Customer Reviews

I'm Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten

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Ms. Kitt takes us on a poignant and moving journey through her life. She holds no punches as she shares the her humble beginnings and her serendipitous rise and later fall and then majestic rise again in her celebrated life. Her descriptions of places and incidents allow the reader to feel and become a part of her world. She offers us the true meaning of love when she describes her life encounter with her daughter and entrusts us with her non-traditional formula for raising a happy,loving and independent child. Occasionally, her truths are so raw and heartfelt they bring tears to the readers eyes, but her later triumphs make our hearts soar with pride and love. Ms. Kitt is a truly phenomenal woman and one can only hope that she picks up her pen one more time and shares with us what life has been like for her in the newest chapter of her life. A GREAT MUST READ! :)

Today I finished reading I'm Still Here, the third autobiography by Eartha Kitt, written in 1989. The life stories Kitt describes are as dramatic as the ones she has told in TV interviews: that of being abandoned by her mother as a child; having to live in the forest and eat out of garbage cans; and having a lifelong feeling of never being wanted because she was biracial. After catching a break with the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, Kitt's career took off with successful dance tours, then plays and movies starring Orson Welles and James Dean.

In describing events in her life, Eartha Kitt has been criticized for remembering extravagant designer dresses she wore decades ago (including all the accompanying accessories) yet forgetting or glossing over many years at a time. While writing this book, in all likelihood a photo of a remarkable event triggered Kitt's memory to write about it, and chances are these photos are the source of her couture memory. I can't tell you the number of times she makes reference to Dom Pérignon champagne and beluga caviar. Kitt binges on both from a very early age.

The final chapters about the marriage of her daughter were melodramatic. Over-the-top more like. Kitt felt as though she lost the only person who never abandoned or judged her when her daughter got married. Kitt writes that she was crying her eyes out, walking around like a zombie and hiding away immediately after the wedding ceremony. She totally blocked out seeing her son-in-law that day since all her attention was focussed on her daughter. The drama was laughable. However I do praise Kitt for her openness in some aspects of her life. She talked about going through menopause and how the repercussions for voicing her anti-Vietnam War sentiments --spoken to none other than Lady Bird Johnson face-to-face-- ruined her career in North America for many years.

Kitt was the second Catwoman, after Julie Newmar, yet she hardly wrote anything about the "Batman" series, other than that Adam West (Batman) and Burt Ward (Robin) took themselves too seriously, taking their TV roles into real life. Her only reminiscence she wrote about was learning to drive the Catmobile. Kitt was one of only a few artists to tour apartheid-era South Africa, and she explains why she did so and faces up to her critics.

By 1989 Eartha Kitt had reinvented herself as a dance artist with a loyal gay male following. Her 1983 hit "Where is My Man" was an international hit and her first gold record. Kitt touches briefly on her role as a gay diva.

Eartha Kitt gave a very interesting read about her life,the part about her childhood was very disturbing and sad.I am sorry to read that she never found a man who loved her the way she loved him and could not spend his life with her because of racial prejudice and pressure from friends and relatives.

Eartha Mae Keith (never explains how/when/why she changed her name to Kitt - unless I missed it) takes us on an incredible journey from her meager and abusive upbringing in the south to the chance opportunity in New York that jumpstarts her career and propels to her fame and fortune in the US and abroad. Sometimes I found myself not believing a word of what Ms. Kitt had written about her exploits in London and Turkey and wherever it was she found herself, but it made for interesting reading, nonetheless. She also seemed to be a bit stuck on her wardrobe at times, but I guess that goes along with the celebrity that is Eartha Kitt.

I'm glad she talked about the event that all but ruined her career in the States and I'm not surprised at the chain of events that followed. Eartha tells her side of the story about her life, loves, and losses. A real treat.

I read this book and it's obvious that Eartha Kitt has a problem with being black. She claims that the reason they didn't show the movie she was in with Sammy Davis Jr. in the South, was because the racist Southerners might believe she was white. If Eartha Kitt thinks that she would be mistaken for white, then excuse me, but this is the Queen of England typing this review.