← Glamorous Trash: A Celebrity Memoir Podcast
Glamorous Trash: A Celebrity Memoir Podcast
Eartha Kitt’s Memoir Alone With Me (with Angela Tucker)
01:01:41
Loading summary
Transcript192 lines
- [00:01]
Eartha Kitt
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial Geniuses, Monetary Magicians. These are things people say about drivers.
- [00:12]
Chelsea Devantez
Who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.
- [00:21]
Eartha Kitt
Potential savings will vary.
- [00:23]
Chelsea Devantez
Not available in all states or situations. Support your immune system with Airborne's most complete immune support formula yet. Airborne's delicious effervescent tablets are packed with seven powerful ingredients to fill the holes your immune system may have so that you can enjoy those unmissable moments in your life. Learn more@Airborne Complete.com these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, recure or prevent any disease. Welcome to Glamorous Trash. This is a celebrity memoir podcast where we dive into all of the glamour and all of the trash. I'm your host Chelsea devontez. I'm a TV writer, comedian, filmmaker, author, and sometimes I'm in stuff too. And this week we are reading Alone with Me, the 1976 memoir of Singer, actress, and just overall icon and superstar Eartha Kitt. You might know Eartha from her performance of the 1953 Christmas Classic Santa Baby, or as Catwoman from the final season of the campy 1960s TV series Batman. Or my favorite Eartha Kit credit, where she is a villain in the Emperor's New Groove and they really formulated that character to kind of look like her. So now that you know that it's Eartha Kitts, I'm sure it's gonna click. She was also an activist in the civil rights movement. She was there for women's rights, LGBTQIA plus rights, and she was publicly against the Vietnam War, which led to a massive career block from Lady Bird Johnson and the White House, which we are going to get into now. In 1956, Eartha published her first memoir called Thursday's Child, which was about her childhood and early career. And in 1976 she published her second memoir, which is the one we are reading today, titled Alone With Me. And I want to do a quick trigger warning here. We are going to talk about child abuse and sexual abuse, so please take care when listening. And this book actually got on our radar when we were researching old Hollywood memoirs and there's a New Yorker article titled the Art of Hollywood Memoir by Rachel Sime. And she recommended this book by saying Eartha Kit's ballsy book is worth reading for the acknowledgments section alone and y'all know I love an acknowledgment section. That is where all the secrets are. And she put hers first. It's the first thing you read in the book. And the book is out of print. Copies were so expensive, but we secured a couple. So I'm going to read a lot of the acknowledgments right now in our intro because they really deserve to be heard. There are people in my life who have been more than incidental to it, but whom I found impossible to weave into the fabric of this work without digression. So I couldn't quit the book without at random throwing a few brickbats at or bouquets too. The CIA, who has established my reputation with men who want to believe that I'm a nymphomaniac who should leave the writing of fiction to authors who don't write it at the taxpayer's expense. Gerald Ford, who made the world safe for mediocrity. Coretta King, who keeps the Martin Luther King philosophy alive and who is proof that woman is not of man's rib but of his backbone. To Bill McDonald, who gave me a beautiful daughter and turned me off marriage. To Lady Bird Johnson, who made me remember that not all who ask questions seek truth. Bobby Kennedy, who offered me an advisory position but who died seeking truth. Food King, who allowed my Watts children to get food even when my Bill was overdue. Orson Wells, who made an actress of me and who stimulated my mind in spite of himself. Richard Nixon, who showed the world that if you wanted to be dishonest and get away with it, take the White House. That one's especially searing right now. Muhammad Ali, who shows him that maybe the only way to make a decent living is to knock him down. Hollywood, which made me realize that success begins at home. Beverly Hills, which reinforced the adage that a house is not necessarily a home. Captain Demon and July, my dogs, who don't give a damn whether I'm Eartha Kid or Eartha May they still lick my face and make me laugh. Judy Garland, a kindred spirit who allowed herself to be weakened by life. Edit Piath a kindred spirit who allowed herself to be defeated by life. People who didn't know what they were doing to me when they did it, but it worked. Countries I visited that made me understand that people are not all that politicians chop them up to be. My country, which hasn't allowed me to work here but takes more than a healthy chunk of my income because I refuse to be intimidated to leave it. Religion, which has become a big business because it doesn't practice what it preaches me, who has learned that intelligence and sex are a difficult combination to handle. And finally, to all those whom I've momentarily forgotten to include, owing a deadline to pressure, but whose names will spring immediately and embarrassingly to mind the very moment that it's too late for me to shout, stop the presses. Okay, that is a large piece of the acknowledgments and a little taste of what's to come in this book. So let's dive in to this very juicy episode.
- [05:42]
Eartha Kitt
I've had more fun being Eartha Kid, I think, than anybody has had beamed themselves, whomever they have become, because I think I'm the. Not only am I the funniest person in the world, but when you think about me being an orphan given away, and you living in the most wonderful house. Not. It's the biggest house in the world. I never wanted the biggest house. I just wanted to be comfortable. And because nobody came to adopt you, but the people did.
- [06:11]
Chelsea Devantez
How.
- [06:12]
Eartha Kitt
How wonderful can that be? The people adopted me. My greatest family are the people. The people.
- [06:26]
Chelsea Devantez
Our guest today is a very dear friend of mine, a returning memoir superstar guest. It's Angela Tucker. She was on our mommy dearest episode. She is the author of you should be grateful stories of race identity and transracial adoption. Her search for her biological family was featured in the documentary Closure, which premiered on Netflix. And in 2022, Angela founded the nonprofit adoptee mentoring Society, offering virtual mentorship for adoptees worldwide. She has also appeared on cnn, Red Table Talk, the New Yorker. I'm obsessed with her. I. I am so happy you're back and. Hi, Angela.
- [07:01]
Eartha Kitt
Hi. Hi. I'm so happy to be here and very excited, actually, to talk about Eartha Kitt. I got to meet her.
- [07:08]
Chelsea Devantez
Ah, okay. Please tell me and everyone else the story.
- [07:11]
Eartha Kitt
In college up in Seattle, I had a job working at a club called Jazz Alley, which is an amazing jazz club. And actually I still moonlight there because it's just so awesome. But they had Eartha Kitt. So this was like 2005, maybe a couple years before she died. And she came to perform, and so I got to meet her and kind of wait on her in her little backstage room.
