DAMN IT! Is there a curse out there? Is the world destined to lose female icons before 2008 is out!? They weren’t even on my Death List. Eartha Kitt was actually here, in Chicago, just before she died, filming a bit for PBS which I’m sure I’ll have to tape.
Where to start with her? Her rendition of “Santa Baby” is one of the best ever, and was certified gold (which means it rocked, damn it!). She was Catwoman on TV long before Halle Berry’s travesty was a thought in anyone’s head. She was a triple threat and a star of stage, screen, song and everything else she put her hand to. Orson Welles cast her as Helen of Troy in his film Dr. Faustus back in the 1950s. Think about that, will you? 1950. A mixed-race actress playing the woman whose face sailed a thousand ships. Okay, glad you’ve come with me here. I’m leaving out the part where Orson had an affair with her, but he called her “the most exciting woman in the world.”
She won a Daytime Emmy this year for voice work on Disney’s The Emperor’s New School. She’s been working hard, day and night, for most of her life and 6 weeks ago was filming a PBS special. And she’s dead of colon cancer.
I’ll miss her. The world will miss her, if they know what they’re doing. Course we elected Bush twice, so obviously not so much.