Today’s Dashing Divorcee is the legendary icon Eartha Kitt.
Born into tragic circumstances on a cotton plantation, Eartha catapulted herself out of poverty and abuse at the age of 16 by performing on tour with the Katharine Dunham Company. She learned to speak 4 languages and sang in 11. She had many hit songs in the 1950s, including the still hugely popular Santa Baby, I Want to Be Evil, Uska Dara, C’est Bon, and Old Fashioned Girl. Eartha fell in love and married one of her many suitors in 1960, but alas, the marriage didn’t last. They divorced four years later with Eartha leaving him on the grounds of “mental cruelty.”
But Eartha didn’t let life crush her … oh no…
Even with her broken heart, she raised her daughter on her own and continued acting, recording music, and smashing stereotypes. No one could growl and purr like Eartha, and in 1967, she played the iconic Catwoman in the final season of Batman. She sang on Broadway and in movies and television, wrote several books about her life, was deeply involved in Civil Rights. She performed up until the day she died in 2008.
I fell in love with Eartha the moment I heard her unique voice back in the early 90’s. When I read her autobiography, Confessions of a Sex Kitten, and learned about her tragic life circumstances that she never let overcame to live at her optimal potential, she became one of my inspirations. I was lucky enough to see Eartha perform her cabaret show several times in the 90’s at both the Hollywood Roosevelt and The Carlyle in NYC. The last time I saw her in Hollywood at 78 years old, she belly danced, told inspirational stories, bantered with the audience, and sang her many, many hit songs.
One night at the Roosevelt, she was putting her handprints into a mold and the man told her she could write a quote if she wanted. She stuck one finger into the concrete and wrote, “To Thine Own Self Be True.”
YES! I have kept a framed photo of her as a young saucy singer next to my bed for three decades. Here’s to the broken-hearted single moms who stand back up and run right back into the ring!
Viva La Eartha Kitt!! Viva La Dashing Divorcee!!