- [07:37]
Chelsea Devantez
What was she like?
- [07:38]
Eartha Kitt
Her voice is just powerful. I mean, I maybe said two words to her, you know, but on stage, she has that incredible outfit with a huge slit up her leg, and she just is like, oh, just power.
- [07:57]
Chelsea Devantez
I love that. Also, do you remember that story in the book where she. It's kind of like one of her first big breaks in Europe and She sews her own dress, and right before going on, someone is like, no. And they rip her dress up to her thighs and put a slit in it and send her on stage. So I guess it stuck.
- [08:15]
Eartha Kitt
That was wild. Yeah.
- [08:17]
Chelsea Devantez
Okay. I love this connection. Our producer Christina was like, I think Angela would be the perfect. Her first memoir is titled Thursday's Child, which I initially thought was after Wednesday's child.
- [08:28]
Eartha Kitt
Wednesday's child. Me too.
- [08:30]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes. Okay. So for anyone who doesn't know what Wednesday's child is, would. Would you please explain?
- [08:34]
Eartha Kitt
I don't really know the origin, but essentially, on many local networks all over the country, a child in foster care is featured, and we call them Wednesday's child. So to hope that they can kind of get enough attention to hopefully get adopted.
- [08:50]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. And it's. It's. I actually have a family member who adopted their three sons via Wednesday's child. But it really is, you know, as the child you. You know, you get trotted out on this news station for Wednesday's segment. So Thursday's child is actually from a poem, and it doesn't have anything to do with that, except Eartha Mae also is, you know, sort of given up by her mom several times, and then her aunt comes to. To raise her. So let's. Let's dive into this memoir. So it begins with her performing at Carnegie hall. And she's walking outside, and there is a woman and her daughter, and they go, eartha May, Eartha May, do you remember us?
- [09:34]
Eartha Kitt
They use that middle name. And she's just, like, transported.
- [09:38]
Chelsea Devantez
This hit me so deeply as someone who has also had different last names as a kid where, like, you hear that name and you're back in, like, a different year of your life.
- [09:48]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah. And I think there was a tone as well that she heard. And, like, who is that?
- [09:54]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. She instantly has this traumatic reaction, both just as this happening in public, but also she's like, it's her stepsister. And she's like, you could have found me my entire life, but you waited till I'm at Carnegie Hall. Like, where were you when I needed you? And I really loved this. In the book, it's there in the beginning, the middle, and the end where she really differentiates between Earth May and Eartha Kitt.
- [10:20]
Eartha Kitt
Yes.
- [10:21]
Chelsea Devantez
I originally thought this was, like, just my own thing in my journals and then come to find out it's like a pretty infamous trauma response where you. Where you split into selves, dissociate. Yes. Where, like, the. The person who went through the trauma is different from the person who comes out of the trauma. Did you read into that? When obviously that's not what she writes in her book. But for me, it was really clear where she's like, there's Eartha Mae and there's Eartha Kitt, and Eartha Kitt has saved my life. And Eartha May is painful for me.
- [10:49]
Eartha Kitt
I read into it in the sense of just knowing her disconnection from her family and thinking about adoption, foster care, all that that does. And knowing so many people who are adopted, how many of them are kind of chameleons or they've created this kind of. Not an alter ego, but they're able to code switch in so many ways. And so my thinking, more as I was reading the beginning part was like, this must be why she loves show business and kind of acting.
- [11:24]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, yeah, I. I think that's really well said. And really, the beginning of the book is. I mean, we spend the majority of the book in her childhood really going through it. And then when she grows up, the style of the book changes, changes. The amount of time she spends on stories wildly changes. It's a totally different book. So some of her beginning stories are that, you know, her mom sells their farm when she cannot make ends meet, and they are traveling by foot to try and find shelter, and they make it to an uncle's house who won't let her in. And refers to Eartha May specifically. She has a sister.
- [12:04]
Eartha Kitt
Hi, Yella.
- [12:06]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, A yellow gal.
- [12:07]
Eartha Kitt
Yellow gal.
- [12:08]
Chelsea Devantez
Which is referring to her having, like, a white father and being mixed race and like, them not wanting anything to. I don't know, him not wanting anything to do with that. And she starts to realize that she's different. And this is a massive theme in the book of how this plays into her life. Yeah. What was your thoughts on that whole story? Yeah.
- [12:31]
Eartha Kitt
And for some of your listeners, she doesn't know who her biological father is, but it is kind of assumed that he is the owner of the farm.
- [12:42]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, this. Of the owner of the farm. A white man.
- [12:45]
Eartha Kitt
A white man. And then her mother is half black, half Cherokee. And there's so much in history about colorism and the ways that people treat others based on, you know, the lightness or darkness of their skin. So there were so many places in this where you saw her different treatment when she was, like, forced to work indoors versus outdoors or just totally shunned completely. And I also think it's so prevalent to how she was later on in her activism and with all the travels she did around the world. That she really came to have a really unique way of thinking about race and racism. It was kind of like a more open. Is fascinating. But, yeah, the first part of the book with her childhood was really hard to read.
- [13:42]
Chelsea Devantez
Really hard to read. Yeah. And I, you know, I read some other research outside of this which really indicated that it was also, you know, she was a product of rape and how that played into how she was raised and her sense of self and her other family members sense of her. And also just the pain of them treating the mom terribly, you know, for having Eartha. And, like, there's just so many dark layers.
- [14:08]
Eartha Kitt
And also treating the sister differently.
- [14:10]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes, the sister. Pearl.
- [14:11]
Eartha Kitt
Pearl, right.
- [14:14]
Chelsea Devantez
Absolutely. And she has to give. Has to or does give up Pearl and Eartha Mae at different points in their life, sort of giving them two indentured servitors in a way where it's almost like, you'll take care of this child, but also this child will work for you at this house called the Stern House. And this is where she's fully given up and goes through so much abuse, so much mistreatment, so much violence, and is barely in touch with her mom, only to find out that her mom is murdered via poison. But also, it is so unclear. It's almost like maybe something else happened. And then someone told a tall tale to her that it was murder because she's not with her mom at that point. Right. And she was like, I didn't know what was going on in my mom's life. And she kind of has, like, these suspicious moments where. Where someone tells her mom, like, to be careful. And she is. Yeah. She sees her at the funeral.
