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Eartha Kitt, 1927-2008:
Singer, Actress and 'Catwoman' |
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One movie director called her
“the most exciting woman in the world.”Transcript of radio broadcast: |
VOICE
ONE:
I’m
Steve Ember.
VOICE
TWO:
And I’m
Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell
about the unforgettable entertainer Eartha Kitt. The life of this singer and
actress was as rich and interesting as her career.
(Music:
“C’est Si Bon”)
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Eartha Kitt |
VOICE
ONE:
“C’est
Si Bon,” or “It’s So Good” in French, was one of Eartha Kitt’s first hit
songs. She recorded it in the early nineteen fifties after performing it
in a Broadway show. But Eartha Kitt’s life was not always so good. She had a
very difficult childhood although information about her early history is
limited.
Eartha
Mae Keith was born into a poor, rural family in South Carolina in nineteen
twenty-seven. Some reports say she was the child of rape. Her mother was of
African and Cherokee Indian ancestry. Her father was a white farmer.
When
Eartha was eight, her mother married. The husband did not want Eartha to live
with them because of her mixed race. Eartha Kitt said he called her “yellow
gal.”
Eartha
was sent to New York City to live with an aunt in the African- American
neighborhood of Harlem. The relationship was difficult. The aunt helped pay for
piano and dance lessons for Eartha. But she also beat the girl. Eartha would
run away after beatings.
(Music:
“God Bless The Child”)
VOICE
TWO:
Eartha
Kitt lived on the streets and worked in a factory as a young teenager. But she
kept up her dance lessons. One day she decided to try out for a famous
African-American dance company. Soon, Eartha was performing in shows around the
world with the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe.
In
Paris, Eartha left the dance company to sing in a nightclub. Her voice was
unusual – but very appealing. She learned French quickly and gained French
fans.
(Music:
“Je Cherche Un Homme")
VOICE
ONE:
The
film director Orson Welles discovered Eartha Kitt singing in Paris. He called her
“the most exciting woman in the world.” Welles asked her to play a lead part in
a play he was directing and starring in.
Eartha
Kitt returned to New York and appeared in the Broadway show “New Faces of
Nineteen Fifty-Two.” A humorous song she sang about a bored, spoiled woman
became famous. Here is “Monotonous.”
(MUSIC)
VOICE
TWO:
She
soon signed a recording agreement with a record company. Eartha Kitt’s songs
were all daring, especially for the nineteen fifties. She even made a sexy
Christmas song. “Santa Baby,” became Kitt’s biggest hit.
(MUSIC)
Eartha
Kitt’s first role in a film was in the nineteen fifty-seven movie “Mark of the
Hawk” with Nat King Cole. Kitt was very careful about choosing her roles in
films. She rejected parts that were not respectful to people of color. She said
if her choices were bad it would not help the black actors who came after her.
CATWOMAN:
“Hello Pierre.This is Catwoman. C-A-T-W-O-M-A-N.”
PIERRE:
“Quelle est la problem, Femme Chat?”
CATWOMAN:
“Batman just caught Joker and me in the middle of a robbery.”
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Eartha
Kitt as Catwoman |
VOICE
ONE:
In
nineteen sixty-seven, Eartha Kitt got the part of Catwoman on the popular
television series “Batman.” Fans loved the special way she rolled her “r”s to
create a sound like a cat. She appeared on just three shows but was an
unforgettable Catwoman.
CATWOMAN:
“What now?”
BATMAN:
“You’re on your way to prison, Catwoman. Will you never learn that you cannot
outwit the law?”
CATWOMAN:
“Maybe one day I will, Batman. Purr-haps.”
VOICE
TWO:
In
nineteen sixty-eight Eartha Kitt was invited to the White House. President
Lyndon Johnson was in office and the Vietnam War was an issue of national
dispute.
The
president’s wife, Lady Bird Johnson, invited several women to a luncheon to
discuss the problem of crimes committed by young people. Eartha Kitt said the
First Lady asked her why she thought there was so much youth crime in America.
Eartha
Kitt said: “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They
rebel in the streets. They will take pot and they will get high. They don’t
want to go to school because they will be snatched off from their mothers to be
shot in Vietnam.”
VOICE
ONE:
Those
comments destroyed Kitt’s career in America for a long time. Later, it was
discovered that President Johnson had immediately ordered government agents to
investigate the performer. Kitt said she was “blacklisted.” No one in the
American entertainment industry would employ her. For about ten years, she
could only find work in other countries.
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Eartha Kitt in"Timbuktu" |
In the
mid nineteen seventies Eartha Kitt slowly began to rebuild her career in
America. She won critical praise for a concert in nineteen seventy-four at
Carnegie Hall in New York. In nineteen seventy-eight, President Jimmy Carter
asked Eartha Kitt back to the White House. That same year, she was nominated
for a Tony award as best actress in the musical “Timbuktu!”
In
nineteen ninety-four, Eartha Kitt released the album “Back In Business”. It was
nominated for a Grammy. She was sixty-six years old. She received another Tony
nomination, three Emmys and other honors in the years that followed. And she
continued singing in small clubs until the last year of her life.
(Music:
"Let’s Do
It")
VOICE
TWO:
Eartha
Kitt was also a mother and grandmother. She married businessman William
O’Donald in nineteen sixty and gave birth to their daughter, Kitt, the same
year. Eartha Kitt said her daughter was her greatest joy in life. She said she
took her everywhere her career went.
Eartha
Kitt said her own experiences as a child left her a divided person. Her real
self was not Eartha Kitt but Eartha Mae, a child given away by her mother.
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Eartha
Kitt |
EARTHA
KITT: “Rejection has always made me into a person that does not want to be seen
anywhere, except when I’m all made up and go out as Eartha Kitt. Then I feel
okay.”
And
where was Eartha Mae most herself?
EARTHA
KITT: “I’m at home, digging in the dirt, or doing something that is very close
to the Earth, because that’s where I know how to survive.”
(MUSIC:
“Here’s To Life”)
VOICE
ONE:
Eartha
Mae Kitt was at home when she died on December twenty fifth, two thousand
eight. The cause was colon cancer. She was eighty-one.
VOICE
TWO:
This
program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. For transcripts, mp3s and
podcasts of our shows go to voapsecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein.
VOICE
ONE:
And I’m
Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special
English.