EARTHA KITT
During a career that began in the late '40s, Eartha Kitt has played stages all over the world and chatted with Nehru, Churchill and Einstein. Orson Welles called her "the most exciting woman in the world" when she played Helen of Troy. She has released over 50 records, written 3 books (most recently, I'm Still Here) and appeared in more than 10 movies, making her film debut in New Faces of 1954 and playing opposite Nat "King" Cole in St Louis Blues. In her dazzling stage shows, Eartha Kitt projects sensual arrogance, sophistication, easy grace and risqué wit-especially in her improvised interactions with the audience.
Eartha's fan club is run by Peter Robertson c/o PO Box 4192. Fresno CA 93744 (send self-addressed stamped envelope). She is managed by Kitt Shapiro (888 7th Ave, 37th floor, NY, NY 10106). Eartha Kitt was interviewed backstage in Manchester, England. after her performance as the "genie" in a stage production of Aladdin's Lamp.
VALE: When you were invited to a White House luncheon, didn't you cause a scandal?
EARTHA KITT: In 1968, during the Vietnam War, I was invited by Lady Bird Johnson to give my opinion about the problems in the United States, specifically "Why is there so much juvenile delinquency in the streets of America?" But the First Lady seemed to be more interested in decorating the windows of the ghet tos with flowerboses-she wasn't interested in bear ing anything other than what she wanted to hear. I mean-it's fine to put flowers in the ghettos and ba tify America," but let's take care of the necessities first give people jaks, which is what people want in order to have dignity and respect, and find a way to get us out of poverty
This luncheon was for 50 women who were work ing in different communities across the United States.
I was working with an organisation called Kidsville, for young people who were trying to get off the streets and develop themselves as personalities more com structive to our society. Young boys were telling me that if they were "good" and had no criminal record, their "reward" would be having a gun put into their hands and being sent off to fight a war they were not
in accord with. And when they came back from this war, they were not retraind to detox from their hatred against whomever they were fighting.
The parents did not want to raise children so they could be killed by foreign bullets-as toys the politi cians could do whatever they wanted with. The par ents had raised their children to live by the Ten Commandments, yet when they became 18 years old they were taught to go against the Ten Command ments-Thou shalt not kill-became the govern
ment ordered them to The young boys who went to Vietnam came home to find out they didn't have a job They discovered that they'd been discarded; now they were att When I was a child during World War II, I remember we were taught to hate the Ger- mans (who were blonde and blue-eyed), yet after the war when we saw
Germanic-looking peo
ple we had to "check" ourselves. We were also taught to hate the Japa nese-but we were nev
er taught er to hate them. Of course, you should hate the person who is initiating these wars...but not the peo ple themselves. Yer as children we were edu cated by newsreels to hate, hate, hate whatev
er group our govern ment decided to be fighting...
Anyway, when it came my turn to speak, I said to the president's wife, "Vietnam is the
main reason we are hav
ing trouble with the youth of America. It is a war without explanation or reason... To beautify Ameri ca, it seems, is to beautify her with jobs and less taxes and getting out of Vietnam." I said that the young ghetto boys thought it better to have a legal stigma against them-then they would be considered "unde sirable" and would not be sent to the war, they could stay home. In their opinion, in this society the good guys lost and the bad guys won
I didn't say this ranting and raving (like it was reported in the newspapers), but we were in a large room, we didn't have microphones, and we had to speak loudly enough to be heard. That incident, ported in such a way as to deface me in the eyes of the American people, obviously had to have been given to the newspapers by someone from the White House probably the press secretary: "Eartha Kitt makes the First Lady cry. There were no reporters present (all the photos and TV footage of myself and Lady Bird Johnson had been shot earlier). So this was a manaf tared far
But from that incident, which was reported all over the world, the president found out he was not so much in favor in the eyes of the American people as he thought. I got letters from over 500 women saying they felt the same way I did-from places like Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Europe; this mail is still somewhere in my office in Connecticut. Mrs Johnson claimed she an swered 25,000 letters in 3 weeks' time [about this but I don't see how that was possible; I'm still (after over 20 years) trying to answer mine! And I snill get mail about that incident, people still come up to me and say, "Thank you for helping us get out of Vietnam. Thank you for saving my son
V Didn't you suffer because of that?
ER: Of course within two hours I was out of work in America. President Johnson telephoned the media and said, "I do not want to see that woman's face anywhere." They were out to get rid of me-so first of all they sent the 12 to find something "bversive" on me. And the FBI came back and said, "Her only prob lem is she loves her country and she's perfectly will-