- [15:10]
Eartha Kitt
Bertha is, like, 8 years old or really young. Like, so young.
- [15:15]
Chelsea Devantez
I think she's actually six.
- [15:17]
Eartha Kitt
Okay. So young. It was just another one of those humongous losses. But coupled with the confusion about the death, I just. I can't help but think about so many people who revere Eartha Kitt as they think about her today with Santa, baby, Catwoman. Like, just think of her. And I do, too, but think of her as just absolutely incredible. But there's so many questions, I think, for people who've had such severe trauma where people ask, like, you know, are you just born with this star factor, or did you develop it because of all these traumas?
- [15:58]
Chelsea Devantez
Or is it called massive trauma and coping?
- [16:01]
Eartha Kitt
Yes.
- [16:02]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes. What do you think when you think of that? Like, what do you think the answer to that is?
- [16:06]
Eartha Kitt
I think Earth is born with it.
- [16:08]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. Yeah. Because she's later going to. I'M cutting ahead a little bit, but she's later going like, I'm somehow at a dance audition. And I kind of just felt it in my head like, I could do this, but I was really bad. I didn't know what I was doing. Did a casual splits and got a scholarship. And I said, casual splits, Right, Right. Oh, that's talent.
- [16:30]
Eartha Kitt
I think even going back to, like, childhood, and when she was told to, you know, care for her younger baby sister, Pearl, out under a tree where she just has, like, this makeshift blanket and tries to. Is basically like eating grass and eating the dirt. But even in doing that, there's something fantastic about the way she tells the stories and, like, remembers. And I just. That's a star craw, I think.
- [16:57]
Chelsea Devantez
I agree she's an incredible writer, and I think the times when her writing doesn't shine, it's because she hasn't processed something or still dealing with it or doesn't want to deal with it. But when she is really sitting in the writing, she's unreal. And like we said, the beginning of the book is really difficult to read. There's so many horrific stories. But after her mom's death, she receives this Easter dress in the mail. One for her and one for Pearl. And then soon after that, gets a train ticket to New York and some food and some clothes, and it's from her aunt, and she's like, oh, my God, I am wanted. And her aunt sends for her and says she'll send for Pearl later, but never does. And she gets on a train at seven years old and is like, I'm going to New York where I am wanted. Thank you. And travels to New York to be with her aunt, who at first, first adores her and loves her, and then it unravels into a really abusive figure. Again, it is not in this memoir, but again, in my outside research, I came to some articles written about how she came to believe her aunt was actually her biological mother. Did you see anything about that?
- [18:10]
Eartha Kitt
I did not know that.
- [18:11]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, I don't. I don't actually know. Again, it wasn't in this book. But when you think about, like, why did she send for her and never for the younger sister? I don't know.
- [18:22]
Eartha Kitt
I know. At that point in the book, though, reading her trip on the train, it was hard to see the evidence of how much neglect she'd experienced. Just because I remember reading about how she had worn all the clothes she owned, including that dress, and she was, like, sweating. And it was just. There were things that were like, oh, yeah. You've really never been cared for, ever.
- [18:44]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. And it's so painful that she is rescued and then neglected. Like her aunt is cruel to her. She seems to think that her aunt felt like it was her Christian duty to do something good, but then becomes abusive physically, mentally. Stops giving her food for clothes, for school, she gets jobs, she drops out of school, her aunt calls her back and she goes back and forth until eventually her aunt is beating her and she picks up a stool, which she had never done before, to take it to the next level. And the aunt's boyfriend runs out of the room and stops her and throws the stool to the ground. She leaves her aunt's house, gets that surprise dance scholarship I talked about with Katherine Dunham's dance school, which really leads into her performance career with them. In this time, she has a boyfriend, betrayer named Charlie who she's in love with. It's clearly her first love. And then, surprise, he has a secret fiance. And then also it turns abusive with Charlie where he has his fiance but wants Eartha to stay around. And it gets physical. And she decides, I'm gonna take this European show with the dance company because I just have. I. I gotta leave the country to get away from Charlie. But also is still in love with him. When she leaves and she's performing over there in the dance show, and someone else calls a meeting with her and says, I have a Cuban singer who is leaving in two weeks. I need someone to take her place. When I saw the show, I thought you would be perfect for the job. I cannot encourage you. This is your decision. But one can never progress if one is not seen. You can double your curtains at 11. There's time for you to come here and be on stage at 12:30. The. I cannot encourage you.
- [20:28]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah.
- [20:29]
Chelsea Devantez
This is your decision. I'm sorry. Really elevated. Wise boss. Holy shit. Just the idea of, like, you're gonna. You're gonna burn some bridges. Katherine Donovan's gonna be mad at you. But also, do you want a career or not? And also, this is fully your choice. I won't take responsibility for it, but I will give you the opportunity. Pretty wild.
- [20:49]
Eartha Kitt
And I think so synonymous with how she's perceived forever, which is, like, as a black girl, you are, like, invincible. You need to be strong all the time. Right? Right.
- [21:04]
Chelsea Devantez
Weakness is not allowed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's. That's a really beautiful way to put it. She is. She's just going through so much constantly and always going forward. And she does. She takes the contract. Everyone threatens to make her pay for it. But she gets seen in these shows and she's performing and she gets a call. And they said, kitty, we just got a call from America, someone named Wade. They said you should call as soon as possible, that your aunt is ill. For three days I tried to get a transatlantic call through, to no avail. Finally, Mama Wade's daughter Bernice answered. Where have you been? She asked. We've been trying to reach you for days. I didn't bother to explain. How is my mother? I asked. I was still calling her mother, as I always had. She kept asking for you. Bernice said, why didn't you come home? There was a pause. The use of past tense seeped in. Why didn't she say, keeps asking for you? Then Bernice added, darling, your mother's been dead since Wednesday. And that is how she finds out. Her aunt, slash, you know, mother.
- [22:05]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah. It's tragic. And all the guilt that she felt.
- [22:08]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. But also, her aunt was so cruel to her that she had to leave. She had to drop out of school. Her aunt wouldn't even care for her to finish school.
- [22:18]
Eartha Kitt
Yes. And there is that deep love, you know, her aunt showed a desire for. For her at an early age. That's like, formative.
