Movie Musings: Disney and More

Eartha Kitt: Entertaining Beyond All Reason

If you’re hearing an unmistakable, high-pitched speaking and singing voice with a sultry, sensual air, then you know you must be hearing Eartha Kitt. An incredible talent with a career spanning more than five decades, she was a star on Broadway, Television, and Film (including some things for Disney)! Eartha Kitt was another one of many talented performers whose life and work deserves another look. She overcame challenges and sorrow, but found success as a performer in the U.S. and abroad.

Eartha Mae Keith was born on a cotton plantation in St. Matthews, South Carolina on January 17th, 1927. She was born out-of-wedlock, as a result of her father, whose identity is unknown to this day, unfortunately raping her mother. Her mother, Annie Mae Keith, later gave her away to be raised by her Aunt Rosa when she went to live with another black man who refused to accept Eartha because of her pale complexion. Sadly, she was also abused while living at her aunt’s as well. After her mother passed away, young Eartha was sent to live with another relative named Mamie Kitt in Harlem, New York City, where she attended the Metropolitan Vocational High School (which would later be named High School for the Performing Arts).

Kitt’s performing career took off in 1943 when she became a member of the Katherine Dunham Company (the very first African-American modern dance company) at just 16 years of age. While singing with the group she recorded songs such as “Let’s Do It,” “Champagne Taste,” and “C’est si bon.”She remained with the group until 1948, and that same year she made her film debut playing an uncredited role in the Universal film Cabash.  In 1950, Orson Welles gave Kitt her first starring role as Helen of Troy in a Broadway production of Dr. Faustus. Kitt and Welles later worked together on Broadway again in 1957 in a play called Shinbone Alley, where they were rumored to have had an affair, though she herself denied that in one of the later interviews of her life. She also began performing live on television and in nightclubs as well throughout the 1950s. 

In the late 1960s, she landed the role of Catwoman on Batman (1966-1968) after Julie Newmar left the show and played the role for five episodes. In 1968, she made controversial anti-war statements about the Vietnam War during a White House Luncheon and First Lady “Lady Bird” Johnson took the comments very personally. As a result, Kitt became unemployable all throughout the United States, so began performances in Asia and Europe. Throughout the ‘70s she appeared on the BBC’s variety show The Good Old Days (1953-1983), though she was later invited to return to New York City in 1978 to star as the female lead in the musical Timbuktu! which earned her a Tony Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. In 1987 she succeeded Delores Gray in London’s West End Original Production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. After that show, she landed her own one-woman show in which she performed the classic “Follies,” song “I’m Still Here.” Both productions received monumental acclaim.

In 1991, Eartha Kitt starred as Francis “Old Lady” Hackmore in Touchstone’s Ernest Scared Stupid. In 1998, she landed the voice-over role of Bagheera in Disney’s direct-to-video film, The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story. There actually is a scene in this film where Baloo (voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray) calls Bagheera “Catwoman” in reference to Eartha Kitt’s famed role from “Batman.” Not long after finishing that film, Kitt was hired by Disney again to voice the ruthless Yzma in The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), a role that she reprised for the direct-to-video sequel, Kronk’s New Groove (2005) as well as the series, The Emperor’s New School (2006-2008). Kitt worked for Disney once more when she was cast as Madame Zeroni in the 2003 adaptation of the acclaimed novel, Holes. 

Eartha Kitt passed away on Christmas Day, 2008 at the age of 81 due to colon cancer. Her resilience in extending her talents in variety of areas and around the world is to be envied and admired. She will forever be remembered for her distinctive “cat-like” voice that makes her immediately recognizable to audiences of stage, screen, and television.