Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?

Content Warning: This section includes a discussion of racially and sexually motivated murder, as well as a description of marital rape.

It is now the summer of 1956. Kitty continues her work with Blair House. The organization faces an unexpected threat when one member, Nina, goes missing. Nina left her Black husband to pass as white and married a white man. Nina’s first husband found her and grabbed her at the Santa Monica pier in front of a lot of people, saying that he was Nina’s husband. The Blair House women come up with a cover story to conceal Nina’s double life, suggesting that Nina was having an affair with a Black man. The incident reminds the Blair House women of the constant risks they face: “Everyone realized how vulnerable they were, how insignificant they could become” (264).

In October 1956, The Misfits premieres. Kitty becomes an overnight star. Nathan and Kitty are engaged but keep their relationship private. When a young Black boy, Michael Walker, takes a photograph of Nathan and Kitty kissing, Nathan offers the boy money and a job in exchange for keeping the photograph secret.