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Hall of Fame Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Everything about singer/dancer/actress Eartha Kitt is completely different than anyone who has ever been in the entertainment business, or anyone who ever will. Her name should be included in dictionaries as an example of what “unique” means.
Certainly no star has ever been described as “catlike,” but that is what Eartha Kitt has always been. She even purrs! (They could have used her as a consultant when the classic Broadway musical “Cats” was being developed!)
When Kitt was cast as Catwoman in the hugely popular, funny and campy 1960s TV series “Batman,” there was agreement in all quarters that this was perfect casting. (Make that “purrfect” casting!)
EARTHA KITT’S name comes up a lot and her voice is heard frequently this time of year thanks to the ongoing popularity of her sexy holiday hit “Santa Baby.” Others have sung it, including Madonna, but as Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson put it so succinctly in one of their many hit compositions, “Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing.”
In “Santa Baby,” a 1953 recording, Eartha Kitt assumed the role of the “material girl” years before Madonna was born. Ms. Kitt was not shy in letting Mr. Claus know exactly what she wanted, which included “a light blue convertible,” “a yacht,” “a platinum mine,” “a duplex,” “a ring” and, of course, “checks.”
In another song, she said she was “just an old-fashioned girl looking for an old-fashioned millionaire.”
Born Eartha Mae Keith on Jan. 17, 1927, in South Carolina, Kitt got her first big break when she auditioned for the famed Katherine Dunham dance troupe, without the benefit of any kind of formal training. She passed the audition, learned quickly and was soon fully deserving of professional dancer designation. (She is still a fine dancer, with legs in great shape.)
IN 1948, Kitt made her film debut (“Casbah”) as a member of the Dunham company. Two years later none other Orson Welles, who described Eartha Kitt as “the most exciting woman in the world,” arranged for her to portray Helen of Troy in a play he was producing titled “Dr. Faustus.” Soon her career moved to the next level, when she appeared in another stage production, “New Faces of 1952.”
It was in “New Faces” that Eartha Kitt introduced two of the songs she is most closely associated with, “C’est si bon” (having performed in France helped to make her fluent in French) and the aforementioned “Santa Baby.” In 1954, “New Faces” was made into a movie (the “of 1952” was dropped).
Among many other things, Kitt became known for being a class act and having, much to the dismay of her detractors, “that air,” which they believed to be pretentious. Truth is, Eartha Kitt was just being Eartha Kitt.
The star made several additional movies in the 1950s, the two most memorable being “Anna Lucasta,” with Sammy Davis Jr., and “St. Louis Blues,” which featured a cavalcade of Black stars, including Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat “King” Cole, Ruby Dee and even Mahalia Jackson, plus a 12-year-old Billy Preston.
DURING THE turbulent 1960s, which many believe to have been the decade of the most dramatic social change, Eartha Kitt had an encounter at, of all places, a White House luncheon. This was during the height of the Vietnam war. Kitt spoke out against the war to Lady Bird Johnson, wife of then-president Lyndon Johnson.
The president was furious and a significant segment of the (White) public was as well. Suddenly, Kitt found getting work in the United States to be extremely difficult. (President Johnson reportedly said, “I don’t want to see that woman’s face on television.”) Hurt, but not wishing to be inactive, Kitt mostly worked overseas during that period.
In response to journalists and others saying she had been “blackballed,” Kitt asserted that she had actually been “White-balled” because it came from the White House.
BY 1978, Eartha Kitt was again on solid ground, with a powerful and widely-praised performance in the hit Broadway spectacle “Timbuktu!” She also appeared in the finest night clubs and was frequently seen on television, appeared in other stage productions, made records and was later featured in several movies, including “Anything But Love,” “Boomerang” and “Preachiing to the Choir.” Next year she will be seen in “Madagascar 2.”
Kitt once said, “I have a great need for affection from an audience.”
Those audiences are happy to give that affection because they know they are receiving the best a unique artist has to offer. — SVH
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