The Hatching Cat of Gotham

On February 28, 1941, Hitler was preparing to give orders to camp commandant Rudolph Hoss for the expansion of the Auschwitz prison camp, to accommodate 100,000 prisoners of war and 30,000 “peacetime” prisoners. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, New York, Mrs. Silas M. Andrews and Mrs. Edward D. Mudge were holding their first meeting of the Brooklyn-Long Island Cat Club with an afternoon tea in the Tower Room at the luxurious Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights.

“The Hotel St. George is yours.”
The Brooklyn-Long Island Cat Club was the brainchild of Ann Mudge of Brooklyn Heights. Although Mrs. Mudge had a pampered Persian named Chou Chou Bu, the backyard of her federal-style townhouse at 64 Poplar Street was home to numerous alley cats, including one of her favorite strays, Kitten Mitten. Mrs. Mudge was very concerned that Brooklyn had no animal shelter and no clinic for which the poor could take their sick pets.

Sometime in 1940, Ann Mudge approached Martin Samuels, manager of the Hotel St. George, which was just five blocks from her home. “Let’s have a cat show,” she told him. “And let’s ask not only champions but the grocer’s cat and the police station mouser and poor children’s pets.” Mr. Samuels, a reported pet lover, agreed to her suggestion. “Fine,” he said. “The hotel is yours.”

The first show in November 1940 featured 50 felines, plus a special appearance by Strato Lizzie, the flying mascot cat of the TWA pilots at La Guardia Airport.

The inaugural Brooklyn Heights Neighborhood Pet Cat Show at the Hotel St. George in November 1940 was so successful that its backers resolved to form a cat club. The purpose of the cat club, which was written in the club’s constitution, was to create a fund for a shelter and clinic that would provide medical attention for poor and homeless animals. Among those who were encouraged to attend the organizational meeting on February 28, 1941, were editors of pet magazines and “other authorities on felines.”

Charter Brooklyn and Long Island members of the cat club included Mrs. Helen Picciano, Mrs. Mildred Pike, Mrs. Charlotte Harkness, Mrs. C.R. Hartmann, Miss Marion Dietz, and Mrs. Clara H. Baker. Mrs. Norah Andrews served as president; Mrs. Clara R. Richards and Mrs. Freeman L. Meinertz were vice presidents; Mrs. George L. Packer was recording secretary; and Dr. Irving Altman was the club veterinarian.

In 1941, the cat club had about 50 members and met once a month in the Tower Room at the St. George. A little black and white cat, one of a litter domiciled by the hotel’s housekeeping department, was named Kitten BLI and chosen as the club’s masot.

In order to raise money to establish a cat shelter and clinic in Brooklyn, the ladies hosted numerous cat club shows, the first few of which took place in the exotic Egyptian Club on the rooftop garden of the Hotel St. George.

During the war years, the club also purchased war bonds and published an article for women about the benefits of having a cat in the home:

A Cat in Your Home? Plea made for Tabby
Women whose men have gone to war and who have taken a war job for the duration need not come home to a lonely apartment or house these days, according to Mae Wagner Carlysle of the Brooklyn-Long Island Cat Club, whose headquarters are in the Hotel St. George.

The well-known cat’s meow might well be the feline version of the hit, “I’m so nice to come home to,” it is claimed. Cats are easily trained, can be left alone for many hours, are scrupulously clean and are most affectionate, said Miss Carlysle. Mrs. Elsie M. Collins of Riverdale, manager of the Brooklyn-Long Island Cat Show, which will be held in the St. George on Oct. 19 and 20, said that it does not matter whether a cat is a Persian, Siamese or just one of the “alleys,” women will get a lot of comfort and companionship from such a pet. Proceeds of the coming show will go towards building an animal shelter and clinic in Brooklyn. (Brooklyn Eagle, October 6, 1943)

Mr. Chips, Princess Mickey, and Prince

The Brooklyn-Long Island Cat Club’s shows were not just about showing purebred cats. There were awards for the most heroic cat, the funniest cat, the oldest and the ugliest cats.

A handsome tabby named Prince won the prize for “cat of distinction” in the late 1940s because he kept the mice away from the door at the Norwegian Seaman’s Home on Hanson Place.

In 1944, the club moved from the Hotel St. George to the Hotel Woodstock in Manhattan, where they had their fourth-annual cat show.

Some of the cats of this show included Bonnie Jean, 10, exhibited by Mrs. A.E. Townsend of Ardsley; Bonnie Maid o’the Mist; Silver Boy Brutus, raised from an alley cat by Mrs. Helen Piciano of 55th Avenue, Maspeth; and Mister Chips, a white Angora who played ball, sat up for meat like a dog and enjoyed going for walks on a leash.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the club held its shows at the Hotel Granada at 268 Ashland Place in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. There does not appear to be any more mention of the BLI Cat Club after the early 1950s.

Today there are several cat clubs in Brooklyn and Long Island, including the Brooklyn Cat Fanciers, Long Island’s Gold Coast Cat Fanciers, and Long Island Cat Fanciers.