Because the internet could really use more cats. Also, today is National Cat Day (in America, it’s August 8th in Canada).
To quote Charles Dickens, “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” And he wasn’t the only one who loved having a feline friend in the writers room. Here’s some famous celebrities and their cats for National Cat Day.
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor loved cats, it didn’t matter what kind. Case in point, on a safari in Africa she came across a rare black-maned lion. The safari guide told her not to look into its eyes. Because, and this is a good thing to know if you find yourself facing a lion; you lock eyes with a lion, they take that as a threat. But she couldn’t take her eyes off the lion.
After a few minutes of what most lions would consider a showdown, the lion stretched and walked away. Stealing glances back at Liz over his shoulder every few steps. So the whole locking eyes with a lion thing doesn’t matter as long as you have Liz Taylor eyes.
James Dean
Elizabeth Taylor befriended James Dean on the set of Giant (1955). She gave him a siamese cat he named Marcus, who James Dean adored. When they would break for crew meal, instead of staying on set James would go home to see Marcus because he didn’t want his cat to be alone all day.
Before he took that ill-fated trip to Salinas California to race his car he left Marcus with a friend of his. Below is his note to her.
Jack Kerouac
Arguably the biggest writer of the Beat Generation Kerouac’s writing style was influenced by improvisational jazz licks. The poet novelist son of Lowell Massachusetts was also a huge cat lover, even writing about his cat Tyke in Big Sur.
Ordinarily the death of a cat means little to most men, a lot to fewer men, but to me, and that cat, it was exactly and no lie and sincerely like the death of my little brother — I loved Tyke with all my heart, he was my baby who as a kitten just slept in the palm of my hand with his little head hanging down, or just purring, for hours
Jack Kerouac in Big Sur
Ernest Hemingway
We’ve written a lot about Hemingway, but you can’t talk about celebrities with their cats without talking about Papa Hemingway. Ernest loved cats to the point of Crazy Cat Lady levels. At his home in Key West Florida he had upwards to 30 polydactyl (six-toed) cats roaming around. And today you can visit his home where those cats’ decedents still roam.
“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”
Ernest Hemingway
Also, there’s a book about Hemingway and his cats you can find it here.
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall was more of a dog lover but she was clearly a lover of all animals. But her and her husband Humphrey Bogart had several dogs during their twelve year marriage.
Raymond Chandler
Like Hemingway, we’ve written a lot about Raymond Chandler. And like Hemingway, Chandler was a huge cat lover.
“I said something which gave you to think I hated cats. But gad, sir, I am one of the most fanatical cat lovers in the business. If you hate them, I may learn to hate you. If your allergies hate them, I will tolerate the situation to the best of my ability.”
Raymond Chandler in a letter to a “friend”
And here’s Chandler writing to a friend about one of his cats Taki, who sounds like a dick:
Our cat is growing positively tyrannical. If she finds herself alone anywhere she emits blood curdling yells until somebody comes running. She sleeps on a table in the service porch and now demands to be lifted up and down from it. She gets warm milk about eight o’clock at night and starts yelling for it about 7.30.
Quote from the book, Raymond Chandler Speaking
The Beatles
Just for fun, here’s all The Beatles with cats. Ringo’s picture takes the cake.
Marlon Brando
As you can see above, Marlon was a bit of a cat lover. In the opening scene of The Godfather, the script didn’t originally have a cat in Don Corleone’s lap but Francis Ford Coppola found a stray on the Paramount lot and thought what the hell. It was kind of a pain in the ass in post, the cat’s purring muffled some of Brando’s lines and they had to dub over most of his lines in postproduction.
Marylin Monroe
As you know, we at American Pulps love Marilyn Monroe. And Marylin loved animals. Her first husband recalled her trying to bring a cow into their house to get it out of the rain. This was back when she lived in Van Nuys and The Valley was all farmland. Re: The Rocketeer.
Marilyn was actually more of a dog lover than cat lady, only owning one cat in her life. Mitsou the white Persian cat, lived with Marilyn when she was living in New York.
Here’s some other famous people with cats because, cats:
Ava Gardner
Jean Harlow
Mark Twain
Vivien Leigh
Anyway, Happy Cat Day.
