Variety Concert brochure - Blackpool - 20th May 1956 - Starring Eartha Kitt and Mary O'Hara

EARTHA KITT At twenty-seven, Eartha Kitt must have more tags than any other living star. "The most exciting woman in the world," said Orson Welles. Eartha's comment to that was "That's only one man's opinion." After hearing her sing for the first time one besotted male stammered that she made him feel like an iron filing when a magnet passed by. \Vith such adjectives as "exotic," "smouldering" and "feline" to describe her it is difficult to visualise her as a child of farmer parents who owned a small piece of land in Columbia, South Carolina.

The year Eartha was born, 1928, was a bumper harvest year and her parents decided to give the child that name by way of thanks for their sudden prosperity. Two years later the father died and Eartha's mother tried to run the farm herself. \Vhen Eartha was five her mother also died and Eartha then lived with poor farming neighbours until she was eight, when an aunt in New York City sent for her. There was little money and the child discovered the best way of escaping from the sordid world of reality and poverty was to live in her own fantasy world. She made up dances and, without any formal lessons, she quickly picked up the tunes of the day and originated her own interpretive dances, winning prizes in her school and church. \Vhen she was fifteen she left school and took a factory job in Brooklyn. She was employed as a seamstress and worked long hours making uniforms for the army. Part of the money she earned went for the support of her aunt and herself and part for piano lessons at the New York Academy. One day, shortly before her sixteenth birthday, a friend took her to meet Katherine Dunham. Miss Dunham auditioned her and was visibly impressed with the girl's obvious talent, her suppleness, mime and improvisation and asked her to join her troupe.

In 1948 the group travelled to Mexico. It was Eartha's first look at a foreign land and the travel bug bit deep. That spring the group sailed for London, then to Paris and through Bslgium, Switzerland and Scandinavia. \Vhen the time came to return to New York, Eartha made her decision. She asked Miss Dunham for a release from her contract and moved into a small hotel by the Seine.

When the troupe left she took a singing engagement at one of the choicest clubs in Paris, Carroll's.

Her impact was phenomenal. The audience went crazy and the following morning she found herself a star. In the summer of 1951, Eartha heard from New York that her aunt had died. She left for America immediately for the funeral. She was despondent and lonely and within a few weeks had sailed back to Paris. On her arrival she was told that Orson Welles had been searching for her.

He wa ited her for the role of Helen of Troy in a Droduction which was to be at the Edward VII Theatre in Paris. Her performance in this difficult and exacting role drew rave notices from the critics. Eartha then starred in two French films and then returned to New York at the invitation of showman Monte Proser to star in his New York club, La Vie en Rose. Then producer Leonard Sillman chose her for a starring role in his sparkling revue, "New Faces of 1952.

American critics were as lavish in their praise of Eartha's singing, acting and dancing talents as the European reviewers had been. She was immediately hailed as the brightest new star on Broadway.

Eartha Kitt had now become one of the country's top recording stars, and one of the most talkedabout personalities in show business, and such records as "Uska Dara," "C'est Si Bon" and "Santa Baby" were at the top of the hit parade. In the autumn of 1954 came her first straight dramatic role in America as the star of Leonard Sillman's production, "Mrs. Patterson," a drama with music in which Eartha played a 15-year-old girl living in poverty in the deep South, with only her vivid imagination providing an "escape" from her dreary surroundings. \Vithout exception the drama critics were exuberant in their acclaim of the acting ability of the astounding Eartha.

During Eartha's brief appearance recently in England, she appeared in TV as the star of "Chance of a Lifetime," and as a guest in "Jack Hylton's Half Hour" televised from the Albany Club. Eartha also began work on a thirty-minute musical film for Associated Rediffusion titled Twenty-four Hours in London." This lithe young artist, who speaks seven languages fluently and who has achieved brilliant successes all over the world, knows that dreams can come true. They have for her. Eartha Kitt is writing her own story at the moment. More than half of it was completed in May 1955. Publishers are already bidding for it. Left to herself, Eartha studies philosophy, reads Plato, Ibsen and Machiavelli, then plays Afro-Cuban jazz far into the night. She collects antiques, dabbles in painting and psychology, writes poetry and plays poker. Some of the gifts she has received include the deed to a palace in Egypt, a string of elephants and a diamond as big as her fist from a prince, but they are all sent back to the givers.

OPERA HOUSE

-

BLACKPOOL

Licensee: Wm. H. H. Smitn

House Manager: Frank Oddy Entertainments Executive Manager: KatKIeen Williams

Whit-Sunday 20th May, 1956 at 6.20 and 8.15 p.m.

J)rog,ramme 1.

The Cockleshell Heroes

F. Vivian Bunn

ERIK OGDEN and the CONCERT ORCHESTRA 2.

The New Vocal Stars ~

GROUP ONE 3.

Europe's Top Trumpet Star ~->

KENNY BAKER Mary O'Hara

4.

From T.V. s 'More Contrary" *—

MARY O'HARA 5.

He Writes Them and Sings Them *—

JOHNNY BRANDON INTERVAL 6.

Rhapsody in Blue

Gershwin

ERIK OGDEN and the

CONCERT ORCHESTRA 7.

Presenting *-*

EARTHA KITT Kenny Baker <rt&rt<*><*>4^^ This Concert is Produced and Presented by

MWXXWWrt^^

<&X&><rt<*>^^

HAROLD FIELDING Fielding House — Haymarlcet London — S.W.I

Johnny Brandon Vital, excitable, enthusiastic, but completely sincere, Johnny Brandon earned the title of the King of Zing" from a fourteenyear-old admirer. "You don't sing, you zing," she said, and the tag stayed with him. Johnny studied drama at the Guildhall under Kate Rourke and learned to dance with American teacher, Bunny Bradley. At fifteen he appeared on Broadway with the Old Vic in the PuIIitzer Prize play, "The Time Of Your Life." Films followed and then he went into Cochran's 'Big Top." On the first night of his appearance in George Black's "Strike A New Note" he got his call up papers. In the Army Johnny was posted to Combined Operations and went over to France on D-Day. One of his commanding officers was Colonel Eric Maschwitz. \Vhen he came out of the Army in 1947 Johnny started writing songs with an exarmy colleague, Ray Martin. Their first big hit was "Once Upon a Winter Time." They followed this up with "Maid to Measure" the vehicle for Jessie Matthew's come-back. Then Johnny started to write hits by himself, including "Red Silken Stockings" and Opportunity." But his own recording career began as a kind of joke. He took his songs to Columbia. "Look," he said, "This is how they should be recorded," and gave a demonstration. "You're the person to record this song," said the recording manager and that's how it all began. Johnny has just come back from the States, where he has been living for the past six months, to appear for Harold Fielding. He has been both writing and recording over there. His old philosophical style has changed to "rock 'n roll" and the first records of the "new" Johnny are "Lonely Lips" and "Rock-a-bye Baby," on sale in England under the Parlophone label.

Did you hnow... that Orson Welles labelled EARTH A K?TT "The most exciting woman in the world"? that EARTH A KITT sings in seven languages? that EARTHA KITT has made L.P., E.P. and 78 r.p.m. records for

HIS MASTER'S VOICE' Ask your dealer for details

HAROLD

FIELDING'S CELEBRITY

CONCERTS

OPENING FOR THE SEASON AT THE

OPERA HOUSE JUNE 24th

PALACE THEATRE JULY 8th

Why not register your name on the mailing list for details by writing to Publicity Manager, Blackpool Tower Co., Empress Buildings, Blackpool C.L.J. (1956)