January 17 is the birthday of Eartha Kitt (1927–2008), American singer, actress, dancer and cabaret star. Eartha was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby". Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world". She took over the role of Catwoman for the third and final season of the 1960s Batman television series, replacing Julie Newmar, who was unavailable due to other commitments. She also voiced Yzma on Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and its television spinoff, The Emperor's New School, earning five Emmy Awards in the process, the last shortly before her death.
She was born Eartha Mae Keith, on a cotton plantation in North, a small town in Orangeburg County near Columbia, South Carolina. Eartha's mother was of Cherokee and African-American descent. Though it remains unconfirmed, it has been widely reported that her father was of German descent.
Eartha was raised by Anna Mae Riley, an African-American woman whom she believed to be her mother. When Eartha was 8, Anna Mae went to live with a black man, but he refused to accept Eartha because of her relatively pale complexion, so the girl lived with another family until Riley's death. She was then sent to live in New York City with Mamie Kitt, who she learned was her biological mother. Eartha had no knowledge of her father, except that his surname was Kitt and that he was supposedly a son of the owner of the farm where she had been born. Newspaper obituaries state that her white father was "a poor cotton farmer".
In an August 2013 biography, British journalist John Williams claimed that Eartha's father was a white man, a local doctor named Daniel Sturkie. However, Eartha's daughter, Kitt Shapiro, has questioned the authenticity of this claim.
Eartha began her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company in 1943 and remained a member of the troupe until 1948. A talented singer with a distinctive voice, Eartha recorded the hits "Let's Do It"; "Champagne Taste"; "C'est si bon" (which Stan Freberg famously burlesqued); "Just an Old Fashioned Girl"; "Monotonous"; "Je cherche un homme"; "Love for Sale"; "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch"; "Katibim" (a Turkish melody) ; "Mink, Schmink"; "Under the Bridges of Paris"; and her most recognizable hit, "Santa Baby", which was released in 1953. Eartha's unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in the French language during her years performing in Europe. Her English-speaking performances always seemed to be enriched by a soft French feel. She spoke four languages and sang in seven, which she effortlessly demonstrated in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.
In 1950, Orson Welles gave Eartha 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" and "Bal, Petit Bal", two songs with which she is still identified. In 1954, 20th Century Fox filmed a version of the revue, titled New Faces, in which she performed "Monotonous", "Uska Dara", and "C'est Si Bon". Though it is often alleged that Welles and Eartha had an affair during her 1957 run in Shinbone Alley, Eartha categorically denied this in a June 2001 interview with George Wayne of Vanity Fair. Her other films in the 1950s included Mark of the Hawk (1957), St. Louis Blues (1958) and Anna Lucasta (1959).
Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Eartha recorded; worked in film, television, and nightclubs; and returned to the Broadway stage, in Mrs. Patterson (during the 1954–1955 season), Shinbone Alley (in 1957), and the short-lived Jolly's Progress (in 1959). In 1964, Eartha helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California.
In the late 1960s, the television series Batman featured her as Catwoman after Julie Newmar left the role.
In 1968, during the administration of US President Lyndon B. Johnson, Eartha encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon. Her remarks reportedly caused Mrs. Johnson to burst into tears and led to a derailment in Eartha's career. The public reaction to Eartha's statements was extreme, both pro and con. Publicly ostracized in the US, she devoted her energies to performances in Europe and Asia. It is said that Eartha's career in the US was ended following her comments about the Vietnam war, after which she was branded "a sadistic nymphomaniac" by the CIA.
Eartha 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 1978, Eartha did the voice-over in a TV commercial for the album Aja by the rock group Steely Dan. She wrote three autobiographies — Thursday's Child (1956), Alone with Me (1976) and I'm Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten (1989).
In 1984, Eartha returned to the music charts with a disco song, "Where Is My Man", the first certified gold record of her career. "Where Is My Man" reached the Top 40 on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at No. 36; The song also made the Top 10 on the US Billboard dance chart, where it reached No. 7. The single was followed by the album I Love Men on the Record Shack label. Eartha found new audiences in nightclubs across the UK and the US, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations. Eartha appeared with Jimmy James and George Burns at a fundraiser in 1990 produced by Scott Sherman, Agent from The Atlantic Entertainment Group. It was arranged that James would impersonate Eartha and then Eartha would walk out to take the microphone. This was met with a standing ovation. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat), which was originally intended to be recorded by Divine, received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached No. 32 in the charts in that country.
In 1991, Eartha returned to the screen in the Jim Varney children's Halloween movie Ernest Scared Stupid as Old Lady Hackmore. In 1992, Eartha had a supporting role as Lady Eloise in the film Boomerang starring Eddie Murphy. 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. 1995 saw Eartha appear as herself in an episode of The Nanny, where she performed a song in French and flirted with Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). In November 1996, she appeared on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy!. In 2000, Eartha again returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. Beginning in late 2000, she starred as the Fairy Godmother in the US national tour of Cinderella alongside Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. She reprised her role as the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of Cinderella, which took place at Lincoln Center during the holiday season of 2004.
One of Eartha's more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. She also lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove, for which she won her first Annie Award, 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 won two Emmy Awards and two more Annie Awards (both in 2007–08) for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production. She had a voiceover as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot.
In her later years, Eartha made annual appearances in the New York Manhattan cabaret scene at venues such as the Ballroom and the Café Carlyle.
Eartha was also a guest star in The Simpsons episode "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", where she was depicted as one of Krusty's past marriages.
From October to early December 2006, Eartha co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical Mimi le Duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa Williams.
Eartha was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics' Smoke Signals collection in August 2007. She re-recorded "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website, and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month.