- [22:29]
Chelsea Devantez
And maybe the only person before high school to show any desire, even though it went back and forth or went away, she was the only person who actually ever wanted her at some point.
- [22:39]
Eartha Kitt
I think so. Yeah. And I do. I think in later years, Eartha did talk about, even if, you know, reasons why someone can't care for you or keep you, it's something about how it still doesn't impact, like, the heart in the way that it makes sense in the mind.
- [22:58]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah.
- [22:59]
Eartha Kitt
I just think, again, it's just the patterns for her.
- [23:02]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And this is your psychic moment because she said before she had left, her aunt looked her in the eyes and said, I feel I shall never see you again. That's right. And that she feels like her aunt knew. And when she makes it through the funeral, she takes her body back down south so that she can be buried with the family. She gets back to Europe finally, and someone says, orson Welles has been looking for you. And he had seen her in the show and was like, who's that gal? I think she should be in my play.
- [23:36]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah.
- [23:36]
Chelsea Devantez
She finds out that he's already cast the part because he can't find her. But she goes and meets with him anyway, and she reads the script with him, and he says, well, I don't know what we're gonna do with that other girl. But you've got the part.
- [23:50]
Eartha Kitt
Yes.
- [23:51]
Chelsea Devantez
And she is cast as girl number three.
- [23:55]
Eartha Kitt
And thus is the start of so many speculations about her sex life.
- [24:02]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes. Okay. So she wrote this about Orson. She said, I never knew what mood Orson was in until the moment of the kiss. Each performance. If it was gentle, then I knew his day had gone well. And though he'd never again bit me, you know, because he had bitter one night, there were times when the pressure of Orson's kiss was enough to crush a coconut. However, Orson was a delight to work with because one never knew what he was going to do on stage. He was irrepressible. Often when his back was turned to the audience, he'd make faces at me, trying to break me up. And she's like, he's such a kid. Hilarious. And you're like, this sounds brutal. You have to make it through these man's whims as he, like, sexually harasses you via onstage performance.
- [24:46]
Eartha Kitt
Really complicated. And then also that they're. They're like, in Paris. So there's this, like, sultry seduction piece of just being there together.
- [24:55]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah.
- [24:56]
Eartha Kitt
That gets all intertwined with how he.
- [24:59]
Chelsea Devantez
Talks to her and treats her. Now, this might be my favorite part of the memoir, which is only gonna make sense when you think of me hosting this podcast, because she writes, when I wrote my first autobiography nearly 20 years ago, it was taboo to speak candidly of such subjects of female disorders. And while I don't wish to dwell on the subject, it's sufficiently important to a later episode in my career to describe the nature and effect of this illness that she had gone through. And she said in terms other than the euphemistic exhaustion. So basically, when she wrote her memoir, she talks about how when she comes back after this play with Orson Wells, she goes through exhaustion, and she has several, like, severe exhaustion. But now, she writes, 20 years later, it was a menstrual problem that resulted in a massive loss of blood, exhaustion, great weight loss, and all other side effects one can expect from such a disorder. In each case, my normal cycle would begin, but the flow of blood would increase, and the cycle would last from three to six weeks. And in each case, the only cure was complete bed rest. Actually, I had no alternative, for the condition left me so weak I couldn't stand, let alone dance, sing, or act. I have never learned what caused the disorder. I was afflicted with it only three times, but it occurred the last time at a critical phase in my career and was reported as Exhaustion. Leading a number of people to speculate that I had feigned illness to get out of my duties.
- [26:27]
Eartha Kitt
And in reality, it's like hemorrhaging or something.
- [26:30]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes. Also, like, imagine how much history, information, and important parts of women's stories we have lost to a vague word, like, exhaustion.
- [26:45]
Eartha Kitt
Exhaustion.
- [26:45]
Chelsea Devantez
Like, yes, you never found out what it was because you're not even allowed to tell people it's happening.
- [26:52]
Eartha Kitt
Exhaustion. Yeah. I mean, in that, to me, parallels things like Serena Williams, you know, childbirth, and her doctor being like, you don't know how you feel. And she's saying, something's wrong.
- [27:06]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes.
- [27:07]
Eartha Kitt
This isn't supposed to be. And they're like, no, I think women for sure, but also black women. The treatment is so wild.
- [27:16]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah.
- [27:16]
Eartha Kitt
I mean, and I can't imagine for Eartha to feel, like, apologetic for not being able to, like, perform.
- [27:22]
Chelsea Devantez
And also that, like, your reputation gets destroyed because you're not allowed to tell people you have an illness because it's a female illness.
- [27:30]
Eartha Kitt
Right.
- [27:31]
Chelsea Devantez
And just to. I'm sure I've said it, like, 19 times on this podcast, but just as a fun reminder, like, Nah, I'm 94. I'm gonna get the exact number wrong. But something as high as 94. Ish percent of all medical studies were only done on men and only done on white men. So it's like they weren't even studying women. And they were rarely, never studying black women. Black men. And so it's just insane. And then at the very end of that chapter, she's like, by the way, I was dating a guy named Philip who tried to propose to me a bunch in Europe. I said, no. Yes, it is so funny. So then she comes back to America, and they're like, eartha Kitt is it? And she is gonna take the town. She's got a new show, and they've started this ad campaign where they would say, learn how to say Eartha Kit. Or, like, what's an Eartha Kit? And when she goes to mount her show in America, the director says, how many languages can you sing in? Seven. I said, then sing in seven languages. I said, when did you learn to speak seven languages? Where was that in the book? I guess sing in seven languages may be slightly different, but what it is, but still.
- [28:44]
Eartha Kitt
Right? Yeah. I remember this when I saw her perform, she sang in multiple languages. And I was like, what? And then in some places, it's reported as 11, but anyways, yeah, sing in seven languages. Go.
- [28:57]
Chelsea Devantez
And she says, no problem. I was just blown away because you've Gone through this entire book with her, and at no point is she sort of saying, like, and then I learned Italian, and then I learned Spanish, and then I learned Turkish. And then the show flops. And she's such a flop that she writes about how Judy Garland tried to make her feel better afterwards, and she thought, like, her career was over. It's heartbreaking. I mean, it's not over, but she thought it was over.
