How Eartha Kitt rose from ‘extreme poverty’ to superstardom

With her voluptuous drool and feline charisma, the singer and actor exuded an air of sophistication. However, Eartha Kitt, who was born on January 17, 1927, had the toughest childhood. In History takes a look at how she overcame her rocky beginnings to become a star of stage and screen, and the first Black Catwoman.

Hailed by Orson Welles as “the most exciting woman in the world” and vilified by the CIA as a “sadistic nymphomaniac,” Eartha Kitt had an extraordinary life and career. After joining the company Katherine Dunham’s By the age of 19, the pioneering African-American dancer was appearing on Broadway and then taking the cabarets of London and Paris by storm. Her performances of songs from the 1950s such as: santa baby“Just an Old-Fashioned Girl” and “I Want to be Evil” couldn’t be better. In 1967, she wowed mainstream television audiences with: catwoman The third series of the camp classic Batman. She then won a new generation of fans as the villainous Yzma in the 2000 Disney cartoon. Emperor’s new groove. She passed away on Christmas Day 2008 at the age of 81.

Born Asa Mae Keith on January 17, 1927, on a cotton plantation in South Carolina, she couldn’t have had a more difficult start to life. She did not know her father and her mother left her to be raised by various relatives. Speaking on the BBC Wales program Late Call in 1971, she said: “I remember when I had nothing to eat for an excruciatingly long time. I had to rely on the forest and whatever I could dig.” It was like weeds and grass, and at the bottom there was something like an onion growing, and when I was able to eat things like that, I was fine. ”

Describing herself as an “urchin” as a child, she said, “I’m so happy that she’s always going to be a part of me, because she does what I know I need to do on stage. It will help me do that,” he said.

Despite being such a confident and calm performer, Kitt never let her raw emotions surface when she was interviewed, which is why Late Call host Ronnie Williams It was shown when one of the famous quotes was read aloud. Kit answered that because of this child neglect, she had always lived with the feeling that “I am the most important person.” The most important person in the world didn’t want you. She added, “I think there are many explanations for why my mother let me go. Even if I try to explain to myself why my mother let me go, it’s still very difficult to accept.” I think so,” he added. . ”

Decades later, Kit’s beloved daughter Kit Shapiro revealed that the singer died without knowing the identity of her white father. she told the Observer In 2013, his mother finally looked at his birth certificate and cried, only to learn that the man’s name had been blanked out by authorities to protect his reputation in the segregated American South. That’s what it means.

Kitt told Williams on Late Call that she was not accepted into the black community because of her mixed genetics. “They don’t understand that I don’t think of myself in terms of being black. I think of myself as belonging to everyone, but I don’t think people should always feel that way. I believe that I am an illegitimate child as long as I feel that I have to suffer prejudice because I belong to only one race, one nationality, and one religion. At the same time, it was not a completely black family. I heard that my father was white, but my grandparents were Cherokee Indians and my mother was half black, so my blood is yours and it’s everyone else’s, so I always identify myself as that. I think so and would rather not be prejudiced against any of the other bloods. That’s stupid to me. ”

Kitt said her travels convinced her that economic inequality is at the root of much prejudice around the world. “When we realize that no matter the color of our skin or our religion, we have the same value, the next person, no matter what race or religion they belong to, will do the same.” If we could do that, I think the situation would be much healthier.”

The singer and actor was being interviewed to promote his week-long stay on BBC Wales. double diamond club Located in the picturesque town of Caerphilly, near Cardiff. This popular venue hosted big stars like Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash at the time, but it was still a long way from Broadway.

The kit was canceled in the United States at the time. Her career was on the decline due to an incident. white house luncheon In 1968, he discussed the causes of juvenile delinquency with Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. As protests against the Vietnam War intensify across the United States, Kit’s diagnosis of the cause of the problem upset the genteel audience. She told the First Lady: “You send some of the best people in this country to be shot and seriously injured. They’re going to revolt in the streets. They’re going to drink weed and get high. They don’t want to go to school. No, because it’s their fault.” They would be separated from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam. ”

In response, the CIA compiled a dossier on her. The New York Times revealed In 1975, the extensive report stated that it “contains second-hand gossip about entertainers, but there is no evidence of any ties to foreign intelligence.” Asked later about the infamous “nymphomaniac” claims reportedly contained in the document, Kitt replied: extremely negative: “If it were me, what does that have to do with the CIA?”

While her career in her home country was in the doldrums, she spent time in England touring local clubs. During one such stay at the decidedly sober Batley Variety Club in West Yorkshire, a BBC reporter asked her how such a sophisticated celebrity could relate to the locals. I asked him if he could do it. She replied: “I wasn’t born into such a different world. I came from extreme poverty. I got things, yes. Things didn’t get me.”

It wasn’t until 1978, ten years after the incident at the White House, that Kitt made a triumphant return to Broadway in the musical Timbuktu! She continued to visit the UK frequently, often making outrageous appearances on TV talk shows. Again, her vulnerability was never something that came to the fore. great in 1989 BBC appearanceshe started by flirtatiously placing her foot on presenter Terry Wogan’s lap. After just a few minutes, she confessed that her public self is completely different from her private self.

she said: “You know something, Mr. Wogan? I’m not an extrovert. You can make fun of me as ‘Eartha Kitt,’ but not as Eartha May? Forget it. I’m behind the bushes, in the chair. Behind everything that I have, behind Eartha Mae, I never felt that sense of security that she would be accepted, that maybe she could hide. I don’t know. ”

Kit’s eternal loves were his fans and his daughter. Abandoned by her biological mother, Kit insisted on taking her daughter around the world. Her marriage to businessman Bill McDonald lasted less than four years in 1960, and she never remarried. When asked if she was reluctant to let her guard down, Wogan said: “Men always wanted to put me down, but they wouldn’t pick me up.”

She said it was the love she received from the enthusiastic crowd that “made me feel like I was truly worthy.” But she also explained, “When I went backstage and took off my makeup, I was no longer Eartha Kitt, I was Eartha May again.”