EARTHA KITT
Name: Eartha Mae Keith
Born: January 17, 1927 North, South Carolina, U.S.
Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith on January 17, 1927)[1] is an American
actress, singer, and cabaret star. She is best known for her role as Catwoman in
the 1960s TV series Batman, and for her 1953 Christmas song "Santa Baby." Orson
Welles once called her "the most exciting woman in the world."
In 1960, Kitt was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has
also received three Tony nominations, two Grammy nominations, and an Emmy win.
She was profiled on the December 31, 2007 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition.
Kitt's mother was Black Indian with Cherokee ancestry, and her father was
European-American. She was born out of wedlock in tiny North, South Carolina,
but jokes about the fact that many audiences assume her to be from somewhere
more exotic. Kitt now only slightly recalls her mother, who abandoned her to
relatives, and she never met her father. She had a very difficult childhood.
Kitt got her start as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company and made her film
debut with them in Casbah (1948). A talented singer with a distinctive voice,
her hits include "Let's Do It", "C'est si bon", "Just an Old Fashioned Girl", "Monotonous",
"Love for Sale", "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch", "Uska Dara", "Mink, Schmink",
"Under the Bridges of Paris", and her most recognizable hit, "Santa Baby." Kitt's
unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in the French language during her
years performing in Europe. She dabbled in other languages as well, which she
demonstrates with finesse in many of the live recordings of her cabaret
performances.
In 1950, Orson Welles gave her her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his
staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces
of 1952 introducing "Monotonous", "C'est si bon" and "Santa Baby", three songs
with which she continues to be identified. In 1954, 20th Century-Fox filmed a
version of the revue simply titled New Faces. Welles and Kitt allegedly had a
torrid affair during her run in Shinbone Alley, which earned her the nickname by
Welles as "the most exciting woman in the world." In 1958, Kitt made her feature
film debut opposite Sidney Poitier in The Mark of the Hawk. Throughout the rest
of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt would work on and off in film, television and
on nightclub stages. In the late 1960s, television series Batman, she played
Catwoman in succession to Julie Newmar.
In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California.
In 1968, however, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she
made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon. It was falsely reported
that she made First Lady Lady Bird Johnson cry uncontrollably when in fact, the
First Lady replied very diplomatically. The public reaction to Kitt's statements
were much more extreme, both for and against her statements. Professionally
exiled from the U.S., she devoted her energies to overseas performances.
During that time cultural references to her grew, including outside the United
States, such as the well-known Monty Python sketch, "the cycling tour", where an
amnesiac believes he is first Clodagh Rogers, then Trotsky and finally Eartha
Kitt (while performing to an enthusiastic crowd in Moscow). She returned to New
York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the
perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a 'recipe'
for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of
the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was distinctive.
In 1984, she returned to hit music with a disco song, Where Is My Man (UK #34);
the first certified Gold record of her career. Kitt found new audiences in
nightclubs across the country, including a whole new generation of gay male fans,
and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS
organizations. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat)
received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached #32 in the UK
charts.
In the late 1990s she appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the North
American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz. In 2000, Kitt again
returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild
Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. Begininng in late 2000, she
starred as the Fairy Godmother in the National tour of Cinderella alongside
Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in
Nine. She reprised her role of the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of
Cinderella which took place at Madison Square Gardens during the holiday season
of 2004.
One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio
adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to the role of
Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and returned to the role in the
straight to video sequel Kronk's New Groove and the spin-off TV series The
Emperor's New School, for which she has won two Annie Awards for Voice Acting in
an Animated Television Production. She is currently doing other voiceover work
such as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage
Robot.
In recent years, Kitt's annual appearances in New York have made her a fixture
of the Manhattan cabaret scene. She takes the stage at venues such as The
Ballroom and, more recently, the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly
stylized image, alternating between signature songs (such as Old Fashioned
Millionaire), which emphasize a witty, mercenary world-weariness, and less
familiar repertoire, much of which she performs with an unexpected ferocity and
bite that present her as a survivor with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of
resilience — her version of Here's to Life, frequently used as a closing number,
is a sterling example of the latter. This side of her later performances is
reflected in at least one of her recordings, Thinking Jazz, which preserves a
series of performances with a small jazz combo that took place in the early 1990s
in Germany and which includes both standards (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and
numbers (such as Something May Go Wrong) that seem more specifically tailored to
her talents; one version of the CD includes as bonus performances a fierce,
angry Yesterdays and a live rendering "C'est Si Bon" that good-humoredly
satirizes her sex-kitten persona.
From October to early December, 2006, Kitt co-starred in the Off-Broadway
musical Mimi Le Duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then
Came Love opposite Vanessa L. Williams.