- [29:32]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah. And, like, left the stage crying at certain point. There was just so much embarrassment. And. Yeah, I think I'm skipping ahead to the part where she had, like, blood on her face, you know?
- [29:45]
Chelsea Devantez
Wait, remind me of that one.
- [29:48]
Eartha Kitt
What happened where she was singing, but she was knocked out and her blood was dripping off of her chin and she had to be taken to the hospital. And then they just kind of put a bandage over it.
- [29:59]
Chelsea Devantez
Oh, that's right. And they said, can you still perform? And she's like, yes. And she performs for four more days, and then they fire her.
- [30:05]
Eartha Kitt
And then that's it. That's where it's like, we've built you up. Because that ad campaign, essentially, when they were saying, like, what is an Eartha Kit? There was some sort of illusion. This could be a liqueur. Or there was back to that, like, almost caricaturizing of Eartha making her so big. But then, yeah, to end in this manner, devastating.
- [30:27]
Chelsea Devantez
She will slowly start to work again. She gets work in other clubs, but basically it takes a long time to come back for her. And this was like a huge crashing moment. And then she talks about dating this guy named JB who's crazy rich and he's also white. And then this was. I was thinking, like, 1976. She. She's writing this. She says, a bunch of people have written about the loves of my life with emphasis on color and the implication that perhaps amateur psychologists and all, I was searching for my long lost white father figure. In truth, on society's skin color scale, my relationships would register about 50 50, or at least 60 40. And considering the ratio of white to black men in the west, it's a wonder that I haven't registered 9010. But I haven't. Some of you will understand when I say that I don't see people as white or non white. I see them as human beings, male or female, friendly or hostile, and so on. If Pale Face, for example, which is a nickname she has given to a new boyfriend, Pale Face, Hilarious. Had gone into the sun and for some strange reason turned a permanent flaming red or blue, I would have loved him no less. This, of course, the story of my life to date, not the story of my love life. But to leave love out of it would be dishonest. This is what a human being is all about. And so, yeah, she talks about how she was widely criticized or talked about for dating white men.
- [31:49]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah.
- [31:50]
Chelsea Devantez
And I do, obviously, right now we would know that as like, I don't see color. And we'd be like, oh, that's not the way to talk about this. But for Eartha Kitt, in that moment, this was like her racial activism in 1976, sort of being like, I can date who I want. You know, leave the psychology out of it or leave the prejudice out of it. What did you think of all this?
- [32:11]
Eartha Kitt
Well, it's also. It's larger than race. She talks this way when she discusses things like religion too, like people may not just belong to one. And I think really it comes back to her mixed, where she is just like, we are all people. It is hard for me to say, to talk about this, cause I'm such an activist around not being colorblind. But this is also kind of what fueled some of the conversations she had about Vietnam and, like, being an anti war. This is another place, I think Eartha was like, ahead of her time in her ability to see just humanity for what it was.
- [32:50]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah.
- [32:51]
Eartha Kitt
Like, she was very obviously had a lifetime of being treated different because she. She was illegitimate.
- [32:57]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. It kind of goes back to that core thing of like, yes, in utopia, no one's color of their skin matters. Da da da, da da. However, in this society, it does. And to pretend it doesn't is actually extra racist. But I think Eartha, in trying to, like, make sense of all of the racism she had experienced and the interracial dating and the prejudice within it and outside of it, this is sort of the she has on it.
- [33:22]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah, it really is hard to think about it with our lens. So for your audience who can't see me, I'm black. My adoptive parents are white. I grew up in a predominantly white space and didn't really have a black community until college. And I remember when a little bit pre college, I was hanging out somewhere and there were a bunch of black folks, and I didn't really acknowledge them. And I was, like, raked through the coals for that. And this is what Eartha experienced too. The black press was like, you know, you're turning your back on your own by dating someone like jb, and she was, like, scorned by so many people and specifically black Folks. And so I feel like I was reading that, being like, I get that. I remember that. But for my life experience, really comfortable with whiteness, but not to the extent to where I'm, like, turning my back on blackness. But it looks different and then it's interpreted.
- [34:26]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah.
- [34:27]
Eartha Kitt
Negatively like it was for her.
- [34:28]
Chelsea Devantez
And then at the same time, still experiences racism from white people. Like, JB will never actually marry her. Or white people making a thing of her not dating black men. And like, again, it's 1976. She is ahead of her time in many ways and also really struggling with it. And this leads into her close relationship with James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, which I wasn't expecting. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break right now, and we'll be right back. I. Rocket. We believe everyone deserves their shot at the American dream. So if you're feeling locked out of home ownership, we're here to give you back the keys. We're opening doors, breaking down walls, and doing everything we can to turn renters into owners. And we're not going to stop until we help everyone home. To find out more, visit rocket.com Rocket Own the Dream. Okay, let's dive back into the episode. I will say our producer Christina let me know that there was a rumor on the Internet for a long time that she and James Dean had a relationship that also included Paul Newman. It is a heavily unfounded gossip piece, but a fun. A fun exercise. And she does seem to have a lot of love for James Dean and is very close with him and with Marilyn. It seems like Marilyn chose her to be her friend and she's sort of like, answering her phone calls late at night, but that they're not close. What did you think of these two relationships?
- [36:14]
Eartha Kitt
Oh, I was just. I think it's amazing. I was like, yes, you're having late night conversations with Marilyn Monroe.
- [36:20]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. But also, I have to say, like, every single time I meet Marilyn Monroe in one of these memoirs via someone who was there with her, it's not iconic and lovely and amazing. It is a really sad, dilapidated, depressed woman who is not seeking help and is not receiving help when she seeks it out. Like. Like, I see she wrote this. She said Marilyn allowed the commercial world to devour her. She was a very frightened person. I don't think she was able to differentiate between herself and the Marquis. I have Eartha May, who doesn't identify with the name on the marquee and letters taller than she. Somewhere along the line, Marilyn lost Norma Jean. I suppose it's what psychologists would Call an identity crisis, if so, a tragic one. How does one go about treating or helping a marquis?
- [37:16]
Eartha Kitt
So much of this, though, is Eartha. Eartha's intellect.
- [37:21]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah.
