{"id":25429,"date":"2017-06-02T09:08:53","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T13:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=25429"},"modified":"2017-06-02T13:21:54","modified_gmt":"2017-06-02T17:21:54","slug":"the-bootleg-files-something-special-eartha-kitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/02\/the-bootleg-files-something-special-eartha-kitt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Something Special – Eartha Kitt"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 592: <\/strong>\u201cSomething Special: Eartha Kitt\u201d (1967 TV special starring Eartha Kitt with Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66).<\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> It is on HistoricFilms.com.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>Several problems with rights clearances.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> It can be done if someone was willing to take the effort.<\/p>\n

During the mid-1960s, a syndicated television series called \u201cSomething Special\u201d turned up on independent stations across the United States. The program consisted of a one-hour showcase featuring a major headliner and, in some episodes, a supporting guest act. Among the stars who turned up on \u201cSomething Special\u201d were Peggy Lee, Julie London paired with then-husband Bobby Troup, the New Christie Minstrels paired with the Righteous Brothers, Barbara McNair paired with Duke Ellington, and Buddy Greco paired with Frankie Avalon and Sammy Davis Jr. Sadly, most of these shows are not easily accessible for viewing today due to rights clearance issues.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One of the \u201cSomething Special\u201d offerings that can be found (albeit without proper permission) is a 1967 production with Eartha Kitt as the spotlighted star. During the mid-1960s, Kitt was enjoying something of a career peak: she starred in a successful national tour of the stage comedy \u201cThe Owl and the Pussycat\u201d and was a ubiquitous presence on television, gaining an Emmy Award nomination for a guest role on \u201cI Spy\u201d and turning up in such diverse series as \u201cBen Casey,\u201d \u201cBurke\u2019s Law,\u201d \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d and game shows including \u201cThe Celebrity Game\u201d and \u201cHollywood Squares.\u201d And, of course, she broke racial barriers as the first black TV villain when she took over the role of Catwoman for the third season of \u201cBatman.\u201d Having Kitt as the star of a \u201cSomething Special\u201d production was the ultimate no-brainer.<\/p>\n

Kitt\u2019s \u201cSomething Special\u201d was a wonderful presentation of her cabaret act, and it also offered American audiences a considerable glimpse into the distinctive talents of Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, who were just making inroads within the U.S. entertainment scene.<\/p>\n

Kitt opens the show with a performance of \u201cI\u2019m a Different Kind of Cat,\u201d which she performs in her trademark facetious sexiness \u2013 she gives the impression of being slightly bored with her glamourous life, but is unapologetic about the carnal and material splendor it provides. She follows that opening with up-tempo and slightly campy renditions of \u201cSell Me!\u201d and \u201cMad About the Boy\u201d before offering a highly flattering introduction of Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, whom she praises for offering \u201ca new look, a new sound, a new approach\u201d to entertainment.<\/p>\n

From there, the Brazilian guests offer three songs \u2013 the hit tune \u201cMas Que Nada,\u201d \u201cO Pato\u201d and \u201cChove Chuta\u201d \u2013 in their Portuguese-language lyrics. And while Mendes briefly speaks English between the songs, the idea that nearly eight minutes of prime-time U.S. programming was devoted to Portuguese-language music seems fairly astonishing.<\/p>\n

Kitt then returns with a line-up of tunes that established her as a recording star in the 1950s, when she adapted the persona of a happy gold-digger. Her rendition of \u201cJust an Old-Fashioned Girl\u201d involves a clever sight gag with Kitt pulling out a fur sable that seems to run for miles. (Of course, that joke would never work in today\u2019s PETA-fueled environment.) Her cover of \u201cMy Heart Belongs to Daddy\u201d adds a thick dosage of sex appeal to the mildly naughty Cole Porter classic, and then she launches into three multi-lingual classics: a riff on \u201cCome On-a My House\u201d where she ping-pongs between Japanese and English lyrics, her sensual spin on the Turkish folk tune \u201cUska Dara,\u201d and a straightforward and unexpectedly dramatic take on the Hebrew-language \u201cTorah Dance\/Ki M\u2019tzion\u201d (with Hebrew-lettered pillars behind her).<\/p>\n

Kitt goes further into her canon with three more of her hit tunes: \u201cI Want to Be Evil,\u201d \u201cSanta Baby\u201d and \u201cC\u2019est Si Bon\u201d \u2013 the latter is punctuated with a lengthy French monologue that she caps with a Noo Yawkese query of \u201cYa get what I\u2019m sayin\u2019, don\u2019t ya?\u201d From there, Kitt teams with Mendes and his group for a pair of tunes \u2013 \u201cOne Note Samba\u201d and a Brazilian-style cover of the Beatles\u2019 \u201cDay Tripper\u201d \u2013 where she dances and sings with a seductive force of erotic energy, much to the delight of the Brasil 66 team.<\/p>\n

Oddly, the show closes with Kitt dressed in an antebellum gown while performing a somber and reflective version of \u201cWhen the World Was Young.\u201d Considering the insouciant fun that came before it, this number is a strange and somewhat depressing way to end a vibrant and upbeat show.<\/p>\n

Kitt\u2019s \u201cSomething Special\u201d went into syndication in November 1967. Robert Goldsborough, the TV critic for the Chicago Tribune, devoted a column bemoaning that Kitt\u2019s show was scheduled opposite an NBC political news report forecasting the 1968 presidential campaign \u2013 back in the pre-VCR days, you could only watch one show at a time. Ironically, presidential politics would result in the derailing of Kitt\u2019s career: her brutally frank comments at a White House function in January 1968 against the Vietnam War resulted in a backlash that saw her American producers shy away from her. Kitt retreated to Europe for several years until the political climate enabled her to resume her American career.<\/p>\n

The Kitt version of \u201cSomething Special\u201d was never released in any commercial home video format. An enterprising bootlegger sold a DVD copy online for years, but has since withdrawn it from circulation. Clips of Kitt\u2019s \u201cUska Dara\u201d and the Sergio Mendes numbers have popped up on YouTube, and the full version can be found on the HistoricFilms.com website<\/a> in a watermark-stamped version.<\/p>\n

If anything, this production was a fun endeavor and it presented Kitt and her Brazilian guests at their ebullient best. It would be a joy if this episode \u2013 as well as the full \u201cSomething Special\u201d series \u2013 could be restored and offered in a proper home entertainment release. But until that occurs, let\u2019s be grateful that the bootleg version is online for our viewing pleasure.<\/p>\n

IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall<\/a>\u201d on SoundCloud, with a new episode every Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 592: \u201cSomething Special: Eartha Kitt\u201d (1967 TV special starring Eartha Kitt with Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66). LAST SEEN: It is on HistoricFilms.com. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Several problems with rights clearances. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It can be done if someone was willing to take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":25430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[1725,1726,1727,1728],"class_list":["post-25429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bootleg-files","tag-eartha-kitt","tag-sergio-mendes-brasil-66","tag-something-special","tag-tv-special"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25433,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25429\/revisions\/25433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}