R.I.P. Kitty White
Written by Joe D on September 3rd, 2009
The great L.A. born vocalist Kitty White has moved on to the next dimension, she’s singing up among the stars now, harmonizing with the music of the spheres or more likely soloing over it. She sang a duet with the King (Elvis Presley) in King Creole, dubbed the vocal of the lounge singer (Mady Comfort) in Kiss Me Deadly and sang the Farmhouse Lullaby in Night Of The Hunter. You can’t pick three more influential 50’s films to be involved with, from a super-coolness perspective! Fare Thee Well beautiful voiced Kitty, we’ll all hear you again in the Promised Land. I thought she had dubbed the little girl’s voice in the boat as they float down the river but I was mistaken, thanks to Preston Neal Jones author of the fabulous book Heaven And Earth To Play With, The Filming Of Night Of The Hunter for pointing this out.
Night Of The Hunter- Kitty’s vocals come in at 1 min. 42 secs.
Here is her voice in Kiss Me Deadly at 7 mins 39 secs. in from the top
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Thank you for giving Kitty White the attention she deserves. Forgive me please a question and a quibble.
Does Kitty White appear on-camera in KISS ME DEADLY, or does she dub the song over the on-camera club singer?
As an admirer of my book on THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, you surprise me by conflating Kitty’s off-camera singing of the farmhouse “Lullabye” with Betty Benson’s dubbing of the little girl’s “Pretty Fly” song. I’m sure you’ll make the necessary correction in your text and video.
I’m sorry I haven’t visited your wonderful website more often since you were kind enough to run that piece about the HUNTER screening at the Billy Wilder theater. (I hope you’ll catch me with your camera again at another screening some time. I’ve lost a lot of weight since then.)
🙂
Actually, I’ve been out of commission since last December 4th when I was hit by a bus. But my recovery continues apace, and eventually I should be walking again and frequenting more movie events. Hope all’s well with you.
Keep up the good work,
Preston