Cats in the Mews: September 16, 1910
On September 16, 1910, The New York Times ran a small article about a want-ad soliciting 300 cats for performances at the Manhattan Opera House on 34th Street. The stage director would accept all cats–with or without stage experience–to take part in the production of “Hans, the Flute Player.”
The comedic opera was going to be the opening act for Oscar Hammerstein’s newly branded venue on West 34th Street.
According to a full review of the play in The New York Times, “Hans, the Flute Player” is set in the imaginary village of Milkatz, once celebrated for its dolls, but now for its grain and commerce. Hans, who carries a magic flute, lures all the cats from their homes in order to drown them. This allows him to release the mice that he carries in a cage on his shoulder, so that they may destroy all the grain.
Oh yes, I see comedy written all over this scene.
The press agent explained that all cats for consideration should be brought to the stage door the following morning at 10. (I can picture the chaotic cat scene now; comedic opera indeed!) The opera in three acts was scheduled to open in a week, leaving little time to find and train 300 cats.
According to the “want-ad” for the cats, the felines were not required to sing. All they had to do was appear for a few moments at the end of the first scene, when the flute player–a sort of second cousin to the Pied Piper of Hamelin–lured them with his magic flute.
The plan was to have all the cats come “snooping out of the front doors and back gates of the stage residences, and surround the principal baritone while he plays on a property flute with the aid of the orchestra. That is all the cats will have to do, absolutely.”
(Note: the opera ends happily, with the departure of the mice and the safe return of the cats to their cozy Milkatz homes.)
I have no idea if the stage director thought through all the logistics: How would they gather and collect all the cats when the scene was over? Who would care for the cats during the two-month run at the theater? What if the cats had to relieve themselves while on stage? How would 300 cats perform together without getting into any cat fights? Where would the cats go after the show ended?
Luckily, the ASPCA came to the rescue before all these issues and more had to be addressed by Oscar Hammerstein and his crew.
The ASPCA Comes to the Rescue
One week before the comedic opera was scheduled to open, an article about the cats appeared in the Topeka Daily Capital. “Oscar Hammerstein’s hopes that 300 howling cats, real ones, would make Richard Strauss music at the opening of the Manhattan Opera House next Tuesday, were ended today by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Several hundred cats were at the stage door, but they did not get inside.”
According to this article, the plan was not to have the cats come snooping from behind doors, but to have them suspended from wires above the stage. As explained by stage director Jacques Coini, when the piper marched toward the painted river, the cats would be lowered with a rush. The reporter noted, “They were counted upon to become frightened and utter the usual unearthly yowls.”
The morning after the help-wanted ad for cats appeared, a young man drove up to the stage door of the Manhattan Opera House with a wagon filled with a few hundred cats. He began selling the cats for $7 each to people who thought they would get a higher price from Hammerstein.
Soon a hubbub was heard up Thirty-fifth Street. It grew nearer and out of the dust emerged two flying figures. In the lead was a boy with two cats under his arms. He was pursued by a middle-aged man in his shirt sleeves and wearing a cobbler’s apron. They arrived at the stage door together. The man seized the cats, shouting that the boy had stolen them.
A few minutes later, ASPCA Superintendent (and cat-man hero) Thomas F. Freel arrived in the animal ambulance. He asked how the cats were going to be used. When he learned that they were desired primarily for their yowls, he said: “If those cats are used, I’ll see that the performance is stopped.”
“I’ve been hiring human cats for so long it seems to me they ought to let me have a few real ones,” muttered Oscar Hammerstein. He told the reporter he would use stuffed cats for the scene.
A day after the opening show, The New York Times gave it a very positive review. Even the stuffed cats got a brief mention: “The rain of municipal kitties comes at the end of the first act, and is a spectacle worthy of attention.”
Oscar Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera House
Built by Oscar Hammerstein, grandfather of the famous lyricist, in 1906, the Manhattan Opera House was meant to be a lower-priced alternative to the fancier Metropolitan Opera. Although the opera house was successful, it folded as a venue for grand opera in 1910 when the Met bought off its competition–Hammerstein–for $1.2 million.
Under the 1910 agreement with the Met, Hammerstein had to promise that he would not produce grand opera again in New York for 10 years. “Hans, the Flute Player” was not a grand opera, so Hammerstein got away with running this comedic opera after signing the agreement with the Met.
In 1922, after several years as a vaudeville and movie house, the opera house was purchased by the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, who added several floors and made extensive renovations. Basically, they built a new, more modern building over the shell of the former opera house.
The building was renovated again in 1938; the former theater gained in popularity over the years as a meeting place for unions and political groups, such as the Communist Party and the John Birch Society.
During the late 20th century, the building was owned by the Unification Church, which also owned the adjoining New Yorker Hotel on Eighth Avenue. Called the Manhattan Center, it featured audio and video studios, a computer graphics shop, and a large hall on the seventh floor that was perfect for recording classical music and hosting special events.
Today, The Manhattan Center comprises the Grand Ballroom, the Hammerstein Ballroom, and the Manhattan Center Studios (TV and sound production studios). In recent years, the building has been used for trade shows, concerts, game shows, special events, and radio shows.
If you enjoyed this tale, you may also like reading about the cats that starred in a musical comedy called the “Soap Bubble” at the Grand Street Museum in Williamsburg.
