Ash Kelley

And it was at one of these bars called the Swing Rendezvous, which is a great fucking bar, that Kitty met the first person who she felt a true romantic connection with, Mary Ann Zalonko.

She was a few years younger than Kitty, but she'd been on her own since the age of 16 and had been supporting herself in New York ever since, which takes a tough chick.

Badass.

Yeah.

Essentially, like if you can make it in New York from 16 years old.

Yeah.

That's it.

You're a straight up New Yorker.

One spring night in 1963, Marianne stopped into the Swing Rendezvous for a drink and was approached by a woman at the bar.

The woman asked, don't I know you from somewhere?

Oh, I love it.

And as opening lines go, it was definitely, you know, a tired one.

So Marianne was like, I don't think so.

You know, Marianne had been hearing that from the age of 16 onward.

No.

And she kind of brushed it off as a, you know, a failed pickup attempt.

Yeah.

But the woman just smiled and said, oh, I think I do.

I'm Kitty.

So she wasn't deterred by it.