Vale Eartha Kitt.
... and now to someone much more life-enhancing. The delicious, talented, witty Eartha Kitt has died on Christmas Day. She came from a background of unspeakable poverty, shot to stardom when discovered appearing with the Katherine Dunham dance troupe by Orson Welles. He immediately signed her to play Helen of Troy in his production of "Doctor Faustus", then Lady Macbeth in his voodoo-inspired, all black production of "Macbeth". it was he who labelled her "the most exciting woman in the world", (he should know).
She delighted audiences for decades with her funny sex-bomb interpretations of charm songs such as "Old Fashioned Girl" written for her unique persona ... but she was also a great straight interpreter of American Classics like "Smoke gets in Your Eyes" and French chansons and also such exotica as Turkish songs.
I wrote to her a couple of years ago telling her how much I had enjoyed her albums on listening to them again, and received a very gracious reply. Sydney had been good to her... she deserved it.
She was beautiful, very, very funny and unique.