Name: Eartha Mae Keith
Born: January 17, 1927 North, South Carolina, U.S.
Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith on January 17, 1927)[1] is an American
actress, singer, and cabaret star. She is best known for her role as Catwoman in
the 1960s TV series Batman, and for her 1953 Christmas song "Santa Baby." Orson
Welles once called her "the most exciting woman in the world."
In 1960, Kitt was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has
also received three Tony nominations, two Grammy nominations, and an Emmy win.
She was profiled on the December 31, 2007 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition.
Kitt's mother was Black Indian with Cherokee ancestry, and her father was
European-American. She was born out of wedlock in tiny North, South Carolina,
but jokes about the fact that many audiences assume her to be from somewhere
more exotic. Kitt now only slightly recalls her mother, who abandoned her to
relatives, and she never met her father. She had a very difficult childhood.
Kitt got her start as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company and made her film
debut with them in Casbah (1948). A talented singer with a distinctive voice,
her hits include "Let's Do It", "C'est si bon", "Just an Old Fashioned Girl", "Monotonous",
"Love for Sale", "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch", "Uska Dara", "Mink, Schmink",
"Under the Bridges of Paris", and her most recognizable hit, "Santa Baby." Kitt's
unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in the French language during her
years performing in Europe. She dabbled in other languages as well, which she
demonstrates with finesse in many of the live recordings of her cabaret
performances.
In 1950, Orson Welles gave her her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his
staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces
of 1952 introducing "Monotonous", "C'est si bon" and "Santa Baby", three songs
with which she continues to be identified. In 1954, 20th Century-Fox filmed a
version of the revue simply titled New Faces. Welles and Kitt allegedly had a
torrid affair during her run in Shinbone Alley, which earned her the nickname by
Welles as "the most exciting woman in the world." In 1958, Kitt made her feature
film debut opposite Sidney Poitier in The Mark of the Hawk. Throughout the rest
of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt would work on and off in film, television and
on nightclub stages. In the late 1960s, television series Batman, she played
Catwoman in succession to Julie Newmar.
In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California.
In 1968, however, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she
made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon. It was falsely reported
that she made First Lady Lady Bird Johnson cry uncontrollably when in fact, the
First Lady replied very diplomatically. The public reaction to Kitt's statements
were much more extreme, both for and against her statements. Professionally
exiled from the U.S., she devoted her energies to overseas performances.
During that time cultural references to her grew, including outside the United
States, such as the well-known Monty Python sketch, "the cycling tour", where an
amnesiac believes he is first Clodagh Rogers, then Trotsky and finally Eartha
Kitt (while performing to an enthusiastic crowd in Moscow). She returned to New
York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the
perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a 'recipe'
for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of
the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was distinctive.
In 1984, she returned to hit music with a disco song, Where Is My Man (UK #34);
the first certified Gold record of her career. Kitt found new audiences in
nightclubs across the country, including a whole new generation of gay male fans,
and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS
organizations. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat)
received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached #32 in the UK
charts.
In the late 1990s she appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the North
American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz. In 2000, Kitt again
returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild
Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. Begininng in late 2000, she
starred as the Fairy Godmother in the National tour of Cinderella alongside
Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in
Nine. She reprised her role of the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of
Cinderella which took place at Madison Square Gardens during the holiday season
of 2004.
One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio
adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to the role of
Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and returned to the role in the
straight to video sequel Kronk's New Groove and the spin-off TV series The
Emperor's New School, for which she has won two Annie Awards for Voice Acting in
an Animated Television Production. She is currently doing other voiceover work
such as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage
Robot.
In recent years, Kitt's annual appearances in New York have made her a fixture
of the Manhattan cabaret scene. She takes the stage at venues such as The
Ballroom and, more recently, the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly
stylized image, alternating between signature songs (such as Old Fashioned
Millionaire), which emphasize a witty, mercenary world-weariness, and less
familiar repertoire, much of which she performs with an unexpected ferocity and
bite that present her as a survivor with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of
resilience — her version of Here's to Life, frequently used as a closing number,
is a sterling example of the latter. This side of her later performances is
reflected in at least one of her recordings, Thinking Jazz, which preserves a
series of performances with a small jazz combo that took place in the early 1990s
in Germany and which includes both standards (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and
numbers (such as Something May Go Wrong) that seem more specifically tailored to
her talents; one version of the CD includes as bonus performances a fierce,
angry Yesterdays and a live rendering "C'est Si Bon" that good-humoredly
satirizes her sex-kitten persona.
From October to early December, 2006, Kitt co-starred in the Off-Broadway
musical Mimi Le Duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then
Came Love opposite Vanessa L. Williams.