- [37:22]
Eartha Kitt
Like, wow. Ability to have self awareness. I'm just like, amazed. And then I don't want to be amazed. Cause I know that's part of the allure of Eartha. You know, this like, kind of surprise that people have that a woman who looks like her can be so intelligent and like articulate and powerful. I worry that I step into that sometimes in idolizing Eartha.
- [37:51]
Chelsea Devantez
Mm. Interesting. And also she was also very sexual and very like, sexualized, I guess I would be a better term, of like, her performances and who she was, which adds another layer into thinking that she couldn't be like, artistic, smart, intelligent, incredible. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Absolutely. Well, then in the story, she's like, I love chickens, I love animals. I had a bunch of pets. And I'm going to read from this, she said. So I finally had a home to call my own. No more apartments and hotels. And soon I had a husband to call my own. Then a daughter. A family at last. But the marriage didn't work out. What can be said of failed marriage? No one likes to dwell on failure. Bill and I were married in 1960. Our daughter Kit was born in 1961, and we were divorced in 1965. To avoid raising unanswered questions, I'll add that my ex husband was a student when I met him. And he's white. Our marriage was going to last forever. But like more than half of marriages in this country today, ours didn't last. I can't speak for a Bill, but I was immeasurably enriched by our union. I have my daughter, who is truly the sunshine of my life. And I found a close friend in my late mother in law whom I adored, which here's what I have to say about this. There were like nine pages on Charlie. There were. There were so many things she went in. I mean, we know every entrance and exit of every stage show she ever performed in, ever. I know her costumes, I know her snacks, I know her lines. Bill gets one and a half paragraphs right, and so does Philip. And I'm very. I'm very perplexed by this in that I had a hard time understanding if she wasn't ready to revisit it or if she didn't want to bring gossip to him and her daughter.
- [39:37]
Eartha Kitt
All I know is that it's clear that being a mom was so huge, hugely important, like an identity marker. So I can imagine you're right about that. The under processed aspect of some of the things that are maybe too hard.
- [39:52]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. And this was the part of the book where we have totally left the previous writing style. I think she was able to write about her childhood in such depth because she'd already done it once in her first memoir, which was written 20 years earlier. And so a lot of that was processed. She could revisit it with an artistic hand. And then getting to this next section of her life, she was like, ah, then I married Bill. It was over. But I got a daughter anyways. You're like, eartha, we are cruising through this, right?
- [40:19]
Eartha Kitt
And then, like, the next couple pages, we're all the way at the luncheon, the famous luncheon with.
- [40:25]
Chelsea Devantez
I mean, we're almost at the end of the. She skips. She puts, like, 10 years in a page. I do want to say I looked up her daughter, who is incredible.
- [40:34]
Eartha Kitt
She's on TikTok. She's everywhere.
- [40:36]
Chelsea Devantez
She's on Instagram, and she has this jewelry line with famous sayings from her mom, Eartha Kitt. And also a T shirt that I really want. Imagine wearing this into the first day of a writer's room. This is a T shirt she sells that says, those who talk too much usually don't have much to say. Eartha Kit.
- [40:59]
Eartha Kitt
Amazing. I did not know she had that.
- [41:02]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, I'm very tempted to go and buy it. She has, like, cool jewelry that she sells. And it's very clear that she loves her mother, Eartha. Eartha loved her. She's thankful to Bill for her. And then she, like, skips over whatever scandal was there about him being a student and him being white.
- [41:19]
Eartha Kitt
She's not gonna go there. Yeah. She's like, sorry. I mean, it would be interesting to have her process it a little more, knowing now that her daughter is. So her daughter can pass as white. Her daughter talks a lot about how it feels to identify as a person of color, but the rest of the world and Eartha's no longer with us. But there is so much pushback that her daughter still gets about her race. And I can't imagine how that must have felt for Eartha. Right.
- [41:51]
Chelsea Devantez
Because Eartha has an entire chapter called Yella Gal.
- [41:54]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah, that. But then also, it must force her to think about how she chose to be with white men, even though the world is like, wait, what?
- [42:03]
Chelsea Devantez
Also, though, that goes back to the paragraph she had wrote. Listen, she's, like, giving us the math. Well, it's 60, 40, you know, you Guys are really focusing on these white men I was with, but also trying to prove that she dates men of color. It's really tough. And again, she wrote this in 1976, and she's obviously skipping these parts because there's two giant chunks of the book left. Most of the book is about two more things. The first being her infamous luncheon with Lady Bird Johnson.
- [42:36]
Eartha Kitt
I love it.
- [42:37]
Chelsea Devantez
Oh, my God. So Lady Bird Johnson is like, I'm gonna have a luncheon with all my gals. And Earth is like, great, let's talk about some political issues. So much has been written about this. There's a short documentary about it. I wrote yes, yes, yes, Feuding memoirs. Because Eartha is quoting Lady Bert Johnson's memoir in this memoir, where she' refuting points that she made, saying, well, then she said this about me, but this is actually what happened. And I know our producer is going to maybe play some from Lady Bird's memoir in this, but the too long didn't read is that Lady Bird Johnson has this brunch in where she's like, aren't I great? Let's talk about issues. And Eartha May raises her hand and is like, what the fuck is up with the Vietnam War? What the hell is wrong with this administration? What are we doing about this? And Lady Bird Johnson freaks out. She then is like, oh. Oh, my God. How could someone speak to me this.
- [43:33]
Eartha Kitt
Way at my political white woman tears?
- [43:36]
Chelsea Devantez
Okay, so I wrote in my book, oh, my God, the original white woman tears. And I don't know about the original, but yes, some. Some mid century tears.
- [43:45]
Eartha Kitt
Exactly.
- [43:46]
Chelsea Devantez
My producer said that in Lady Bird's book, she doesn't write that she cried, but the press wrote Eartha May makes Lady Bird Johnson cry. One paper said I was pale and my voice trembled slightly as I replied to Ms. Kitt. I think that is correct.
- [44:00]
Eartha Kitt
I did not have tears in my eyes. As another paper said, even if her lip quivered, this is still the quintessential white people's emotions overtaking any legitimate statement. And then we know this because Eartha's whole career went down the drain, right? Because of maybe what Lyndon Johnson told the press. But the first piece was that a white woman felt intimidated, overwhelmed, embarrassed, got her feelings hurt.
