Eartha Kitt had six songs chart in the US Top 30s. Songs like “Uska Dara” and “I Want to be Evil” really show off her vocal talent. You may even know some of Eartha Kitt’s most famous songs. Have you ever been Christmas shopping in a store when Christmas music is playing? Was one of the songs that you heard “Santa Baby?” If so, then you can thank Eartha Kitt. She made “Santa Baby” a smash hit in 1953 and it is still played every year around Christmas. Over a dozen different singers have sung it as well, but Ms. Eartha Kitt was the first one to ever sing it.
In 2004 Halle Berry took on the role of Catwoman. However, she was not the first African American to wear the famous catlike ears and costume. The enchanting Eartha Kitt was the first woman of color to fill the role on American television in the 1960s. Kitt would fill in as Catwoman during the last season of Batman in the 1960s when the previous actresses to play Catwoman were no longer able to. Eartha Kitt was a talented singer and actress with a very distinctive sounding voice. It was something that she will always be remembered for. Her performance as Selina Kyle (Catwoman) in the 1960s television series Batman helped boost her popularity. Having Eartha Kitt play Catwoman was very brave and risky at the time because the women who had played the part of Catwoman before her were white actresses. It was the 1960s. The country was still strongly divided between black and whites. African-American women were rarely seen on television and most certainly not in such strong roles. Women like Nichelle Nichols and Eartha Kitt were becoming pioneers for women of color being shown on television. Eartha Kitt was never afraid to stand up for herself or what she believed in.