Deceased Artiste: "That Bad Eartha"

So many immaculately talented folks kicked off right as the last year ended. I hope to do tributes to a few of them on the show, but I wanted to present footage of one of them as soon as I could upload it. This is Earth Kitt doing "Montonous" which she debuted in the Broadway show New Faces of 1952. That show was turned into a film called New Faces in 1954 by Harry Horner. The picture is terribly stilted, but it does feature the first notable roles of Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, Ronny Graham, Carol Lawrence, Robert Clary (who is in waaaaay too many skits), and Eartha, who simply blows the show away with four songs.

I offer up her last tune in the pic, and one which set the tone for her image for years and years to come:

The inscrutable Satchmo

Every few years there's a really startling blackface sighting in Asian culture (me, I'm fond of the dementia of those Hong Kong movies that used Chinese guys in afro wigs and facepaint for fight scenes). This very heartfelt but wrongheaded tribute to the legendary Louis Armstrong is pretty amazing.



Thanks to John Walsh of the blissfully nasty You Are Hated!.