- [44:28]
Chelsea Devantez
Got her feelings hurt at her brunch about talking about political issues. Someone dared to talk about one. Yeah. So Eartha is like. She immediately bursts into tears when I, like, talk about the Vietnam War. And then Lady Bird Johnson later says, no, I didn't cry. The press said that. But Eartha saw it. There's millions of witnesses. It also doesn't matter because the narrative was, how dare you? And Eartha Kitt was saying that before she spoke up about the Vietnam War, other women were saying things like, we must stop crime. The other day, I saw a child with a rock in its hand, and I thought maybe it would throw that rock. So I went up to the child and I said, no, no, naughty, naughty. And Eartha was basically like, what the are we talking about? Like, we're in the White House.
- [45:14]
Eartha Kitt
And there was another story of let's spend money to increase the lighting on the streets so that we can at.
- [45:21]
Chelsea Devantez
Least stop lighting street lights. Yeah.
- [45:24]
Eartha Kitt
So that we can see what's happening.
- [45:26]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes.
- [45:26]
Eartha Kitt
And instead of like, let's work to stop what's happening. So she's just like, I've had it.
- [45:31]
Chelsea Devantez
I've had it.
- [45:31]
Eartha Kitt
I can't.
- [45:31]
Chelsea Devantez
And she says it's so painful because in 1976, she's like, yes, okay, I was passionate, but, like, I wasn't this, like, angry, raging woman. And you're just reading it being like, oh, God, the making a black woman seem aggressive, that she hurt the poor white woman who was just trying to do good. And then, yes, her entire career ends because of this luncheon where she dares to say something about the Vietnam War.
- [45:59]
Eartha Kitt
Not to mention that the reason that she was asked was because of some of her lived experience just having grown up poor. And then she was working with this organization, the Rebels with a cause that was all about poverty and its impacts. And so also, just, like, let's totally override this woman's lived experience that she, like, knows this in her bones. But no, it's so.
- [46:23]
Chelsea Devantez
Because they wanted to talk about those neighborhoods, and she's like, no, those are my neighborhoods. It is. Oh, oh, cowardly. So she leaves the luncheon, and she's all over newspapers. Eartha Kitt is aggressive, is mean, is angry. She was mean to the First Lady. And the press covers it. And obviously later in her memoir, it's like, just what happened at the luncheon. And immediately the CIA is sent to ruin her life.
- [46:57]
Eartha Kitt
The CIA. I did not know this story.
- [47:01]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, I knew it in a way where I. I did not know the true story, because obviously I read it here, but it's like, I knew, like, Jane Fonda was followed by the CIA for speaking out against Vietnam. Eartha Kit. But to know that it's like, she spoke out at this luncheon, and then they put together this dossier on her. Then Eartha then shares with people and is like, look at what the government can do to you. Look.
- [47:26]
Eartha Kitt
And how the taxpayer dollars are used.
- [47:29]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes. And Big Brother is spying on us. And there's a secret government agency here that Truman himself has said to have regretted starting because of what it came became. But in order to tell the public, look what has happened to my life because I spoke out. Look what the CIA has done to me. I don't know if she has to, but she does share the dossier which has crazy shit in it about Eartha Kitt because they're again trying to ruin her life.
- [47:56]
Eartha Kitt
She totally doesn't have to. And I think she writes in there. Like most of this book was already sent to be published. And now I'm going to share verbatim this dossier that I just found out about. So I know she like chose to do it.
- [48:15]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes, absolutely chose to do it. And she said, I would rather lose face than lose freedom. And I want people to know what they're able to do to you. And here's a piece of what the CIA wrote about her. A confidential source declares the three page memo advised that Eartha Kitt's escapades overseas and her loose morals were said to be the talk of Paris. We love some classic slut shaming by the CIA. The source stated that the subject had a lurid sex life in Paris and described her as a sadistic nymphomaniac maniac. The memo went on and on about her sex activities with these added comments. Another informant described her as having a very nasty disposition, a spoiled child, very crude and having a vile tongue. The informant states that the subject was not well liked by most actors and actresses working with her. The informant states that she's a very selfish, shallow person who deliberately upstages and misuses actors working with her. Let's just even pretend some of that was true. What the fuck does the CIA care if a woman is selfish? Like clearly it's like, oh, if we say these things about a black woman, her existence does not matter anymore.
- [49:32]
Eartha Kitt
It's really shocking.
- [49:34]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, it's horrifying.
- [49:37]
Eartha Kitt
In the dossier, I remember there also a line that said something about her not associating with black folks.
- [49:44]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, you know, that's the next part. It says the subject did not associate with many black people and often bragged that she had very little black blood. I'm switching some of the language here because some of it is outdated. The informant states that those who work with the subject know from experience to play up to her, keep their distance to Avoid the subject. Treachery. So this is where that racism comes in of like, oh, she was playing up that she was mostly white, which, again, is like a way to make everyone perish from white supremacy. And this is how the book ends. And she's like, jane Fonda's file was bigger than mine, but here's mine. And this is how the book ends. She writes. The author Gene Fowler once said that one never finishes a book, one abandons it. Meaning, of course, that an author is never truly satisfied with the final product of his labor and could keep rewriting and revising forever. I think this is doubly true of autobiography and more literally true in that, unlike fiction, an autobiography has no end. Life goes on. That is stunning to me. I said, yes, yes, a million times, a thousand times, yes. Angela, you have published a book. How do you feel about. One is never finished. They just abandoned the book.
- [50:53]
Eartha Kitt
It's completely true.
- [50:54]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah.
- [50:55]
Eartha Kitt
You know, and I think that's what my editor has said many times when I was rewriting and rewriting and changing, and she's like, this is as good as it's gonna get right now. And, of course, you could keep doing this forever, but no, but also, you.
- [51:08]
Chelsea Devantez
Can'T to press it.
- [51:09]
Eartha Kitt
This is it.
- [51:11]
Chelsea Devantez
Oh, I felt that in my bones. And then she wrote, it would be delightful if I could wrap this chapter up with a 1940s vintage Hollywood ending by saying all the loose ends of my personal life have been neatly tied. But that's not the case. I finally found my two half sisters, Pearl and Almita. Both are happily married and living in the Northeast, and both have families. I have never known Almita. She was a child born shortly before our mother's death, and that's that. And I never really got to know Pearl.
