Felix

Felix in a Crowd…Again

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I misplaced the card I wanted for today and I am doing a rare reexamination of this card from an earlier post back in 2022 (so new to some of you) which resurfaced in the search today. (The original post can be found here.) In the first post I looked at this card as documenting a performance but today have had another look at it and am now seriously reconsidering it as a Halloween party. I believe I purchased it online, maybe on eBay or maybe on Instagram, I do not remember. It is a photo postcard that was never sent but shows evidence of having been glued into a photo album, black paper sticking to its back. There is no writing on the back and so no indication of when it was taken.

More crossdressing, nuns, arabs and a better look at these small kids. The more I look, I feel like there are adults mixed in here.

The sheer size and variety of costumes makes me consider that this is indeed a Halloween party of sorts. It is from the period of ambitious homemade costumes. We have a row of clowns and crossed legged young men wearing ghutrah (the headdress of Arab countries – had to look that up), many more clowns are sprinkled throughout the crowd, some boys in drag, a nun, some gypsies. A careful look reveals a woman in the upper right corner holding something with a sword sticking out of it – a corpse perhaps? (What was I thinking the theme of a show with this variety of entries could be?)

Detail of Felix and friends. The costume looks more homemade when we see it closer up.

Clearly the stand-out for me is the small person (child?) in the center wearing a splendid Felix the Cat costume. He or she might be the only one in a full mask in this large group, identity completely hidden. Surrounded by Arabs at his feet, a man in a dress holding some unidentifiable bottles nefarious accessories on one side, a crossdressing nun behind him, a man in a tuxedo (very little imagination showing here) and a woman who appears to be dressed like an American flag (I want to say these sorts of stars and stripes costumes were a thing). Tucked almost entirely out of sight is a small woman with her face almost entirely hidden by a hajib with a star on it. Another sand out for me is the woman in the black and white checked ballooning trousers wearing the big witch hat – she has a sort of gypsy-pirate looking girl next to her.

This woman with weapons and some sort of dead creature attached to her clearly had an ambitious vision. Detail, top right.
Woman in checked trousers is a real stand out. I love the collar too!
Above the woman in the checked trousers to the right of the card, interesting men in these costumes which also seem to have a reference to the Arab world.

While this group seems to mostly represent older teenagers and maybe adults, kids are lined up at the bottom so it was a very mixed group. They have gathered somewhere in front of this sizeable stage and we can assume that the folks at the top are on the stage and maybe even risers to get so many people nicely in the photo. On either side are these enormous mirrors which give us a glimpse of the room – coffered ceiling and large decorative columns on one side. (One of those columns is in front of the mirror on the right as well.) The other side gives a tiny glimpse of balcony seating or catwalk of some kind. Curtains are pulled back on the stage and a single bare bulb hangs as well as perhaps some old scenery. The floor is a shiny parquet in front of the group.

A santa (!) and one of many inevitably caught with their eyes closed.

Without knowing for certain I would say Felix helps us place this photo as taken in the mid-to-late 1920’s. A rather grand gathering, although notably without any specifically Halloween decorations so perhaps the original take remains valid. Either way, I think we can assume a good time was had by all and a happy Halloween to those celebrating or participating today.

Louise Groody with a Little Bit of Felix

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Pams-Pictorama.com Post: Today’s Pictorama oddball exclusive is this April, 1928 Theater Magazine page featuring stage star of the day Louise Groody. Shown here at age 21 by my calculation she grasps a perfectly delightful fluffy white pooch and a mysterious equally fluffy (if unable to achieve the same level of actual cuteness) creature in the other arm. She herself is dressed in fur. A very of-the-moment cloche hat covers her hair and shades her eyes in this carefully composed composition. A well trained smile outlined in carefully colored lips and revealing very even pearly teeth.

The bottom of the page reads, Pets, All of Them, Especially Louise Groody, the Hit in Hit the Deck. Below: After more than a year’s successful run in New York, Miss Groody, with the rest of the company, have folded their tricks at the Belasco and silently stolen away, despite the insistent demand of late-comers. They are now on tour, covering the principal cities. (Confidential: The small animal clinging to Miss Groody’s right arm is a honey bear, sweetness – and quite light.) Felix the cat is left out in the cold.

Hit the Deck was one of Groody’s most popular hits. Here she sings Sometimes I’m Happy from the show.

The little Felix is odd – no idea really why he is there, arms folded, smiling. Below him it says, Posed exclusively for THEATER MAGAZINE, photo by Harold Stein. He is indeed the little bit of Felix in this photo and post. (He does not appear on the back of the page where there is a similar of June Collyer.) Just a small paid advertisement? An inside joke about the show long forgotten? I wondered that about the dog and baby bear too – did they have some bearing on the show? Or does she always travel with a menagerie? A quick look at the storyline of the 1955 film version doesn’t show any reason for a baby bear. And no, Felix does not seem to have appeared in the show!

Unidentified photo of a young Louise with a parrot, continuing the pet theme.

According to Wikipedia, Louise was on the stage and discovered in her teens. Groody was in ten Broadway shows, four were major hits with hundreds of performances. The same article claims that Hit the Deck was a favorite of hers. She was perhaps best known as Nanette in No, No, Nanette and for her rendition of Tea for Two, although I was unconsciously familiar with her singing Sometimes I’m Happy.

Kinda looks like Louise here. LooLoo was evidently one of her favorite roles.

Louise married a few times. Number two was a shyster who chiseled money out of folks, her included – although she was originally named in the indictment. She divorced him while he was in Sing Sing and moved onto husband number three who seems to have stuck. Groody made a pile of dough in her early years on Broadway, subsequently lost most of it in the crash, but continued to work and lived affluently again by the forties. Louise joined the Red Cross during WWII and has a small discography of early recordings. As far as I can tell, she doesn’t appear to have much of a film career, although I can’t imagine she wasn’t in any films before becoming a fixture on early television.

As for Felix I can only say that he was so ubiquitous in 1928 that even a theater publication was sneaking him in, odd considering that in some ways film was slowly eating into and ultimately eclipsing their business. However, in 1928 no one seems to have been able to resist his charms entirely.