Posts Tagged ‘New York City History’

Join me on October 20, 2021, at 6 p.m. (ET). as I explore the city’s police and fire history while sharing some amazing stories of Old New York’s four-legged bravest and finest. This will be the debut for my FURst Responders of Gotham presentation, which is a prelude to my (possibly) upcoming book of the same title. Registration is required for this free virtual event.

The Winter Garden Theatre was home to the original Broadway production of Cats from 1982 until the production closed in 2000. But about 50 years before the creepy human cats appeared on stage, the theater was famous for its real cats. Cat mascots, that is.

Dolph the cat could do many tricks, but his skills did not come in handy when a goat led him into the Ice Palace Skating Rink on East 107th Street, where he was stuck without food and water for eight days.

Greenwich Village in the early 1900s was home to many notable cats that made the headline news. There were the Bohemian cats led by Crazy Cat, who reigned supreme around Sheridan Square during the 1910s. And there were the more refined gentlemen cats like Old Timer, Mr. White, and Jonathan, who occupied the feline throne on Greenwich Avenue in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Miss Clementine Anderson and Miss Mary J. Anderson were two wealthy, educated, and refined “spinsters” who turned the Poverty Hollow neighborhood around Broome and Pitt Streets on the Lower East Side into a paradise for cats.