cat collection

Bonne Annee!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Happy New Year! Featured here is a small clutch of New Year’s cards that I purchased last year while contemplating the then New Year ahead. The ever sensible French have a cultural preference for New Year cards over Christmas cards – thus allowing themselves more time to enjoy the holidays. I have two examples from France above and two are British. Evidently dancing black cats were all the craze for ringing in the New Year in the 20’s which is the period of these cards, ’29 (black and white cat) and ’25 (three black kitties) are the postmark dates on those that were used.

The Bonne Annee card is dated December 27, 1929 and is addressed to Mademoiselle Dora Cordova, L’rue Guy-Patini, Paris, X. The brief message, as closely as I can read it, is Meilleurs voeux et vous (?) souvenirs, Yoorssie (?) Lehmann. The other, in English, is dated 4:45 PM, December, ’25 but the day is obscured.  It says, From your Loving Sister in Law and Family with best wishes for the new year and better Luck. From Ada xxxxxx. It is addressed to Mrs. Thornton 22 St. James Street, Walthamstow.

I love the tubby black kittens – especially that party trio! But my favorite is the very mischievous brown and white fellow. He has a sort of Devil-may-care Maurice Chevalier charm about him. Quite a New Year’s bash at his house! Something makes him just short of cute. While I don’t think I am capable of tossing my habits aside and moving to New Year’s cards, I like the thought. Non-denominational well wishes for the coming year make more sense and cards arriving during the brief lull between Christmas and New Year’s or just beyond seems nice. As a small child I was always quite serious about the changeover in years – solemnly writing down resolutions, something I no longer do. Somehow I approach the whole affair with some trepidation as an adult. So, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best, here’s to 2015 to one and all!

Flying Dutch Kitties

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: There are endless examples of early images of kittens dressed up and doing cute human-type things. However, I have never purchased one until this one hit my radar recently. It just cracks me up! As you can see by the writing, it is Dutch. A very rough translation gratis Google tells me that this is a bit of advertising and the back informs the recipient (this one not used) that the vendors hope to see them this week and that they offer high value for their orders – whatever those might be. The front makes reference to “our kitties which will soon be in the air!” (Any readers who speak Dutch please reply below!) What were these kitties selling? I’m buying!

I am always threatening to dress the cats up and take their photo – Kim begs me not to injure their dignity that way and I am brought to my senses. This image strikes me as a perfect marriage of low tech and professional – like those glorious ‘homemade’ cars and machines the Little Rascals used to have. I especially love the balloon!

I gather the key mover behind the cats-dressed-as-people movement was Harry Whittier Frees (1879-1953) – sort of a Louis Wain of early photography. I snatched the quote below from Wikipedia and it come from his own book, Animal Land on the Air, discussing the superiority of kittens as models,

Rabbits are the easiest to photograph in costume, but incapable of taking many ‘human’ parts. Puppies are tractable when rightly understood, but the kitten is the most versatile animal actor, and possesses the greatest variety of appeal. Yay kittens!

The practice spread widely beyond Whittier Frees – as we can assume this card was made by someone else. For a healthy serving of these I suggest this site on littlethings.com. I have stolen a single image from it, shown below by an unidentified photographer.

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Felix for a Cause

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Let us return once again to Felix, one of my favorite subjects. These two outstandingly unusual and interesting photo postcards capitalized on Felix’s appeal to attract an audience for their respective hospital fundraisers (Something in my role as a professional fundraiser I can really get behind.) One can only imagine they did brilliantly – after all, who could resist Felix?

The top card, and the first I acquired, was postally used, but has lost its stamp and postmark. The following (some writing faded or rubbed away) was written on the back in pencil, addressed to Mrs. J. W. Stoodley, Folly Farm, Crewkerne, Som (which appears to be short for Somerset):

Dear Mother, ….. am glad it is much cooler now but our place is cooler inside than out. The children had their carnival yesterday, but this is the one. Will

One can’t help but wonder if you got to ride with Felix in that nifty sidecar motorcycle if you attended?  I cannot answer that question, but much to my great surprise, I found a few minutes of footage of this very Carnival in June of 1925 to support Coventry Hospital and I offer it here:

 

While it is minus Felix, if you watched you did see that motorcycles seem to play an interesting role. The other pressing question – is that an enormous stuffed Felix (like someday I might find for sale on eBay and mortgage my house to purchase?) or a rather excellent Felix costume? (Which I would, of course, also be willing to go into hock to acquire.)

Then, just when I thought I would never see another postcard that was comparable, the second one showed up on eBay. While it is hard to see, if you look carefully you find out that each Felix is a tiny photo of a stuffed Felix toy, collaged on. I have supplied a photo of one of my beloved Felixes of the same type, an early addition to my collection, below. I adore this particular style of Felix and much to my surprise I came across someone with an entire basket of them at the Atlantic City antique toy show. That person told me that they were prizes at fairs in the twenties and thirties. They seem too well made for that, and I remain curious but have never heard anything more on the subject.

