Eartha Kitt

On April 8th 1955 Eartha Kitt and Dean Martin both reached the Top 20 with the same song, ‘Under The Bridges of Paris’. Coincidentally April 8th is also the birthday of Eric Porter (1928).

She was spectacularly stunning: the cheekbones, the voice, the international mysteriousness.

She spoke French and Italian, was a support of civil, women, and LGBT rights, worked with underprivileged kids, told a president what she honestly thought of his policies, fought with the CIA, and did it all with class and dignity.

Eartha Kitt on Desert Island Discs

The episode is unavailable, but her choices are great: Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Burl Ives, Ottorino Respighi, and Felix Mendelssohn.

I wonder how she came about her accent. Skimmed Wiki and she doesn't seem to have spent a lot of time overseas.

Love the dress in the OP.

She didn’t have an accent. She purred.

R4 I don't know either. I always thought she was Creole, because of her accent and being a Francophile.

A cute song very early in her career. Utterly charming,

Totally missed this in Wikipedia. I can see how the influence leaked into her English.

[QUOTE]Kitt's unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in French during her years performing in Europe. She spoke four languages (she is thought to have learned German and Dutch from her stepfather, English from her mother, and French from the European cabaret circuit)

She shaded Madonna most deliciously .

When asked what she thought of Madonna's version of "Santa Baby", Kitt purred:

"Nothing. What. Is. There. To. Think. About.?"

One of the best lyrics in a song- ‘the only bar I’ve been near is in ballet class’

Getting down and having fun with Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 - especially with José Soares.

Eartha Kitt on Dick Cavett

What is a "mut"?

R13 Mixed breed, unknown origin, eclectic

Her hilarious voice work in Emperor's New Groove was fantastic. One of my favorite childhood movies.

R13 / R14 I'm guessing OP intended to use the word "mutt."

Beautiful voice

She looked like a beautiful voodoo queen.

Loved her 1984 disco album "I Love Men". I got it on vinyl, cassette and 20 years later, found it on CD at a bargain price. My favorite song which should have been released as a single was "La Grande Vie".

Her daughter, Kitt McDonald, described her last days with her mother:

I was with her when she died. She left this world literally screaming at the top of her lungs. I was with her constantly, she lived not even 3 miles from my house, we were together practically every day. She was home for the last few weeks when the doctor told us there was nothing they could do any more. Up until the last two days, she was still moving around. The doctor told us she will leave very quickly and her body will just start to shut down. But when she left, she left the world with a bang, she left it how she lived it. She screamed her way out of here, literally. I truly believe her survival instincts were so part of her DNA that she was not going to go quietly or willingly.

R19 beautiful!

Eartha Kitt was not a fucking mutt.

Was that bio generated by AI, OP? "Snuff Out the Light" was her character's discarded song from The Emperor's New Groove, hardly an early career hit.

R11 thanks for posting this. I had only ever seen theIr Mas Que Nada performance on her show. Jose Soares could dance like a sexy boy. Gay? Or just Brazilian?

[quote] Getting bored, her friend Orson Welles reached out to her to appear in his adaptation of Faust.

What? Welles got bored and reached out to Kitt? Was this written by a bot?

[quote]What is a "mut"?

[quote][R13] Mixed breed, unknown origin, eclectic

That is not an accurate description of "mutt" at all. "Mutt" in no way has ever meant "eclectic", OP/r14.

[quote]Eartha Kitt was not a fucking mutt.

Thanks, r21. It is an extremely offensive way to speak of a human being.

Was she that unusual colored woman that dressed like a cat in that TV show with those two homosexuals that wore tights?

I doubt she'd ever heard of "LGBT rights", r2.

I always liked her. She was such an original talent, and I was always sorry the entertainment world didn't figure out better ways to highlight her.

I feel sad she had that long hiatus in her career for making Lady Bird cry in the White House. Eartha's anti-war sentiments were right on the money, but she should have expressed them on a different occasion--it was just bad luck that they upset Lady Bird (whom everyone at the time liked) so much.

[quote]"The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don't have what we have on Sunset Blvd. for no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons – and I know what it's like, and you have children of your own, Mrs. Johnson – we raise children and send them to war."

She wasn't wrong!

She wasn't wrong, but it was undeniably a tactical error to make it sound like she was personally attacking Mrs. Johnson in that era after having been invited into her home (which is how older people would have seen it in the late 1960s). Today it would not have been that big of a problem, but in those days, the elder generation were still big on decorum.

Still, I give Eartha lots of credit for having spoken out on a sensitive and important topic at that time.

[quote]Soon her career took off like lightning, fist with Cole Porter

Cole was into fisting? Why didn't anyone tell me?

One of my cars has satellite radio, and near a Christmas I set the radio on classic Christmas hits. I had only heard Madonna’s bootleg rendition of Santa Baby. I heard Kitt’s version and thought “wow that’s way better”. Then I learned after that it was Kitt’s voice. It’s a really cool old song.

She born? Who does OP think he is, Zora Neale Hurston.

[quote] Eartha Kitt was not a fucking mutt.

I thought that was a particularly insulting term when OP had many race-neutral, less degrading descriptors. If you wouldn't have called her that to her face it is an insult.

bump

R7 It sounds a bit Piaf

She certainly knew her audience.

Did she and Toni Collette get along? They were both fabulous in The Wild Party.

EK's accent was faux, performance art. Nothing wrong with that.

EK did not speak French. All of her interviews on French TV were in English. And she most certainly didn't speak any of the other languages listed on her wiki page..

There's no need to attempt to pad her history like tjis. It's embarrassing and unecesarry since she was fabulous just as she was.

I sat next to Eartha once at a Bway show. It was a TDF seat.

Great performance of CSB mid 60s. Loved her as Lady Eloise in Boomerang. 😂

A professional victim. Reagan supporter and also South Africa supporter. She reveled that she was considered an "honorary white" until she and her daughter got kicked off a ride there. By the end of her life, she didn't even try to hide her extreme Anti Asian hatred.

R38 what I want to know is how do you know she didn’t speak French.

Saw her on Broadway in the Wild Patty

Lovely voice!

One of the few black performers who was really hated by the American Black community. They even coined an expression "Eartha Kitt-ism" in the '70s suggesting Uncle Tom while hiding behind your race.

Was she a crooner?

She was also Madame Zeroni in the film Holes

On Charlie Rose

She WAS Eartha Kitt!

Who?

Her grandson is a cute Blew