With her sultry drawl and feline charisma, the singer and actor oozed sophistication. But Eartha Kitt, who was born on 17 January 1927, had the toughest of childhoods. In History looks at how she ...

Would you show me?''," Dr Sanders says. They met next day at 7am. "At the appointed hour, out comes Eartha Kitt, who Orson Welles called the most exciting woman in the world," Dr Sanders says.