Just An Old-Fashioned Girl…Eartha Kitt passed away on Christmas Day 2008

Eartha Kitt, the American singer, dancer, actress and self-professed "sex-kitten" died aged 81 on Christmas Day Thursday 2008.

She was one of the most remarkable and distinctive entertainers in the history of cabaret and the light musical stage and to tribute in relation to this blog she was the third Catwoman in the Batman television series in 1967-8. Andrew Freedman, Mrs Kitt's long standing agent, announced that she had lost a long battle against colon cancer at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Her daughter and manager, Kitt Shapiro, was at her side.

Born on January 17 1927 on a cotton plantation in South Carolina, Eartha Kitt was raised by a woman called Anna Mae, who she believed was her mother. The singer later said that her father was the white son of the plantation owner, and that she had been conceived by rape. Named Eartha after the year's good crop, she lived with Anna Mae in grinding poverty until her mother met a new husband who rejected the mixed race child. Eartha Kitt was sent away to poor relation Mamie Kitt in Harlem, New York City. She was told that Mamie was her 'aunt', but in later life came to believe that she was in fact her biological mother who had abandoned her from "shame". It was in New York that Eartha Kitt for the first time heard jukebox music and jazz singers such as Billie Holiday and Billy Eckstine. Mamie Kitt insisted on piano lessons, but the two fought, with Eartha later complaining that Mamie "never felt any affection for me". Eartha Kitt took more and more to the streets and rooftops, dancing, sleeping rough and joining street entertainments, before appearing by chance at an audition for the performance school run by pioneering black dancer Katherine Dunham. It changed her life.

Her first appearance on the New York stage came in 1945 in a revue with the Dunham dance company. After the Broadway run, the revue crossed to spartan post-war England. She crossed the Channel, and landed her big break in Paris in 1951, when, after giving a spellbinding and largely improvised performance at a nightclub, she was spotted by Orson Welles, who cast her in his play Time Runs, based on the Faust legend. It was while learning French that Eartha Kitt discovered the rolled 'r' that would become key to her trademark 'grrr-owl'.

With her reputation growing, she was cast in 1952 in the Broadway revue New Faces, singing Monotonous. Her smouldering personality, husky voice and exquisite timing brought an immediate record contract, and in 1954 her first album came out. It included I Want to Be Evil, C'est si bon and what was to become her most recognised song, Santa Baby. In the same year she appeared in a Broadway drama called Mrs Patterson, about a poor girl who lived with her mother in America's deep south, winning a Tony nomination for the season's best dramatic actress. By then, however, she had already established herself as a film and television star, playing the lead role opposite Nat King Cole in the 1958 Saint Louis Blues. None of her screen work did much for her reputation beyond reaffirming her talent as a sinuous, sexy singer and dancer with a voice of furry innuendo, though in Mark of the Hawk, with Sidney Poitier, in 1958, she was able to express some of her feelings about racism.

Famous for the seductive feline "purr" she perfected in the role of Catwoman in the Batman TV series of the 1960s. Among her other films were Anna Lucasta (1958) with Sammy Davis Jnr, Up The Chastity Belt (1971), with Frankie Howerd, Friday Foster (1975), The Last Resort (1979), All By Myself (1982) and The Serpent Warriors (1985). In her later years she continued to work both on stage and screen. She co-starred with the comedian Eddie Murphy in the film Boomerang (1992), but seemed most happy on the cabaret stage, reprising old standards and less known works. In 2006 she even returned to the White House to light the Christmas decorations with President George W Bush, and in April this year she opened the Cheltenham Jazz festival.

A sad loss to a pure lady whom had many talents.

2nd Poll results: Should The Incredible Hulk be the villain of The Avengers movie of 2011 ?

Second poll with only a total of 6 votes :

Yes 17% 1 vote

No 83% 5 votes

Again, I think I was testing the waters here with such an outlandish question at such an early point in time to even predict a screenplay. But as some movies go a simple idea is usually used to interpret ate a script for a grand scale blockbuster to attract the masses and not just the comic book character loving folk ! Here I was thinking back to the early day Avengers comic book of the 1960's when the Hulk was an avenger even for a short period of time of two issues in 1963, three if you include the 1999 "The Avengers 1 1/2" (pictured also here) but actually stayed with the book until issue 5. A plot was involved in issue 3 where The Avengers try to locate the Hulk as he could be a menace to society. They fail to catch him, and Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner allies himself with the Hulk in a bid to rule over humanity. Phew !!

