The Philippe Halsman Archive: Halsman Archive File 16 -Eartha Kitt 1954

Tragedy often bears the sweetest fruits. Eartha Mae Kitt, born in 1927 on a plantation in South Carolina, likely was conceived through rape. Her Black and Cherokee mother rejected her, and she was sent to live with an aunt, where she was abused physically, psychologically, and sexually. Eventually she was sent to live with another relative, who brought her to Harlem, NY to live. In 1943, at the age of 15, she auditioned and got a scholarship to join the Katherine Dunham Company (the first black modern dance company), where she joined a troop of dancers, singers, actors, and musicians. She found on the stage the love, attention, validation, and self worth that she was cruelly denied as a child. She stayed with the company for 5 years, and in 1950 movie director Orson Wells gave here the roll of Helen of Troy in a staging of Dr. Faustus. Wells famously called her “the most exciting woman in the world,” and became a mentor figure for her. Kitt’s breakthrough moment was the musical comedy film “New Faces” 1954, where the Wold discovered her songs “C’est Is Bon” and “Santa Baby.” Halsman had two photoshoots with Kitt around this time. One of the photos was used as a pin-up centerfold in Esquire, and another was used on the cover of JET magazine, both in 1955. She continued to perform in nightclubs, on Broadway, TV, and Film through the 1960s (Halsman’s photo of Kitt was also used on the cover of her 1962 “Bad But Beautiful” album). Kitt was always an outspoken defender of the marginalized and abused. She established a youth foundation in Watts, CA and was a peace activist. While at the White House in 1968 she made some public anti-Vietnam war statements, which made the First Lady cry, and triggered a smear campaign by the CIA which defamed her as a “Sadistic Nymphomaniac”. A dossier was circulated which made performing in America difficult, so Kitt could only perform in Europe and Asia after this. Eventually she made her return to Broadway, and a new generation of Americans became familiar with Kitt who was a voice actress for Disney characters. At the end of her life she became an out spoken supporter of LBGTQ rights. Her early life experience gave her understanding of what it was like to be rejected, oppressed, and accused. Eartha Kitt was the construct for the public, a projection of Eartha Mae’s who could receive love and worth. The stage was her survival, and she used her position to lift up others who had no voice.