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I cannot find any reference to this event – no idea what the ladder is about or what the 250 (bps) refers to – a prize of some sort.  This one is unused postally and there is nothing to indicate a date. The person I bought it from said he had no idea what it referred to nor had he ever seen anything like it. (He was entertained by the image of the other one I emailed him however.) All this to say, call in Felix when you want to attract a crowd.

 

 

Felix – Here He Is Again

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I had completely forgotten that I owned this when it found its way to the top of the pile earlier today. Evidently the successor to Felix Kept on Walking (1923) in Great Britain, and cooked up by Ed. E. Bryant and Hubert W. David in 1924 to capitalize on the success of the previous year. The full title, the grammatically curious, Here He is Again Being More Adventures of Felix. He seems to be popping out of a stage door with a rather apologetic look on his face. I gather that these songs were never used in the cartoons, but creating dance songs was a way of opening promotion on a separate front. As I mentioned recently in Musical Meow we know that a few years later in 1928 Felix was making big bucks with Fred Waring introducing a Felix the Cat Fox Trot in France.

The Felix Kept on Walking sheet music entered my collection very early on after a trip to London years ago, and I had it in my early post, Me-ow Kitty Sing A-Long. Kim is not a fan of the art of either of these pieces of sheet music, but I like having them around. (In my possession is a third which he likes more – future post.)  While I cannot offer you the tune of Here He Is Again I have two jolly Youtube versions of Felix Kept on Walking. (Full disclosure – there are several more on Youtube if you love it!) This was such a hit that the title spawned other products and further promotion, and ultimately it became something of a catch phrase. Shown here is the single Felix Keep on Walking plate from my collection. Yes, full services do exist and one of my fantasies is to replace all of our dishes with period Felix plates, bowls and mugs!

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Beeeep!

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: I bought this earlier this week on eBay. I must say, I don’t exactly know what I was thinking, but no one was bidding on it and it was very original. Now that I have it I love it! It makes a loud beep that annoys the cats – as shown with Cookie below, which is always entertaining. I particularly like the sort of hand painted, not-quite-Felix on it.

The wood inside is interesting and have shown you so you can get a sense of it. This was a time when a cheap toy was really made of something! I assume it has seen some high old times – halloween parties, maybe the occasional New Year’s celebration. I intend to keep it handy for any celebration that comes along.

Mad Jenny

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Facebook followers may remember this unusual acquisition. The jest of what is written on the back, in French but somewhat obscured, seems to be Souvenir of … and … of Madame Jenny Bell Theatre 8. Oct. 1910. Jenny, looking quite mad indeed, poses with collaged cats and a monkey – what is that strange swing the one cat is on? (Photo collage is prized in my collection – see also Cat Photo Collage.)

A quick bit of sleuthing (and some good luck) reveals a notice in the October 9, 1910 issue of the  San Francisco Call announcing Jennie and Her Trained Angora Cats and Performing Dogs featured at the Wigwam. Dogs! And no mention of the monkey! This means that our French owner of the card must have been visiting San Francisco – since we know Jenny and her cats were there that week – evidently at the Bell  immediately followed by the Wigwam. I found a rather excellent photo of the Bell Theater which I share here from the Cinema Treasure website. While it seems likely to be the one in question I mostly see listings that say it didn’t open until 1911. Hmmm. October is late 1910.

Bell Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Back in 2005 I read a New York Times article about the Russian cat circus visiting Manhattan and I purchased tickets and dragged ever-patient Kim off before he knew what hit him. I can see online now that there is a fair amount of controversy about Yuri Kuklachev and his cat troupe. (Russians have an especially deep history of training animals – I remember being taken to see performing animals in Moscow one night when I was on a tour there in 1994.  Cats, dogs and much to my surprise, ducks and goats.) All I can say is, it takes a whole lot of cat treats to make a cat circus run. Speaking as someone who has trouble asking the cats to move so I can rollover in bed, I probably don’t have a future career in cat on-command trick training. I am shown with Yuri and furry performer below. Cookie and Blackie take note – this is a working kitty.

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Me and My Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post:  It doesn’t surprise me that, if you had a wonderful Felix the Cat doll, you would want your photo taken with it. As many of you already know, my collection in this area is fairly deep.  (Some of it was already immortalized and shared in an early posts, Felix Makes the Picture Better and more so in Ugly Children Good Toys.)  Shown here is a little girl dressed in her finest, holding a delightfully large Felix doll and looking mighty pleased with herself.  It is a photo postcard and nothing has been written on the back. Her Felix is a more pristine example of one I own – I am sparing you a photograph of me holding it!

