{"id":2603,"date":"2008-12-25T20:48:51","date_gmt":"2008-12-26T00:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=2603"},"modified":"2018-01-05T13:50:48","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T17:50:48","slug":"2603","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=2603","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Eartha Kitt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eartha Kitt<\/span>, the multi-talented, singer, actress<\/span> and author<\/span> has died<\/span> at the age of 81<\/span> from colon cancer. Her <\/span>career spanned sixty years<\/span><\/a> and made her an international star<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Born to poor parents [a mother <\/span>of African-American\/Cherokee<\/span> heritage and a white father<\/span>] in 1927<\/span>, Eartha<\/span> was sent to live with relatives when her mother’s new husband refused to have a mixed child in the house. Eartha’s big break<\/span> came in 1946<\/span> when she auditioned and won a spot as a dancer with the Dunham dance group<\/span>. This in turn led to work on Broadway<\/span> and later a Paris nightclub<\/span> where she was spotted by Orson Welles<\/span> who called her the “most exciting woman in the world” and cast her in his Paris<\/span> stage production of “Faust.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

From there her career really took off with a recording contract [Eartha<\/span> could sing in several languages] and songs such as <\/span>“I Want to be Evil” and the classic <\/span>“Santa, Baby.”<\/span> At a time when women of color were often seen on television as maids and secretaries, Ms. Kitt<\/span> had a reoccurring role as the sexy Catwoman<\/span> on the popular tv series Batman<\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1968<\/span>, her career in the US<\/span> came to a screeching halt. Ms. Kitt<\/span>, along with several other important ladies of the time had been invited to a luncheon at the White House<\/span> hosted by President Johnson’s wife<\/span>. They were there to discuss youth crime. Ms. Kitt<\/span> brought up the Viet Nam war<\/span> and the unrest it was causing among young people, and Mrs. Johnson<\/span> took offense. The incident made the papers and suddenly Ms. Kitt <\/span>found herself blacklisted. So she went overseas where she continued to perform until her return to Broadway<\/span> in 1974<\/span>. Jimmy Carter<\/span> invited her back to the White House<\/span> in 1978<\/span>. In 2006<\/span>, President Bush<\/span> had her back once again, this time to light the National Christmas tree<\/span>.<\/span><\/span> Ms. Kitt <\/span>never retired. She is one of the few entertainers to earn nominations for Emmy<\/span>, [she won two and was nominated for three], Grammy<\/span> [nominated twice] and Tony<\/span> [nominatied twice] awards.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Kitt<\/span> leaves behind a daughter and two grandchildren. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family, friends and fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eartha Kitt, the multi-talented, singer, actress and author has died at the age of 81 from colon cancer. Her career<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-rip","comments-off"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2603"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19625,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions\/19625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}