Beeeep!

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.

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.

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

Wild Cats at Play

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This illustration hails from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, February 26, 1881. I purchased it as a single sheet for one pound sterling in London a number of years ago. I usually wouldn’t be attracted to such a violent image, but it is just so impressively drawn I couldn’t resist. Poor Mr. Rodent thing (woodchuck?) doesn’t have a chance. The cat fangs are very well done (Blackie likes to show his fangs too – luckily mostly when he smiles or yawns, which he does a lot for a cat) and you can almost feel the fluff of the tail. There’s a latecomer kitten in the upper right corner. Just in time for a meal on the hoof, so to speak. Look at those claw paws!

One has to wonder why something called the Illustrated and Dramatic News would feature this particular illustration, and I have no answer. The articles above the illustration have nothing to do with it. There’s a mention of not very much thoroughbred stock in the market at present and a small piece, The Duke of Edinburgh on Swimming. The weekly paper existed from 1874 until 1945 under that name and continued under subsequent titles until 1970. On the internet I learned that Louis Wain graced the pages on occasion and Oscar Wilde was mocked there.

I purchased a number of things that day, the result of spending several hours happily immersed in the basement of a bookstore in the theater district of London. Most memorably I purchased a number of early film and other magazines for Kim I believe. It would be one of my first stops on a return trip, with the fervent hope it is still there and the boxes in the basement are brimming.

Up a Tree

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: My personal experience with a cat up a tree is that it is an anxiety induing experience for both the human witness and the cat. To me it is a perfect metaphor for that dreadful mistake we all make once in a while – who hasn’t found themselves at least metaphorically up a tree? After all, everything about a cat is well designed for getting up the tree – and poorly outfitted for getting down. Having said that, many a cat’s hide has been saved by a quick run up a tree where a dog or other predator could not follow. While I have never had to resort to calling the fire department, nor even taking out a ladder, growing up with cats in the suburbs we periodically would find ourselves standing in the backyard trying to convince one kitty or another to make the slow trip back down the slippery trunk of a tree. These fellows look like they might make the trip up this tree on a regular basis however. It did not excite my anxious nature.

The back of this photo postcard is a bit hard to read. The postmark is Boston, November 3, 1909, 9:30 AM. It is address as follows: G A Orustredt, Bridgeport, Conn, general delivery. It reads: J. P. 11/2/09; Friend Gus [sic] Received your Postal last evening and feeling o.k. Indigestion better, the girls are all feeling fine they all send Regards. [sic] So you are on the old camping ground again hope you wont stay too long. We will expect you back in Boston by xmas anyway. I am Forwarding Letter and Postal. hope you will receive them O.K. Friend G.A.G. I guess maybe the indigestion had a negative impact on his punctuation? And no mention of the cats in the tree in the photo.

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.

Kitty Rescue at Sea

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Pam’s Pictorama Phot Post: I am a real sucker for a cat photo with a story, and so I went all out to get this unusual postcard. It appears to be a memorial card for the Loss of the ‘Gladiator’ – no date, not postally used. In case you can’t enlarge the image enough to read it, the typed article at the bottom reads as follows: Cat Found Alive. The only living thing found on board was the ship’s cat, Mickey – a black and white animal. Mickey was found in the men’s quarters rushing wildly about, mad with fear. The man who rescued Mickey was a stranger to him, and could not possibly calm the animal’s feelings. One of the crew of the Gladiator was fetched and the cat immediately recognized him and nestled lovingly in his big arms. The sailor then carried Mickey ashore, where he was received with great jubilation. Additionally the following is etched into the negative, Loss of the ‘Gladiator’ CRIBR. (?) This Bluejacket is seen with Mickey dressed in borrowed artilleryman’s clothes

Some quick research turns up the story. The British cruiser was rammed by an American liner, the St. Paul, in a snowstorm on April 25 of 1908 off the Isle of Wright. The Gladiator quickly sank – the St. Paul was damaged, but less so. Several lives from the Gladiator were lost, however the article in the New York Times archive mostly notes and praises the men for having awaited rescue in parade formation. No mention of Mickey is made in the Times article. I have included two images here of the ship and the accident – both are being sold on Amazon as historic prints. They are of interest, but I will stick with Mickey I think.

Cats on board ships are a major category unto themselves. I can’t say I thoroughly embrace these stories because more often then not these fine furry fellows seem to come to a bad end. Life on a ship for a cat seems to be cheap – although a bit rough on the humans too I guess and most of the cats, like Mickey, often seem to be much beloved by sailors. (Perhaps the high life of fish eating and vermin chasing may somewhat compensate for this?) However, Mickey, a fine looking tuxedo, seems to have kicked in with a few of those nine lives and made it out of this one alive and well.

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.

Girl and Her Cat

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I realize that there should probably be a whole category on this blog of photos only I could love. This one would go in I suspect, but maybe you will love it too. This is a small snap shot from Great Britain of a girl with a sizable, fluffy kitty in her arms. This cat reminds me of a wonderful Tuxedo who our cat Cookie is unofficially named for – a huge, wonderfully good natured boy cat who belonged to my friend Bridget, who lives in Massachusetts. That Cookie met an untimely end, they think due to a fox or something along those lines. I was heartbroken when I heard and thought of the name when we got the kits. (Our Cookie doesn’t take after him at all however, tuxedo or not – her skin seems to crawl when you pet her, assuming she lets you, and she has a horror of being picked up.)

I guess it wouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that my happiest hours as a small child were spent with the family cats. I too would carry them everywhere. We had a lovely white cat with black cow spots whose name was Snoopy. He let me carry him around and dress him up and all sorts of things. I would tell him everything and I prized his attention, especially when he would decide to sleep on my bed. He was a dignified cat of some girth. He would walk in that slow deliberate way cats have sometimes. (See my post Passin’ Through.) He was very tidy and kept himself very nice, whites very white. When we adopted a young kitten who didn’t seem to understand that he was meant to clean himself, we placed him in a bathroom with Snoopy overnight and he had him ship shape by morning – and more or less comprehending the self-cleaning nature of cats.

Snoopy also met an unfortunate end – killed by a dog. If Kim was here he’d say cat life is cheap and sadly he’s right – especially for the outdoor guys. Still, no one understands you or loves you like your cat and when you are a kid your pets can be a whole universe.