Tag Archives: Eartha Kitt

Roundup: Alcohol In Westport, Album Cover Design, Cell Tower Balloon Test …

Posted on February 19, 2022 | 8 comments

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“Can I drink if my parents are with me?” “How old were you when you started drinking?” “If pot is legal, how can it be bad?”

If you’re a Westport parent, your child may ask you those or similar questions. How would you respond?

To help frame your answers, the Westport Prevention Coalition offers “Don’t Wait.” The 52-minute short film helps parents start conversations about substance use.

It’s available free to Westporters throughout March, thanks to a grant. You can watch at home whenever it’s convenient, or join other parents for a virtual group showing. There are follow-up discussions online too.

To watch, click here, then enter promo code PD2022. To register for a group showing and/or follow-up discussion, click here.

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In related news, on Thursday Positive Directions hosted a virtual discussion on “Mindful Drinking: Reimagining Our Alcohol Habits, and How They Impact Our Relationships.”

A panel — including professionals, parents, a recovering alcoholic and a Staples High School student — gave clear, honest accounts of their own experiences with drinking in Westport.

The discussion is online, and available at any time. Click here; then scroll down underneath “How Are You Coping in 2022?” to view.

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Interested in seeing how high the proposed cell tower at 92 Greens Farms Road — 124 feet — really is?

A “balloon display” is scheduled for Monday (February 21) at 7 a.m. It should last around 4 hours.

The tower would be built on a private residence, adjacent to I-95 near Hillspoint Road. (Hat tip: Don Bergmann)

A cell tower been proposed for the property on the left: 92 Greens Farms Road. (Photo courtesy of Google Maps)

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Interested in designing an album cover?

The Westport Library invites artists to submit work to be featured on upcoming vinyl. It will also be sued for digital and print promotions.

Fairfield County painters, illustrators, designers, photographers, collage makers — and all other visual artists — can apply.

The competition is part of the Library’s first-of-its-kind “Verso Records Compilation, Volume 1.” The independent record will feature emerging tri-state musicians in genres from jazz and rock to folk and indie. All tracks are recorded live at the Library’s state-of-the-art Verso Studios.

The Artists Collective of Westport will oversee an independent jury committee. Among them: Neal Smith, a founding member of Alice Cooper.

Along with the honor of designing the cover, the artist chosen will receive $1,000.

12” x 12” artwork should be in TIF, JPEG, PNG or PDF format, with a minimum of 300 dpi. The Library’s art department will add text and crop materials at their discretion.

For more information, click here. The submission deadline is March 25.

Part of the Westport Library’s Verso Studios.

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Sarah Bernhard is coming to the Westport Country Playhouse.

The actress/singer author presents “Sandra Bernhard: An Evening of Comedy and Music” on Sunday, March 12 (8 p.m.). Running time is one hour; no intermission. Explicit language.

Her film credits include “The King of Comedy” with Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis, directed by Martin Scorsese. Television credits include “The Sopranos” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”

Broadway World says, “Sandra Bernhard takes no prisoners and pulls no punches. She will set the place afire with her white-hot intelligence. She is authentic, unapologetically pissed, heartbroken, and of course, hilarious.“

For more information and tickets click here; email boxoffice@westportplayhouse.org, or call the box office: 203-227-4177.

Sandra Bernhard (Photo/Brian Zeigler)

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AWARE is one of my favorite organizations.

The acronym stands for Assisting Women with Actions, Resources and Education. Each year, members partner with a local non-profit. They volunteer with that group, organize an educational event and host a fundraiser.

Their next event is March 1 (WEST, 117 Post Road East, 7 p.m.). WEST owner Kitt Shapiro will talk about her new book, “Eartha & Me: A Daughter’s Love Story in Black and White.” It’s a memoir of growing up with her mother, Eartha Kitt.

AWARE members have been reading the book this week.

This is not a fundraiser — just a fun event with AWARE member Kitt. Plus, she’s offered 20% off merchandise to anyone that night.

PS: I’ll be introducing Kitt. I’m “aware” of what an honor that is!

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Once again, Tyler Hicks has the lead photo on the front page of the New York Times.

The 1988 Staples High School graduate/Pulitzer Prize winner’s shot today shows a

(Photo/Tyler Hicks for the New York Times)

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Last year, COVID forced Suzuki Music Schools’ Connecticut Guitar Festival into cyberspace.

It’s back for a 5th year March 11-13 — both live at the Westport Library, and online (free!).

The event opens with a Kickoff Concert, starring classical and jazz greatsPaul Galbraith, Adam Levin, Adam Del Monte and Leandro Pellegrino.

