Not a photo of the actual event. There does not appear to be one.
January 18, 1968: Singer-actress Eartha Kitt nearly destroys her career -- for a good cause.
Born in 1927, on a cotton plantation in South Carolina, Kitt was sent to live with an aunt, where she was abused. When that aunt died, Eartha went to live with another relative, in New York's Harlem, and attended what became known as the High School for Performing Arts -- or, as it has been known since 1980, the school from the movie Fame.
By 1945 she was appearing on Broadway. By 1951, she was successful as a cabaret singer and a recording artist. In 1953, she sang the sexiest Christmas song of all time, "Santa Baby." She became a black woman that even white men could admit their attraction to. She married real estate investor John William McDonald in 1960, had a daughter named Kitt McDonald in 1961, and divorced John in 1964.
After Julie Newmar's film career rendered her unavailable for the Batman TV series, Kitt was cast to replace her as the villainess Catwoman for the show's 3rd season. She appeared in a single episode, "Catwoman's Dressed to Kill," on December 14, 1967; and a two-part episode in which she teamed up with Cesar Romero's Joker: "The Funny Feline Felonies" on December 28, 1967 and "The Joke's On Catwoman" on January 4, 1968.
In the comics, Catwoman is an "antihero" who "plays both sides of the law," aiding both heroes and villains as it suits her, but eventually became the love of Batman's life. But on the TV show, with Newmar and Kitt, and in the 1966 film with Lee Meriwether, she was all villain, still willing to flirt with Batman. But, as Kitt was black and Batman portrayer Adam West was white, this was played down in Kitt's appearances.
Even though this was just 3 appearances, it made her forever remembered as Catwoman. She embraced it, making purring and growling sounds in public. She was a favorite guest of Bill Maher on his 1997-2002 ABC late-night show Politically Incorrect, and when she would do the purr, Maher would say, "Easy, Catwoman!" But just 2 weeks after her final appearance on Batman -- and it would have been her final appearance no matter what, as the show was canceled, anyway -- she did something that might have gotten her fired, anyway.
It was the day after her 41st birthday, January 18, 1968. Lyndon B. Johnson was President, and facing re-election as the Vietnam War was not going well. His wife, Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson, hosted the Women Doers Luncheon at the White House, to discuss what could be done to address juvenile delinquency. Fifty women were in attendance and Mrs. Johnson asked for comments.
Kitt, not caring about the decorum of the location, said, "I think we have missed the main point of this luncheon. We have forgotten the main reason we have juvenile delinquency. You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. Tey will get high. They don't want to go to school ,because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."
The First Lady was a lady, but she was no shrinking violet. She stood up for the office that had invited Kitt, as well as for the man she married who held it, saying, "Just because there is a war going on, I see no reason to be uncivilized." Other women in the room leapt to the Johnsons' defense. When Kitt left the White House, there was no limousine awaiting her, the way there had been to pick her up and take her there.
The President had her blacklisted: All her bookings were cancelled. The CIA branded her "a sadistic nymphomaniac" -- apparently forgetting that Batman was just a TV show. One of the most famous Black performers of the era couldn't find work, despite having a 6-year-old daughter to support.
So, like Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson before her, she left for Europe, where she was widely embraced. Her blacklisting didn't stop the independent TV stations that showed reruns of Batman from showing her episodes, but that was hardly enough to aid her income.
In 1975, The New York Times reported that, immediately following the luncheon President Johnson had the CIA investigate Kitt, removing any doubt that he'd personally tried to end her career. That article aided her return to the U.S., and in 1978 she performed in the Broadway hit musical Timbuktu!, earning a Tony nomination.
She went on to win 3 Emmy Awards for doing cartoon voiceovers, and basically "played Eartha Kitt" for the rest of her life. She played the Wicked Witch of the West in a touring company of The Wizard of Oz, and an aging cabaret singer on an episode of Living Single. Kitt became a businesswoman in Connecticut.
With daughter Kitt and granddaughter Rachel Shapiro
Eartha Kitt died on December 25, 2008, at the age of 81. Kitt McDonald Shapiro has spoken of how "Santa Baby" made her mother a star, especially at Christmastime, but also of how the Christmas season marked her final days. But she embraces her mother's legacy: Among the products she sells is a perfume named Eartha.
UPDATE: In the "worlds collide" scene near the end of the 2023 film The Flash, Earth Kitt's Catwoman voice was used, but not her image. They did the same with the Joker, played by Cesar Romero, who was not only Hispanic, but gay. They did slightly better with Adam West, showing a still photo of him, as well as using his voice.
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January 18, 1968 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA:
* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Baltimore Bullets, 142-116 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Tom Meschery scored 33 for the Sonics, who were in their 1st season of play.
* The Cincinnati Royals beat the San Francisco Warriors, 148-121 at the Cincinnati Gardens.
* And the Chicago Bulls beat the San Diego Rockets, 123-110 at the Chicago Stadium. Flynn Robinson scored 35 for the Bulls, in their 2nd season, against the Rockets, in their 1st. In 1971, the Rockets moved to Houston.
There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association, which was in its 1st season:
* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Pittsburgh Pipers, 107-106 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Despite the defeat, Connie Hawkins scored 45 for the Pipers, who went on to win the 1st ABA Championship.
* The Denver Rockets beat the Minnesota Muskies, 111-94 at the Auditorium Arena in Denver. In 1974, anticipating a move to the NBA, which already had the Houston Rockets, the ABA's Denver team changed its name to the Nuggets.
* And the Dallas Chaparrals beat the Oakland Oaks, 119-112 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
And there were 3 games in the NHL:
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center
in the Minneapolis suburb of
Bloomington, Minnesota.
* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
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