The other card has a small holiday riff and I will use it as a tip of the cap to the newly launched 2014 holiday season. It is hard to see, but the tinfoil greetings has an impression of holly around it.  This little fellow had to pose in his winter clothes (and hat) in front of a very soft focus bit of outdoor scenery.  Note those snappy buttons on his trousers though! He’s dressed up too.  His Felix on the other hand is an absolutely whacky pop-eyed fellow.  Love those ears standing straight up – part bunny! This also unused and perfectly preserved.

I have wondered if these toys were just props at the photo studio. For some reason the little girl has always struck me as the owner of that Felix, the little boy perhaps not. Maybe because it is a bit less clear that the girl is in a photo studio – the portrait could have been made at home.

Those of you on Facebook know that I can’t resist posting a photo of me with new toy acquisitions. A natural impulse I think – representing a long tradition of proud ownership. On the other hand, who wouldn’t smile in a photo studio if they handed you a huge Felix doll?  I would!

Musical Meow!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Welcome to my second installment of cat related sheet music.  As some of you know, early on I shared some of my sheet music collection in Meow Kitty Sing-a-Long, but I uncovered some great pieces when searching for the art to our wedding invitation recently. The Black Cat Dance is just a great image and sort of fun. I am afraid that the names of that and Au Chat! are not distinctive enough to find them on the internet – or much information about them.

I am fortunate to own two copies of the Me-ow music, one is on the wall. The second, the one pictured here, may have been a gift – or I found it some place and it was too inexpensive to resist. Always good to have a spare. It is the only one I was able to find a link to on Youtube and I have included it below.

I had hoped I would find a way to play the Felix the Cat fox trot by Sam Fox; sadly to date I cannot.  However, I did find an interesting 1928 snippet from the Music Trade Review on the International Arcade Museum website. This brief article says that Fred Waring introduced the song in Paris and that he cabled Sam Fox that he believed it would be a hit for him. It also refers to the speed with which Europe gets American dance numbers today, scarcely a month after their initial release. Felix was excellent at selling sheet music and therefore some wonderful images have proliferated on especially British sheet music. I have at least one more example I plan to share in a future cat music post.

Hope this put some spring in your step!

Here is the link to the pdf article from the Music Trade Journal should you be curious: mtr.arcade-museum.com/MTR-1928-86-22/MTR-1928-86-22-18.pdf

 

 

Plenty Joes

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This one is in pretty bad shape – and Kim even helped out by taking it into photoshop and lightening it up! I couldn’t help it – I love this image. These two little fellows, Peter and Plenty Joes (possibly the best cat name I never heard before) are such adorable little guys. They look like they have a little attitude to back up those names – especially Plenty Joes. No surprise that I find kittens quite irresistible, but anyone who has adopted one or (God help us) two at this age know that they are quite a handful – and I can only guess from looking at these guys that they were no exceptions!  Blissfully, Cookie and Blackie have entered the easier to take adolescent stage – and only try to climb the walls to knock the pictures off occasionally.

Snow Day

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Happy first snow in Manhattan! I’ve been saving this one for you!

Another area I have trailed off into a bit is photos of cats in snow. Those of us who have lived with cats in the suburbs or country know that they have mixed feelings about the stuff, at best. On one hand, they love to watch it fall! For apartment cats this is pretty much where it starts and ends – although I used to bring snowballs into the bathtub for my cat Otto who enjoyed them immensely. The world as a snow dome. Few things are funnier than watching a cat try to negotiate outside in the snow – especially deep snow. They can walk on it for a second before breaking through – which eventually leads to hopping until they get to a secure dry spot. It is worth noting that none of the cats pictured are actually touching any of that cold wet stuff.

The cyanotype is the photo I have owned the longest and, I assume, the oldest of the bunch. Like many other things I have shared, it lives in my office where I see it everyday. It is backed on a bit of cardboard so I am unsure if it has anything on the back. I believe it came via Canada. It takes a moment and then you realize that it is a photograph of a good size cat clinging onto the front of a very large man. Ouch! Good thing he has layers on. Probably turn-of-the-century, but the farm probably already looked that way for fifty years – and perhaps did for fifty more.

The featured photo is marked December ’49 and I love this kid with his double-fisted cat hold. He too is dressed for the snow around him (snow shovel seems to be right behind him) and a good looking barn behind him. Boy, do they have some snow! Look how high it is on the ladder in the back. He’s got two nice looking cats and they look pretty pleased with their perch on his lap. He’s a pretty old guy today – wonder how this photo got away from him.

Lastly we have my most recent snow cat purchase. It is marked on the back 1942 John Duke & Honey.  Cannot say if Duke is the cat (my vote) and Honey the dog or the other way around. These folks had some serious snow drifts as well, up to the second floor of the house. This kid has his arms around a contented, fat tabby – the dog (dogs really like snow) is guarding them in that proud way dogs do.

I don’t know why, but these photos remind me of my own childhood – which had what probably amounts to an average amount of snow.  Still, no one can resist the thrill of a snow day.