- [51:37]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah. They're like strangers to her.
- [51:39]
Chelsea Devantez
Yep.
- [51:39]
Eartha Kitt
Nearly strangers, I think, is what she called them.
- [51:41]
Chelsea Devantez
It does feel at this moment, the book has gotten away from her, like, where she started in the beginning. We've left that book aside. We've started a new one. Like, the arc is not intact with itself.
- [51:53]
Eartha Kitt
Agreed. I think there is a lot that could be said about how she's written this book. However, I really loved the fact that it felt like I could hear her talking to me the whole time.
- [52:06]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, same.
- [52:08]
Eartha Kitt
And that's true. Even with an abrupt ending or, you know, strangely not going into detail, like, about this. Yes, he was a student and that's.
- [52:18]
Chelsea Devantez
It kind of thing, but here's my entire CIA dossier.
- [52:23]
Eartha Kitt
Yes. It's just, like, probably Pretty spot on of who she was when she wasn't in the limelight, which I loved getting that glimpse.
- [52:33]
Chelsea Devantez
I think you're so right. Okay, let me read the very end. My first autobiography, Thursday's Child, ended while I was starring on Broadway in Mysterious Patterson with critical notices beyond belief. And I ended the book with Eartha May commenting. But it seemed really true that Eartha Kitt had become a star. Now, 20 years later, I've lived the adage that stardom can be fleeting. The title of the book was taken from the poem that goes in part, Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace. Thursday's child has far to go. In essence, I am a sophisticated cotton picker. I am still Thursday's child. And she's ending it like she's lost stardom and she's revisiting this book and writing this autobiography that she still has not found the ending for the word sophisticated cotton picker.
- [53:19]
Eartha Kitt
Got me.
- [53:20]
Chelsea Devantez
That's pretty.
- [53:22]
Eartha Kitt
That's it in a nutshell.
- [53:23]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. Extremely evocative. I mean, she's a poet. She's an incredible artist.
- [53:29]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah.
- [53:30]
Chelsea Devantez
Angela, let's do the booktal test. First question. Was the author vulnerable in the sharing of her truth?
- [53:37]
Eartha Kitt
That gets a maybe.
- [53:39]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah, I'm a maybe, too. She was brave. She was brave as hell.
- [53:44]
Eartha Kitt
Completely. That's her life story is bravery and courage. I think having some similarities to her in not being raised by my own mother, I would find it really hard to talk about love like the way she did. Especially, I'm thinking, with Charlie so early on, she was just so honest and vulnerable about how much she loved him. I think when I was writing my book, even writing the word love, L O V e was, like, hard. It's just something I like. I'm vulnerable in all the ways, but that one, when you have this kind of trauma, is so hard. So I wish I could say, like, 100%. Yes. But then there's those parts where you're like, okay, there's more to the story.
- [54:28]
Chelsea Devantez
Yes, yes, I completely agree. I'm also right there on a maybe. Okay, second question. Was it entertaining to read?
- [54:35]
Eartha Kitt
I mean, I don't think I was entertained. I was intrigued. Her life has so many twists. It's fascinating. It's more fascinating.
- [54:46]
Chelsea Devantez
Fascinating is a good word. I think the acknowledgments were so incredible, nothing topped them. And the acknowledgments came first at the beginning. It was also a great writing lesson in that because the acknowledgments Were like one sentence per person per event. They were so tight and so sharp and so singing. Just remembering that, like, boiling something down to its essence is sometimes the most impactful storytelling you can do.
- [55:16]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah. There you go.
- [55:18]
Chelsea Devantez
Okay, final question. Did reading this book elevate your life in any way?
- [55:22]
Eartha Kitt
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I'm so grateful that Eartha Kitt is now part of my life in a deeper way. And I can really, truly know for myself that I'm standing on the shoulders of. She's powerful. I feel stronger knowing more about her.
- [55:39]
Chelsea Devantez
Oh, I love that so much. Yeah. I feel like she elevated my artistry just by getting to witness hers, you know, and to watch her endure and retain artistry while enduring things like that luncheon, the CIA, like, all the things that happened, and she creates all this beautiful art out of it. It's just extremely inspiring.
- [56:03]
Eartha Kitt
I think it's inspiring reading about the ways where she said yes to career changes even though she didn't have, like, a full entourage of support.
- [56:15]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. Yeah.
- [56:16]
Eartha Kitt
That's fantastic. I think about the choices that I make professionally or am scared to. To take a leap around, and I'm like, eartha does not have that.
- [56:27]
Chelsea Devantez
Yeah. She had no net and she leapt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that. Angela, tell everyone where they can find your book. This is a book that changed my life, so I highly recommend people read it. But tell everyone where they can find you, follow you, support you, all of that.
- [56:43]
Eartha Kitt
Oh, so kind. I'm@angelucker.com and on Instagram at Angie Adoptee. And again, my book is called you'd Should Be Stories of Race Identity and Transracial Adoption. And I'm just always talking on substack2 about family adoption, about how we can care for each other and. And if that needs to be legislated in any way or not. And the concepts of termination, of parental rights and how tricky I find that to be. And I talk a lot about my birth mother and how harmful that was for her, too, which is not often the sides of the story that you hear. You can go watch season five of this Is Us and pay attention to Randall's character. I had a great time supporting the writers room with his character. He's a transracial adoptee, so that's just a few places that people can see my work.
- [57:47]
Chelsea Devantez
And again, it changed my life. So please look into Angela's work. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for covering this book. I adore you and look forward to making you hang out with me via podcast. Again soon.
- [57:58]
Eartha Kitt
Thank you, Chelsea.
- [58:01]
Chelsea Devantez
A huge thank you to our podcast producer, Christina Lopez, our executive producer Jordan Moncada, our sound engineer, Marcus Hamm, and our amazing associate producer, Jaron Padre. I also want to let you know that if you love audiobooks but you want to support independent bookstores, go to Libro fm, where it is easy to download audiobooks and support local bookshops. And right now you get two Libro FM audiobooks for the price of one with your first month of membership using code TRASH. That's right, TRASH. T R A S H H. Two audiobooks for the price of 1 at Libro FM. And if you have questions, go to the Patreon Chat Lounge and I will see you there.