Word: kitt
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Something in a young chanteuse from South Carolina saw the genius in changing her name ever so slightly. Eartha Mae Keith became Eartha Kitt - discarding an ordinary surname for one of inspired felinity. It heralded the sex kitten who purred the lyrics to her lightly naughty hit singles of the early '50s; whose sophisticated persona in films and on Broadway barely concealed her claws; and who would achieve camp renown as the prowling, growling Catwoman on the '60s Batman TV series...
...Kitt's persevering through a life that began hard and was never less than challenging - her ability to thrive in good times and survive all the other times - demanded the strength and resilience of a creature sturdier than a house cat. A tiger, perhaps. When she died on Dec. 25 at 81 in Connecticut, she had been enticing and educating the public for more than 60 years. Kitt succumbed to colon cancer on Christmas day, just as thousands, perhaps millions of old-timers were playing some Yuletide CD containing her seasonal ode to seduction, Santa Baby. (See TIME...
...careers, and never matched their European eclat back home. Eartha was just starting hers. And in postwar America, the movies, Broadway and cabaret were more welcoming to black performers, especially ones with a touch of aristocratic or sexual exotica: Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, and Eartha - not Keith - Kitt...
...Orson Welles was the first famous American to fall under her spell and exploit her allure. Calling Kitt "the most exciting woman in the world," he cast her as Helen of Troy in a production of Faust that played in France, Belgium and Germany. Back in the States, she went on to make her mark in seven media - cabaret, Broadway, pop records, movies, TV, the concert stage and the best-seller charts - one at a time. From a stint at the Village Vanguard, she was cast in the Leonard Sillman revue New Faces of 1952 and given...
...Best Vehicle: Attack-mode KITT. Competition was stiff in this category, what with Nite Owl's ship, Bond's Aston Martin and some sort of GI Joe digging device on the floor. But this Mustang on steroids designed for NBC's new Knight Rider boasts Lamborghini doors, a top speed of 377 m.p.h. and, most importantly, turbo-boost. All that vehicular decadence helps us forget about $4/gal...