“You are your best thing.” – Toni Morrison

Eartha Kitt on the first color episode of Ed Sullivan's Talk of the Town variety show (aka: The Ed Sullivan Show), originally broadcast by CBS on August 22nd, 1954. Only 10,000 color television sets existed in America at the time and the program was a "special event", viewable in color by very few households (though black and white sets still displayed the show in grayscale). The Sullivan show reverted to black and white broadcasts immediately after this episode aired and didn't switch to color full-time until eleven years later on September 19th, 1965. The color version of the episode Eartha appeared on sadly no longer exists and only the black and white version was archived. A rare color "behind the scenes" short film made during production (as seen below) is the only surviving color footage of the show, capturing one of Eartha's performances for posterity. Note: The title of the video attached below is inaccurate. The first five-city color television broadcast was a CBS variety program entitled Premiere on June 25th, 1951, and the first coast-to-coast color television broadcast was NBC's Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1st, 1954.

"I'm so tired. I feel like I walked all the way from Mississippi." ❤️‍🔥