Eartha Kitt to be featured on History Makers

Julienna Richardson, founder and president of The HistoryMakers, a digital biographer and archivist of Blacks who influence history, announced that Eartha Kitt will be featured in An Evening with Eartha Kitt and will be interviewed by veteran journalist Gwen Ifill on Saturday.

The show will look at Kitt’s career as a versatile artist and her extraordinary accomplishments that span more than six decades.

Kitt made her professional dance debut with the Katherine Dunham Dance company, performing in such modern creations as Blue Holiday, Bal Negre and Casbah.

She was recognized as being among the finest of Dunham’s dancers, along with Vanoye Aikens, Lucille Ellis, Linwood Morris and Jean Leon Destine.

Kitt’s autobiography was classified with other prominent African American famous personalities including W. C. Handy’s Father of the Blues, Taylor Gordan’s Born to Die, Louis Armstrong’s Satchamo-My Life in New Orleans, Ethel Water’s His Eye Is On The Sparrow, Lena Horn’s Lena, Sammy Davis’ Yes, I Can and Billie Holiday’s Lady Sings the Blues.

Kitt was one of the early African Americans to have had musicals created for them on Broadway. In fact, she performed the title role to "Mrs. Patterson in 1953 that was written by Charles Sebree and the co-star was Greer Johnson.

Kitt was born January 17, 1927 and later discovered that her mother was mixed with Cherokee Indian and her father was white.

In an interview with the Defender, Kitt said she was an orphan who had little knowledge of her relatives until later in life.

She was eventually moved from South Carolina to New York where she attended elementary school and Metropolitan High School.

Before studying with Katherine Dunham and becoming a professional dancer, she supported herself with a job in Brooklyn.

Touring with Dunham, Kitt developed friends and ultimately traveled to Mexico, toured Europe and danced in the Prince of Wales Theatre. Eventually the troupe reached Paris where many Negroes lived.

She told how they would meet on the sidewalk cafe’s in Paris, and share their food and discuss life as they also debated situations that affected them, mentioning such standouts as James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Oscar Peterson, Sidney Bechet and others.

She returned to the United States after learning that her aunt had been killed in New York, but the world-renowned entertainer returned to Europe to continue her career.

Crowds welcomed her in Europe.

During her career, Kitt was accused of insulting Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and as a result, suffered professional problems.

She was refused performance opportunities because she made an anti-war statement, though Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., complimented Kitt for her frank comment.

During the 1990s, Eartha Kitt was the voice in "The Jungle Book" and "The Wild Thornberrys," and The Emperor’s "New Groove" providing the voice of the villainess Yzma, for Disney.

Kitt also starred as the fairy godmother in Cinderella, co-starred in the Broadway musical "The Wild Party," played in "Anything But Love, Holes and Nine," and is the voice in the song "Santa Baby."

Kitt said, “I’m still busy in entertainment, and I am featured annually at the Cafe Carlyle in New York where Bobby Short appeared for many, many years.”

Earl Calloway can be reached at ecalloway@chicagodefender.com.

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