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All images by Ralph Crane
Thank you to LIFE Archive
Black Cat Auditions In Hollywood, 1961
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So, I’m totally a cat lady so I love this one. For the yaer 2012 they should be holding tabby cat auditions. At least one of my four would totally win! I wonder which of these black kitties won. This is great!
I think that black cat won…. lol
I love the old boy in pic 11 with his cat’s knotted rope wrapped around his own neck! What were these cats auditioning for?
Too much bad luck in one place if you ask me. But, still cute!
That’s obviously for the great Vincent Price film Comedy of Terrors, with Peter Lorre and Joyce Jameson!
They were auditioning for ‘The Black Cat’, one part in a trilogy of films that made up the film Tales of Terror by Roger Corman.
Gene Rayburn sez, “That sure is a lot of blank blank.”
Then Brett Somers blurts out something entirely inappropriate.
I would have a field day with all this cuteness!
aww, shucks, ain’t that cute!
My cat, Scout would’ve won hands down!!
My kitty, Scout would’ve won hands down!!
Love it, all those black kitties together! Fantastic!
i have 2 all blk boy cats and when they were little tried to leash train them we walked to my friends house down the st n she thought i was crazy!wish she was still here to show her this
the boys nvr learned to walk on leash
I wonder if it was on a Friday 13 th ? Wow, don’t let the cute black cats cross your path or else. Just kidding , I’m an animals lover.
One Tux spotted in the crowd! It’s amazing that they all seem so calm sitting amongst each other on leashes! They were all so beautiful- nice pic.
They’re not that calm. If you look carefully several have puffed-up tails and a lot more have that hunkered down look cats get when they’re nervous and they try to press themselves as low as possible. I’d bet half those cats are terrified.
Which one got to be a star?
The black one, sorry it was too obvious I couldnt resist.
What great pictures and you gotta love the woman in the fuzzy white hat with the CRAZY eyebrows!!!!
Love cats. I have 5 indoor cats. 2 of them are tuxedoes. I live in the country and put out kibbles daily for the stray cats. I take them when I can catch them to be fixed and then have to put them back out because there aren’t enough people that want them. I love cats!
it’s serious business being a cat
Hilarious! You know what? They all look IDENTICAL to my precious Celine…born only 7 years ago…VERY WEIRD!
Like Ann, I also loooooooove cats. I have 6 indoor cats. 7 of them are tuxedoes. Their names are Blacky, Penguin, Salem, Maynard, Blackity-black, Darkness, Midnight, and Mr. Mistoffelees. I love cats!
This is SO cool! I love cats & I love black so I’m all over this. And that movie was on just the other night! Now to go back and watch again for el gatos!!!
Like Logan and Anne I also Love Love Love Love cats! I have 11teen indoor cats and 13teen of them are wearing tuxedos right now! I can’t hug all the cats. I wish I could hug every cat! May cats are named Roger.
As an animal trainer working in Hollywood for the past 18 years – I find this totally fascinating – and quite insane!! The cat teams we train today are slowly exposed to the elements of working and traveling to set, some don’t make the cut and we find nice homes for them, some are stars the second we adopt them from the shelter (all of our trained cats are rescues), but never in my life have I seen anything like this! Thank you for sharing!
Love the Black Cat pictures. I luv that this the audition for Edgar Allan Poes “Black Cat”, luv Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and of course the kitties.
This is the greatest thing i have seen on the interweb since I cannot remember when. If these pictures were a whole world, I would like to live there for now on. I would bring my own black cat, and we would live happily ever after.
OMG…TOTAL OLD SCHOOL PICS!
VINCENT PRICE AND PETER LORRE TOO!?!?!?
PRICELESS!
Plot
Illustration for “The Black Cat” by Aubrey Beardsley (1894–1895)
The story is presented as a first-person narrative using an unreliable narrator. He is a condemned man at the outset of the story.[2] The narrator tells us that from an early age he has loved animals. He and his wife have many pets, including a large black cat named Pluto. This cat is especially fond of the narrator and vice versa. Their mutual friendship lasts for several years, until the narrator becomes an alcoholic. One night, after coming home intoxicated, he believes the cat is avoiding him. When he tries to seize it, the panicked cat bites the narrator, and in a fit of rage, he seizes the animal, pulls a pen-knife from his pocket, and deliberately gouges out the cat’s eye.
From that moment onward, the cat flees in terror at his master’s approach. At first, the narrator is remorseful and regrets his cruelty. “But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS.” He takes the cat out in the garden one morning and hangs it from a tree, where it dies. That very night, his house mysteriously catches fire, forcing the narrator, his wife and their servant to flee.
The next day, the narrator returns to the ruins of his home to find, imprinted on the single wall that survived the fire, the figure of a gigantic cat, hanging by its neck from a rope.
At first, this image terrifies the narrator, but gradually he determines a logical explanation for it, that someone outside had thrown the dead cat into the bedroom to wake him up during the fire, and begins to miss Pluto. Some time later, he finds a similar cat in a tavern. It is the same size and color as the original and is even missing an eye. The only difference is a large white patch on the animal’s chest. The narrator takes it home, but soon begins to loathe, even fear the creature. After a time, the white patch of fur begins to take shape and, to the narrator, forms the shape of the gallows.
Then, one day when the narrator and his wife are visiting the cellar in their new home, the cat gets under its master’s feet and nearly trips him down the stairs. In a fury, the man grabs an axe and tries to kill the cat but is stopped by his wife. Enraged, he kills her with the axe instead. To conceal her body he removes bricks from a protrusion in the wall, places her body there, and repairs the hole. When the police came to investigate, they find nothing and the narrator goes free. The cat, which he intended to kill as well, has gone missing.
On the last day of the investigation, the narrator accompanies the police into the cellar. They still find nothing. Then, completely confident in his own safety, the narrator comments on the sturdiness of the building and raps upon the wall he had built around his wife’s body. A wailing sound fills the room. The alarmed police tear down the wall and find the wife’s corpse, and on her head, to the horror of the narrator, is the screeching black cat. As he words it: “I had walled the monster up within the tomb!”
America was apparently done fulfilling its manifest destiny and needed some leisure activities.
Ooh I love it I’v had a lot of cat the black ones were the smartest by far
Thank you HM Jung for the tale behind this audition. I have not seen this movie, not sure if I could. This is an amazing post of photos of a time in America almost unrecognizable today.
shouldn’t these cats NOT being on leashes around the neck but instead harnesses? I see one little boy with a cat on a harness – I always though they would break their necks since cats tend to dash and jump so much
I doubt they really thought much about harness vs collar in the 60′s…but cats and dogs have strong necks, the worry with using a collar is more due to the fact that a cat can slip a collar easily.
It’s obvious that I am older than many posting comments. LOL! I recognize famed horror film actors Vincent Price and Peter Lorre (don’t know the woman) This had to be the audition for the thriller (for it’s time) aptly called “The Black Cat”. The synopsis of the mini-movie (in a series of 3 shorts combined in one film) is posted above by someone named HM JUNG. Compared to the gore and grisly scenes in today’s movies, Vincent Price’s films seem tame, but I much prefer them over what it shown in theaters today. His films almost always had a twist to them that wasn’t revealed until the near end. Vincent Price was and always will be a classic horror film actor.
I recognize the studio – Raleigh Studios, just kitty corner from Paramount. In fact, my old office window is in the second foto with the high air conditioner. I had an office there from 1975 to 1998.