind of bond. He seemed really nice.”

Best friends Frenda and Itchie did not share Carole's optimism. “I disliked him from the second I met him,” Frenda says. “I thought he was a phony and a blowhard. He was egotistical and arrogant.”

Itchie tried to remain positive despite some suspicions. She had heard from friends that Tom's background had checked out, and Karen seemed excited. Reportedly, he was not a gold digger. “I liked him at first—sort of,” she says. “But I didn't really believe him. He was blond and he was cute but overly manicured and a little too good to be true. He always had a plastic smile and would never look me in the eye.” Itchie was shocked when Karen told her, “I think he's going to pop the question,” just one day after Tom met her and Phil.

“Now, wait a minute, Kace,” she replied. “I just met him. And so did
you
for that matter! Does he know about the anorexia? Does he know what to look for? Does he know the signs?”

“No, no, no, I'm over it,” Karen assured her. “I'm eating and I'm really, really happy!”

Itchie was panicked but backed off, not wanting to discourage Karen. “She had searched so long for the perfect guy. I really didn't want to rain on her parade.”

Phil Ramone concurred with his wife and Karen's other friends. “It was like he was
too
perfect,” he says, “but that was an attractive thing for her.”

“So what did you think?” Karen asked Phil after he joined the couple for dinner.

“I don't like his hair,” he said teasingly. “He's too perfect. It's
Tom Terrific
!”

Karen soon took Tom to meet the Carpenter family at home at Newville. “She brought him into the office and introduced us all,”
Evelyn Wallace recalls. “He was a really nice looking man, and he was very, very polite. I could see nothing wrong with him. I think she really loved Tom. Maybe it was just a crush, I don't know, but she
seemed
to be in love with him.” Like Evelyn, the Carpenter family was initially charmed by Tom. “
He gets along fabulously
with my family,” Karen told
People Weekly
.

Whether it was his good looks, personality, or what Karen told them about his career and real estate successes, the family seemed to be won over by Burris—even Richard at first. “Tom instinctively knew what to do,” recalls Itchie. “He started palling around with Richard, although even Richard seemed a little apprehensive at the time.”

Tom laughed when he told the family how he had been unfamiliar with the Carpenters and their music before having met Karen. “I didn't know
anything
about the Carpenters,” he said.

This left Evelyn Wallace skeptical. “You mean you've never
heard
them?” she asked. “They're on the radio a lot. You haven't heard them on the radio?”

“Oh, I am too busy,” he replied.

Recalling the conversation with Burris, Wallace is angry she did not see through what she now recalls as an act. “I know in my heart that he knew darn well who Karen Carpenter was . . . and that there would be a lot of money there.” Friends agreed and cautioned Karen that Tom could possibly be an opportunist. “Is he deaf or something?” Itchie asked. “Has he never turned on a radio or a television? I mean,
come on!
”

A
FTER MONTHS
of disappointment and disillusionment in her professional life, it was no wonder Karen's focus turned to her budding romance with Tom Burris. Undoubtedly their relationship took her mind off the snubbed solo album, which was officially shelved on May 5, 1980. “Duo Takes Precedence,”
Billboard
announced, claiming that the album was “
shelved at her request
, to avoid interfering with a Carpenters LP.” A&M Records' president Gil Friesen was quoted saying, “
Karen thought about it
long and hard and decided that the duo takes
precedence; that was the priority in her life, and there was no way she wanted the solo project to interfere.”