It continues all weekend with a guitar expo, “GuitART,” and performances and events with Similar Kind, Matt Rae, Rami Vamos, Benjamin Verdery, CGF artistic director and Grammy-nominee Mak Grgic, and many more!

For a full list of events, click here. For an overview of the festival and artists, click here.

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To celebrate its 1-year anniversary, Westport-based FLB Law donated 1,200 cans of soup to the Filling in the Blanks SOUPer Bowl Food Drive. The Norwalk nonprofit provides weekend meals to needy children in Fairfield and Westchester Counties.

Other recent FLB initiatives include packing backpacks with holiday treats, toys and a dental kitfor Filling in the Blanks, and making birthday boxes for the Domestic Violence Crisis Center.

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Amy Schneider knows the kinds of photos I like for our “Westport … Naturally” feature.

So, she asks with a smile, “Did this get to Compo Beach naturally?”

(Photo/Amy Schneider)

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And finally … Beverly Ross died recently in Nashville. She was 87.

You may not know her name. For a while, she was one of the most successful pop and rock songwriters in America — and one of its few females.

Her short career ended when a work relationship with Phil Spector turned sour. She said that he stole a riff they were working on, then turned it into “Spanish Harlem” — which he credited to himself and Jerry Leiber. Click here for a full obituary.

Among her credits:

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Posted in Arts, Entertainment, Library, Local business, Media, Westport Country Playhouse

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Eartha & Kitt: A Love Story In Black And White

Posted on April 26, 2021 | 3 comments

In 1957, Eartha Kitt starred in the Westport Country Playhouse production of “Mrs. Patterson.”

She was already famous. The actor/singer/dancer had debuted on Broadway a dozen years earlier. Her 1953 recordings of “C’est Si Bon” and “Santa Baby” both hit the Top 10. Orson Welles had called her the “most exciting woman in the world.”

She had homes in Beverly Hills and London. But in 2001 — after her daughter Kitt Shapiro had married Allan Rothschild, and moved into his Westport house — Eartha Kitt bought a home in Weston.

She loved it: the people, the river, the proximity to New York (and her grandchildren).

Kitt and her kids thrived here. She loves living in “a unique area, with eclectic people.” Three years ago she opened WEST, a very cool Post Road East boutique.

Eartha Kitt died in 2008. Kitt had worked closely with her, on business matters.

Now Kitt has written a book. Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter’s Love Story in Black and White details their wonderful relationship. And much, much more. It will be published May 4, just before Mother’s Day.

Eartha’s mother was of African and Cherokee descent. Eartha never knew her father; he may have been white.

“I was meant to be her daughter. I gave my mother roots and grounding,” Kitt — who was born in 1961, during Eartha’s 4-year marriage to John McDonald — says. “That’s not always easy, for people in that industry.”

Eartha Kitt was sometimes “too light-skinned for Black people, and too dark for white people,” Kitt Shapiro says.

Kitt herself has been attacked on social media for being “too light to be Eartha Kitt’s daughter.”

Eartha Kitt and her daughter.

“The gene pool does what it does,” she says. “My mother thought that treating people a certain way just because of their skin color was preposterous. She couldn’t understand the need of society to pigeonhole people as one particular thing.”

In her early years in New York, Eartha had to be “either a jazz singer or a gospel singer. She couldn’t be just ‘a singer.’ She fought against that, and we’re still fighting that today.”

That’s one of the themes of Eartha & Kitt. Kitt felt this is “the right time to talk about race, and a woman who was a trailblazer. She was a Black woman, a role model who spoke out.”

Eartha Kitt certainly did that. In 1968 — at a White House luncheon — she sharply criticized President Johnson’s handling of the Vietnam War. The CIA called her “a sadistic nymphomaniac,” and her career stalled in the US. She continued to perform, with great success, in Europe and Asia.

In 1978 she returned triumphantly to Broadway, in “Timbuktu!” She gained new generations of fans with voiceovers in movies like “The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story,” New York cabarets and much more.

Kitt Shapiro’s new book is “for anyone who had a relationship like we did — whether it was with a mother, a mother figure or a sibling.”

Its message, she says, will resonate with many: “We all have a right to be here. We are all unique. We can embrace and learn from each other. That was my mother’s philosophy, and it speaks to a lot of people.”

When Eartha Kitt died, her daughter says proudly, she had 200,000 Facebook followers. Many were women between 18 and 35 years old. They admired “a woman who never compromised who she was. She always spoke the truth.”

