The lovely Cass Elliot, dear friend to many. I think life would much better if she were still around... certainly a lot more fun. She was the Gertrude Stein of Laurel Canyon. On this day, we drove out to the Palm Springs desert with Gary Burden to take some photos. We set this all up and then suddenly it was 100+ degrees and her makeup was melting. We had to come back in the cool part of the late afternoon to get the picture we wanted. So we checked into a hotel for a few hours and shot this at dusk. She looks just like Cleopatra. With Mama Cass, it was always a great deal of fun in any case.” - Henry Diltz