The line up for the first issue of the Avengers was Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp and this looks like the line-up for The Avengers movie of 2011 with the addition of Captain America which like The Avengers comic book of 1964, Captain America made his reappearance in issue 3 after an absence of near ten years since Captain America Comics issue 78, 1954. Because of the end of World War II, Captain America was fighting the Communists and the Soviet Union as oppose to the Nazis and this was dismissed in his reappearance because his body had been frozen and preserved after a failed mission near the end of World War II and found by The Avengers where the body had been thawed by warmer waters. Now, could the screenplay follow along the lines of some of the history I have mentioned above, keeping it simple and using the Avengers trying to restrain the control of the Incredible Hulk ?? I guess we will just have to wait and see !!

Our 1st Poll results: Who should play Captain America in the 2011 movie ?

Well considering this is our first poll with only a total of 11 votes :0(.

The results are as follows on our newly created blog:

Matt Damon 63% 7 votes

Leonardo DiCaprio 27% 3 votes

Clive Owen 9% 1 vote

Daniel Craig 0% 0 votes

Although a dissappointing number of votes which really cannot draw us to any positive conclusion at such a time but to raise awareness to the question, it is interesting to see that Matt Damon got a majority here. Daniel Craig has not even been considered for the role and was just placed here as an odd choice, playing James Bond would probably not allow him to be considered for the part but would have been interesting to see if any thought would have been made for him had he not been playing James Bond. In my opinion he could have been a good choice because of his rugged looks and blonde features suitable enough for the Steve Rogers aka.

On trawling the internet recently I discovered that Will Smith had been contacted as an interest for the role and that was even before Barack Obama had won the U.S. Elections early November. Though in Marvel's Ultimate Series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been turned into an African American character and also appears after the credits in this year's Iron Man movie played by Samuel L. Jackson. Another actor who has been contacted also is Doctor Who/Torchwood star John Barrowman who at the San Diego Comic-Con in July this year ended up admitting there had been discussions with his agents and meetings on the possibility of him playing the star spangled hero. Clive Owen another consideration, though some fan reaction to this is "They're making a Captain America movie, not Captain Britain !". Leonardo DiCaprio was placed here because that it Marvel's personal choice to play Captain America, though he has second choice here in the poll Marvel's second choice for the role of the patriotic super-soldier is said to be Brad Pitt. So no conclusion, we'll raise this question again in a future poll !

Bruce Wayne...may he Rest In Peace!! The original Batman fatally killed off in his comic book...

Batman, caped crusader of 69 years and biggest screen superhero of all time has in the last two days been killed off in the latest 681st issue of his DC comic. Glaswegian comic book writer Grant Morrison is the man responsible for this and what’s more is that it is Bruce Wayne's father, Doctor Thomas Wayne, who has done it! The notorious story entitled Batman RIP sees the caped crusader targeted by a menacing organisation 'The Black Glove' and its mystifying leader 'Simon Hurt'. Batman is drugged, buried alive but becomes free but is also shot by 'Hurt'. 'Hurt' then asserts that is true identity is Doctor Thomas Wayne, Bruce's dead from childhood father, and reveals that his death was faked when Joe Chill pulled the trigger on the gun. He insists also that Chill should have shot Bruce and his mother. 'Hurt' try’s to escape in a helicopter, then Batman leaps on to it forcing to crash and go up in a fireball. Batman is 'dead', no sign of Bruce found, then jumping ahead six months later, Batman is back in action! But it is rumoured to be his previous sidekick 'Robin' aka Dick Grayson inside the suit. DC Comics have said "It is definitely the end of Bruce Wayne as the Batman. Rumours are he is still alive but he does not want to be the hero anymore!”

So as Batman's movie career gets off to a flying start, the comic books have killed him off. Both 'Batman Returns' and 'The Dark Knight' have been re-released as a double bill IMAX cinema experience in Odeon Cinemas in the UK who have IMAX cinemas. Rumour has it also in the run up to the Oscars next March 2009 that 'The Dark Knight' will be re-released and it has been announced by American entertainment magazine 'Entertainment Weekly' that Warner Bros. would be campaigning for a nomination for Heath Ledger in the supporting actor category, putting to rest all the speculation and suggestions that he could be a contender for the Best Actor Oscar. If he were to win it, this would be the second time that a deceased actor would have won an Oscar after death. Peter Finch is the only other actor who has done this for 1976's 'Network'.

Forgotten Hero ? Who Could it Be...? The Greatest American Hero...