Now Kitt Shapiro brings that message to a new, even wider audience.

(Click here to order Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter’s Love Story in Black and White. Eartha Kitt died of colon cancer; Kitt Shapiro is raising funds for the American Cancer Society’s “Women Leading the Way to Wellness” project. Stop in to WEST at 117 Post Road East; for $125 you get a signed copy of her book, a scented candle, and beaded bracelet.)

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Posted in Arts, Entertainment, Local business, Media, Westport Country Playhouse

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“Santa Baby” Sequel: Weston’s Eartha Kitt Lives On

Posted on December 7, 2020 | 3 comments

Once upon a time, Christmas music was — well, Christmas music.

“Silent Night.” “Adeste Fidelis.” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”  You know — songs about Jesus, the Magi and the manger.

In 1953, Eartha Kitt released “Santa Baby.” It was — well, earthy.

Eartha Kitt

The 26-year-old entertainer sang seductively about gifts from a sugar daddy Santa — you know, a yacht, sable and ’54 convertible.

Despite being banned in parts of the South, it was the best-selling Christmas song of the year.

In the nearly 70 years since, it’s been covered by dozens of artists, including Madonna, Kylie Mingoue, Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood, Michael Bublé, RuPaul and Homer & Jethro.

It’s been found on lists of the best — and worst — Christmas songs of all time.

And it opened the door for an entire new category of offbeat holiday tunes. Had it not been for “Santa Baby,” we might never have known the singing chipmunks, the Kinks’ violent “Father Christmas,” or the song that truly is the worst of all time — in any category — “The Christmas Shoes.”

Eartha Kitt died in 2008 — fittingly, on Christmas Day — in her Weston home. Her daughter Kitt Shapiro has lived in Westport for 20 years. She owns WEST, the great boutique on Post Road East.

“Santa Baby” sure has legs. Last Friday, Sony Music released a new, animated video version of the song.

It’s quite a story. Directed by Kelly Jones (founder of a Black-owned visual media and design house) and produced by Cousins (a queer-owned production studio), it’s an homage to Eartha Kitt’s life and career. Smooth, sexy animation draws viewers right into the singer’s dreamy wish list.

In this COVID-stricken year of 2020, Santa may be paring down his gift list. He might be careful about how many homes he visits.

But if Eartha Kitt has her way — wherever she is now — Santa will hurry down her chimney that night.

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Posted in Entertainment, Local business, Media, People

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Feliz Navidad, Santa Baby!

Posted on December 14, 2017 | 3 comments

The “06880” tagline is “Where Westport meets the world.”

Turns out, 06880 — and 06883 — are where we meet the Christmas music world too.

The other day in Weston, Susan Feliciano was listening to Songcraft. The popular podcast features chats with the creators of America’s most popular music.

The most recent edition covered Christmas songs. Susan’s husband Jose was the first interview.

The best-selling guitarist/vocalist has been on a sold-out tour of the British Isles since October. So even though Susan knew the back story, it was nice to hear Jose’s voice as he talked about writing the joyful, jangly — and spectacularly successful — “Feliz Navidad” one day in July.

She kept listening.

The next interview was with Phil Springer. That’s when Susan learned something she never knew.

Springer is now 91. Way back in 1953 — more than 60 years ago — he was a Brill Building songwriter, writing for stars like Judy Garland.

His boss asked Springer to work with lyricist Joan Javits on a Christmas song for Eartha Kitt.

“She was the sexiest woman in America,” he told Songcraft.

Springer and Javits spent 2 weekends collaborating on the song — at her father’s Westport home. (Springer did not say who Javits’ father was. But her uncle was Jacob Javits, then a US congressman from New York, later a senator, and now the namesake of a large convention center.)

Their collaboration became what Springer calls “the first sexy Christmas song” (with lyrics like “Santa baby, Slip a sable under the tree, for me … Been an awful good girl … Hurry down the chimney tonight”).

Eartha Kitt’s recording became a huge hit in 1953 — but then disappeared. (Coincidentally, in later years she became a Weston neighbor of Jose and Susan Feliciano.)

“Santa Baby” resurfaced in 1987, when Madonna revived it. Since then it’s been featured in “Driving Miss Daisy,” and recorded by many other female singers.

Today, both “Feliz Navidad” and “Santa Baby” can be heard on every Christmas radio station — and just about every other place — in America.

Including — particularly proudly — Westport and Weston, their spiritual homes.

(Click here for the full Songcraft Christmas show podcast.)

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Posted in Entertainment, Looking back, People

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