When the Government Tried—and Failed—to Silence Catwoman

[musical tone] [logo clicks]

[tense music]

[Eartha Kitt Voiceover] I didn’t realize

that I was being rejected in the United States

when I couldn’t find work.

I thought, well, maybe my popularity is waning.

You don’t expect anything like that

to be happening in your own country.

My wonderful country? That can be happening.

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[T.V. clicks]

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[Narrator] Noon in Gotham City.

While millions of workers hurry to their midday meal

at a posh private luncheon

the city’s 10 best dressed women are being named

by the town’s top couturier Rudy Gurnrick.

[audience applauding]

On behalf of Batgirl, Mayor Lindsey, Chief O’Hara,

the entire Gotham City police force, and myself,

thank you, Mr. Gurnrick.

This award just goes to prove that there is room for style,

even in crime fighting.

[audience applauds]

[Catwoman] Ridiculous.

[Man] It’s Catwoman!

I said ridiculous, nonsense, foolish prattle.

How can Batgirl be the best anything

when Catwoman is around? [chuckles]

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[tape recorder clicking]

[First Lady Voiceover] Thursday, January 18th,

I went over my guest list

for the first Women Doers’ Luncheon.

Our subject: Crime on the street.

My reason because the idea has lain itching

in the back of my mind a long time,

and I felt I haven’t raised my voice

to do what little bit I could.

And our guest list: A very good one, I thought.

[exciting fanfare]

[Eartha Kitt Voiceover] They knew about my work

in America among the inner city kids.

I didn’t wanna go

because I thought it was politicians, you know, they,

those luncheons, what are they gonna mean?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And that’s it.

The White House kept calling me and saying,

Yes, Mrs. Johnson definitely wants you to come.

So, okay. I go.

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[pen scratching]

[camera shutters clicking]

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I’m very happy to welcome you here

to the family dining room of the White House

on this beautiful day.

Crime is a grim subject for a pleasant meeting like this.

[Eartha Kitt Voiceover] Now when the luncheon begins,

the women were looking at the dishes

underneath the plates and things

to see what era, or the history they came from,

supporters on, things like that.

So enthralled about the fact that they were there.

Then in walks President Johnson.

He puts his elbow on the pulpit

that was suddenly out there

rolled into the middle of nowhere.

And he starts talking about blah, blah, blah.

[camera shutter clicks]

[First Lady Voiceover] And then he turned to leave,

and Miss Eartha Kitt,

being seated at the table close to the podium

rose in his path and said:

Mr. President, you asked about delinquency

across the United States,

which we are all interested in,

and that’s why we’re here today.

But, what do we do about delinquent parents?

The parents who have to go to work, for instance,

who can’t spend the time with their children

that they should.

This is, I think, is our main problem.

What do we do with the children then,

when the parents are off working?

And obviously he was not prepared

to answer any kind of questions,

because I wanted to ask about the Social Security

that we beginning to get into knowledge about the fact

that it won’t be there, and da, da, da, dum.

Well, that Social Security bill we just passed this year

sets up millions and millions of dollars

for day-care centers

where mothers can take their little ones

if they must work.

That’s one step we’ve taken.

And that comes from…

That’s approved by a bunch of men

who are really not the best judges

of how to handle children otherwise.

I think that’d be a very good question

for you to ask yourself, and the other women here.

You all tell them what you can do.

[audience applauding]

[First Lady Voiceover] She sat down,

stubbed out a cigarette, tossing her long hair.

And from then on, I watched her expecting something.

I didn’t know what.

Apparently she did not eat,

nor did she clap for any of the speakers.

She smoldered and smoked.

[Eartha Kitt Voiceover] After the luncheon,

now we’re supposed to get up

and take our turn to give speeches.

But all of them were catering to the fact that…

What do you call that word?

No, fawning up to the boss, so to speak.

So, when I raised my hand, she kept saying,

That’s all right Eartha, you will finally get your turn.

I kept raising my hand.

[First Lady Voiceover] I did not know what to expect.

Only that it would not be good.

When some speaker finished, I nodded to her.

She rose, and began to talk swiftly, passionately.

[Eartha Kitt Voiceover] And I said,

I think we’ve forgotten

what the subject of this luncheon is all about.

And I said, One of the reasons why

our boys are running away from the United States

is because they come to me wherever I am in the world,

and they tell me what they feel.

[First Lady Voiceover] The young people are angry.

Their parents are angry

because they are being so highly taxed.

And then mounting to a crescendo,

she came to her real destination:

To denounce the war in Vietnam.

[tense music]

[bomb booming]

[Eartha Kitt Voiceover] Our position in Vietnam.

They don’t like it.

We’ve been there long enough to realize

we cannot win this war.

So I told her what the kids had told me, the boys.

That’s why they smoke pot

because they just wanna go to sleep

until everything’s all over.

[First Lady Voiceover] And then,

advancing a step toward me,

and looking with intense directness at me,

[she’s a good actress], she said,

You send the best of this country off

to be shot and maimed.

They rebel in the street.

They will take pot, and they will get high.

They don’t want to go to school

’cause they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers

to be shot in Vietnam.

I am glad to say I looked back just as directly,

stare for stare.

She continued pointing a finger., the paper said.

Mrs. Johnson, you are a mother too.

Although you have had daughters and not sons.

I am a mother, and I know the feeling

of having a baby come out of my gut.

I have a baby, and then you send him off to war.

No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.

And Mrs. Johnson, in case you don’t understand the lingo,

that’s marijuana.

Just a minute, Catwoman,

you can’t come here and disrupt a luncheon like this.

Or my awards.

Ah. But I can, gentlemen. [hisses]

[exciting music] [sparks crackle]

[audience gasps] [tense music]

[Catwoman laughing maniacally]

[women exclaiming]

[Woman] Oh, no!

[First Lady Voiceover] One paper said I was pale,

and my voice trembled slightly as I replied to Miss Kitt.

I think that is correct.

I did not have tears in my eyes, as another paper said.

[Eartha Kitt Voiceover] Eartha Kitt

made Mrs. Johnson cry.

I didn’t see her cry.

[gentle music]

One woman who was sitting to my right,

she leaned over and whispered to me.

She said, Thank you, Eartha, for saying what you’ve said.

We all feel the same way.

But unfortunately 75% of the women in this room

husbands work for President Johnson.

So they couldn’t say anything about what they really felt.

Suddenly the meeting was over.

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I had a car at the hotel

that the White House had sent for me to come there.

But then all of a sudden, now I don’t have a car.

So, I’m walking around, waiting for a car.

And I had to hitchhike my way back to the hotel,

so to speak.

I didn’t realize that I was being rejected

in the United States when I couldn’t find work.

I thought, well, maybe my popularity is waning.

Maybe that’s because even the hotel ambassador,

whom I had a contract with three weeks after that luncheon

couldn’t find the contract all of a sudden,

and neither could the William Morris Agency all of a sudden.

[up-tempo big band music]

[cannon blasts]

[machine gun popping]

I shall not seek,

and I will not accept

the nomination of my party

for another term as your President.

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[phone ringing]

[Eartha Kitt Voiceover] And the phone rang

just as I was going out the door.

And he said, This is Seymour Hersh from the New York Times.

We have something that we would like you

to give us permission to print.

[chuckles] It was from the CIA dossier.

Me? On a CIA dossier? How could that possibly be?

And he said, We have found a list of you

on the, this dossier.

And he was reading it to me.

[light jazz music]

What does that got to do with the CIA if I was?

[purrs seductively]

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