The Greatest American Hero was a superhero drama-comedy series which had a short life in the U.S. lasting three seasons from 1981 to 1983. It managed to pop up in some ITV regions in the UK in 1985 and I can just about manage to remember it showing on a Saturday morning around the 11.30 am slot in my Granada region. It told the tale of "special students" school teacher Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) who comes back back from a field trip late one night when the school bus breaks down. Ralph has to walk back through the desert to get help but encounters an out of control car driven by FBI Special Agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp). He manages to stops just in time to avoiding hitting Hinkley insisting that he could not control the car. Then, two bright purple lights appear in the sky and they both jump in the car and try to get away, but the car will not start and the doors lock by themselves trapping them inside. The lights come from an alien spacecraft and tell Hinkley and Maxwell through the car radio that they are to work together to save the world and Hinkley will be given the power to change it by wearing a daft looking red suit and cape which enables him to have superhuman abilities when he wears it. Hinkley and Maxwell form a forced awkward partnership trying to use the powers of the suit to fight crime.

The originality of the show was based on Hinkley's inability to properly learn how to use the suit, because he lost the instruction manual in the desert. It sort of brought the superhero medium to everyday life as if what if any of us had this encounter would we handle it the same way. Realistically shown in many scenes throughout the series was Hinkley clumsily trying to strip off his outer clothes to activate the suit before the enemies could get away. He also in a comedic fashion, when attempting to take flight showed himself to be terrified and hurtling out of control until he rams head first into a building wall. Another regular character in the series was Pam Davidson (Connie Sellecca), an attorney, who joins Ralph and Bill on their adventures and also handles Ralph's divorce to later become his wife. The hero persona never receives a "superhero name," either, hence the title of the show.

An uncanny fact of the series was that the main character's name was originally Ralph Hinkley, but after the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. on 30th March 1981 (only 12 days after the pilot episode aired), the character's last name was amended to "Hanley" for the Season 1 episode 2. For the rest of the 1st season, he was either refered to as "Ralph" or "Mister H". During the episode aired the night of the assassination attempt, the sound of a jet airplane was used to dub over the last name being spoken, and in subsequent episodes there was overdubbing of his students calling him "Mr. H" instead of "Mr. Hinkley." In the episode where Ralph is given a promotion and his own (tiny) office space, we see the name "Ralph Hanley" on the door plaque. At the start of the 2nd season the name had changed back to Hinkley.

The series was created and the baby of Stephen J. Cannell of the A-Team fame which he concentrated more on after the cancellation of The Greatest American Hero. The theme song "Believe It or Not" was composed by Mike Post (Hill Street Blues) and Stephen Geyer and sung by Joey Scarbury. The theme song became a popular hit during the show's run. It debuted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 on 13th June 1981, eventually peaking at no2 during the weeks of 15th & 22nd August spending a total of 18 weeks in the Top 40. The song failed to make the UK charts possibly because the show was not known about in the UK then. The theme song also featured prominently in Michael Moore's 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Moore used it to underscore the famous scene where President George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

In 1986, the original cast reunited for a pilot film for a new NBC series to be called The Greatest American Heroine. The pilot reveals that several years after the final episode, Ralph's secret identity was finally revealed to the public, resulting in his becoming a celebrity. This upsets the aliens who gave him the suit, and they charge him with finding a new hero to wear the costume and use its powers for fighting evil. He finds a young woman named Holly Hathaway (Mary Ellen Stuart) who spends her time looking for lost kittens and teaching young children, and most of the episode deals with her learning how to use the suit under Bill Maxwell's guidance. The Greatest American Heroine did not result in a new series, and the pilot was never broadcast. Ultimately, the pilot was re edited as an episode of the original series and added to syndication packages of the original series, where it airs as the final episode of the series.

Stephen J. Cannell is currently in talks about a remaking The Greatest American Hero as a film that would introduce the brand to a new generation already accustomed to superhero spoofs after “Sky High,” “Superhero Movie,” “Zoom” and “My Super Ex-Girlfriend. He has a script, a director and is in the middle of making the deal now for distribution. He says it will happen and wants it to be a PG movie, not a PG-13. He wants to have all kids be able to go see it and quotes "I want all the 7-year-olds to be able to go and their parents will remember the show and want to share it with them. It needs to be funny but with one foot on the ground in reality." Cannell said there will be familiar faces in the film. "Bill and the other original cast will make an appearance too," he said. "I want them to be in and not just opening and closing a door. I feel a loyalty to them and adore them. Secondly, I think audiences like it. And it's not good when it doesn't happen." Cannell clearly thinks the superhero cinema age has made a revival a smart business choice. In addition to the old cast, he said fans of the series can expect to hear that old familiar song too.

Intrigued by this series if you were too young, not born when it was about ? Or just want some nostalgia ? The Greatest American Hero is available to buy on Region One DVD via Amazon.co.uk for £46.84p. An expensive treat but sure it's worthwhile. (Or just wait until the movie is made then Sky TV may buy the syndication and show the repeats).