Eartha Kitt won awards for her film, television and stage work, and in 1960, the Hollywood Walk of Fame honored her with a star, which can be found on 6656 Hollywood Boulevard.
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She was born Eartha Mae Keith, on a cotton plantation in North, a small town in Orangeburg County near Columbia, South Carolina. Eartha's mother was of Cherokee and African-American descent. Though it remains unconfirmed, it has been widely reported that her father was of German descent.
Eartha was raised by Anna Mae Riley, an African-American woman whom she believed to be her mother. When Eartha was 8, Anna Mae went to live with a black man, but he refused to accept Eartha because of her relatively pale complexion, so the girl lived with another family until Riley's death. She was then sent to live in New York City with Mamie Kitt, who she learned was her biological mother. Eartha had no knowledge of her father, except that his surname was Kitt and that he was supposedly a son of the owner of the farm where she had been born. Newspaper obituaries state that her white father was "a poor cotton farmer".
In an August 2013 biography, British journalist John Williams claimed that Eartha's father was a white man, a local doctor named Daniel Sturkie. However, Eartha's daughter, Kitt Shapiro, has questioned the authenticity of this claim.
Eartha began her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company in 1943 and remained a member of the troupe until 1948. A talented singer with a distinctive voice, Eartha recorded the hits "Let's Do It"; "Champagne Taste"; "C'est si bon" (which Stan Freberg famously burlesqued); "Just an Old Fashioned Girl"; "Monotonous"; "Je cherche un homme"; "Love for Sale"; "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch"; "Katibim" (a Turkish melody) ; "Mink, Schmink"; "Under the Bridges of Paris"; and her most recognizable hit, "Santa Baby", which was released in 1953. Eartha's unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in the French language during her years performing in Europe. Her English-speaking performances always seemed to be enriched by a soft French feel. She spoke four languages and sang in seven, which she effortlessly demonstrated in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.
In 1950, Orson Welles gave Eartha 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" and "Bal, Petit Bal", two songs with which she is still identified. In 1954, 20th Century Fox filmed a version of the revue, titled New Faces, in which she performed "Monotonous", "Uska Dara", and "C'est Si Bon". Though it is often alleged that Welles and Eartha had an affair during her 1957 run in Shinbone Alley, Eartha categorically denied this in a June 2001 interview with George Wayne of Vanity Fair. Her other films in the 1950s included Mark of the Hawk (1957), St. Louis Blues (1958) and Anna Lucasta (1959).
Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Eartha recorded; worked in film, television, and nightclubs; and returned to the Broadway stage, in Mrs. Patterson (during the 1954–1955 season), Shinbone Alley (in 1957), and the short-lived Jolly's Progress (in 1959). In 1964, Eartha helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California.
In the late 1960s, the television series Batman featured her as Catwoman after Julie Newmar left the role.
In 1968, during the administration of US President Lyndon B. Johnson, Eartha encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon. Her remarks reportedly caused Mrs. Johnson to burst into tears and led to a derailment in Eartha's career. The public reaction to Eartha's statements was extreme, both pro and con. Publicly ostracized in the US, she devoted her energies to performances in Europe and Asia. It is said that Eartha's career in the US was ended following her comments about the Vietnam war, after which she was branded "a sadistic nymphomaniac" by the CIA.
Eartha 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 1978, Eartha did the voice-over in a TV commercial for the album Aja by the rock group Steely Dan. She wrote three autobiographies — Thursday's Child (1956), Alone with Me (1976) and I'm Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten (1989).
In 1984, Eartha returned to the music charts with a disco song, "Where Is My Man", the first certified gold record of her career. "Where Is My Man" reached the Top 40 on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at No. 36; The song also made the Top 10 on the US Billboard dance chart, where it reached No. 7. The single was followed by the album I Love Men on the Record Shack label. Eartha found new audiences in nightclubs across the UK and the US, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations. Eartha appeared with Jimmy James and George Burns at a fundraiser in 1990 produced by Scott Sherman, Agent from The Atlantic Entertainment Group. It was arranged that James would impersonate Eartha and then Eartha would walk out to take the microphone. This was met with a standing ovation. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat), which was originally intended to be recorded by Divine, received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached No. 32 in the charts in that country.
In 1991, Eartha returned to the screen in the Jim Varney children's Halloween movie Ernest Scared Stupid as Old Lady Hackmore. In 1992, Eartha had a supporting role as Lady Eloise in the film Boomerang starring Eddie Murphy. 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. 1995 saw Eartha appear as herself in an episode of The Nanny, where she performed a song in French and flirted with Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). In November 1996, she appeared on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy!. In 2000, Eartha again returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. Beginning in late 2000, she starred as the Fairy Godmother in the US national tour of Cinderella alongside Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. She reprised her role as the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of Cinderella, which took place at Lincoln Center during the holiday season of 2004.
One of Eartha's more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. She also lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove, for which she won her first Annie Award, 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 won two Emmy Awards and two more Annie Awards (both in 2007–08) for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production. She had a voiceover as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot.
In her later years, Eartha made annual appearances in the New York Manhattan cabaret scene at venues such as the Ballroom and the Café Carlyle.
Eartha was also a guest star in The Simpsons episode "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", where she was depicted as one of Krusty's past marriages.
From October to early December 2006, Eartha co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical Mimi le Duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa Williams.
Eartha was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics' Smoke Signals collection in August 2007. She re-recorded "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website, and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month.
Eartha Kitt won awards for her film, television and stage work, and in 1960, the Hollywood Walk of Fame honored her with a star, which can be found on 6656 Hollywood Boulevard.
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