Guess who's crashed the wedding ? : Smallville latest ! ***** WARNING : Spoilers Ahead ! *****

Last Thursday 20th November, American viewers were treated to the half season finale of Smallville Season 8. In 'Bride', episode 10, it's Chloe and Jimmy's Wedding Day and it's all taking place at the Kent Barn. They marry, introduced to the audience at the reception and just as they cut the wedding cake an unexpected visitor arrives. DOOMSDAY is finally here and he's after Chloe and nothing's gonna stop him !! Doomsday is not the only unexpected visitor, Lana Lang is back, though she should have stayed away, and does she appear at the right moment ?

We won't see this episode in the UK until possibly 6th January on E4 and the next episode won't air in the States until 15th January, so looking like a UK break on E4 for a few weeks. American viewers will then be treated to 'Legion' episode 11 when three superheroes from the future travel to the past to help Clark in force to try and defeat Brainiac who has possessed his Fortress Of Solitude and Chloe's body.

Rumoured to be the last season of Smallville, it's looking like it's going to be the most action fest and best yet, though in my opinion I think the series should be called 'Metropolis' now due to Clark spending most of his time here finally working for the Daily Planet and gradually moulding into the character we truly know him as Superman. Though we are never going to see him don the red and blue suit and cape and some fans think the series is an outrage turning the Superman legend into a 'teen' soap drama, but what the hell though, it's lasted eight seasons, what some US dramas don't even get near to since the days of Buffy and Angel and Buffy lasted 144 episodes where as Smallville is at 162 episodes with the latest. Though not for all fan taste it's still great to see Superman in some form on TV regular each year and I suppose I can forgive them for not making Clark Kent geeky.

Superheroes Make The Screen : An Introduction

The superhero genre of movie is not a new idea as it may seem with the number of blockbuster movies made in the millennium
and those reaching the U.S.A. and Worldwide Top 20 movies of all time. Although devoted fans and critics may protest that Hollywood is milking this genre dry it all began not long after the emergence of the first popular superheroes made there appearences in the early 1940's.

Max and Dave Fleischer created 17 ten minutes episodes of 'Superman' between 1941-43 with advanced realsitic designs and animation for their time similar to what the Disney Studios were using in their popular animated movies. The Fleischer's were reluctant to take on the project at the time and tried to discourage Paramount Studios by charging a budget of $100,000 per short, but to their surprise the Paramount executives agreed to the budget and this Superman series became the biggest-budgeted animation series in film history.

The first live action superhero to hit the big screen was Captain Marvel in 'The Adventures of Captain Marvel' (1941). This was adapted into 12 Saturday morning movie serials aimed at children and shown at weekly intervals, so popular that other heroes followed as The Phantom, Batman and Captain America.

As you can see the recent millennium period of superhero movie shows a similar trend to that of its early genre origins. Decades that followed after the 1940's saw the decline of Saturday morning serials and turmoil in the comic book industry put an end to superhero motion pictures. Television took over in the 1950's with 'The Adventures of Superman' and the camp and comedic 1960's very popular 'Batman' TV series which had its own big screen movie in 1966. Richard Donner's 'Superman: The Movie' was the first epic superhero film to be made as a feature film in 1978, and was remained the first and only blockbuster of the genre of this decade. Three sequels emerged in the 80's and at the end of the decade appeared Tim Burton's 'Batman' which also had three sequels in its franchise, the last two which had no connections with Tim Burton.

A new Golden Era appeared in the late 1990's to the present day and has brought with it some of the most profitable superhero franchises in history, including, Blade (1998), X-Men (2000), Spider-Man (2002) and the reboot of the Batman movie franchise, Batman Begins (2005). Spider-Man was a record breaking blockbuster of all time taking in $403,706,375 at the U.S.A. Box Office but only recently in 2008 has Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' not only been the highest grossing superhero film of all time, taking in $529,143,070 at the U.S.A. Box Office but also the highest grossing film domestically of any genre of the first decade of the 21st Century as James Cameron did with 'Titanic' in the 1990's.

Many superhero films are currently in development. December this year sees the release of a new film about the Punisher titled 'Punisher: War Zone'. The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip by Will Eisner, will be directed by Frank Miller for a 2009 release, as does a film adaptation of the classic graphic novel, 'Watchmen', after decades of abortive development, directed by Zack Snyder. Marvel Studios plan to release Thor in May 2010 and The First Avenger: Captain America in May 2011 leading up to the July 2011 release of superhero team movie 'The Avengers' which is rumoured to possibly be the most popular superhero movie of all time ever with expectations being high and the merging of previous singular superhero movie heroes Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor and Captain America.

So for the future in this blog I wish to discuss, review and break news of superheroes making it to the big and small screen and add a little nostalgia and reminiscence along the way to projects that may have been forgotten about.

I hope you enjoy it.

In the words of Stan Lee "Excelsior !"

Frank Halligan