Paramount Studios had bankable cartoon stars in 1960 but wanted more. Many of their cartoons from early in the decade featured one-shot characters awaiting a big break – which never came. The situation caused consternation among Paramount execs, who wanted a hot new star to raise the studio’s esteem and profits.
One-shot cartoons launched with high hopes included Goodie the Gremlin, a living baseball named Abner, and Kozmo, a Martian child. The studio did produce a cartoon that lasted for twenty episodes, Swifty and Shorty, based on the comedy routines of Eddie Lawrence, but it was neither a critical nor commercial success. And then there was The Cat.
The Cat starred in four cartoons from 1960-1961 before disappearing into obscurity. Why didn’t this short-lived series become Paramount’s hoped-for hit? Consistency and continuity were major issues.
For one, Director Seymour Kneitel had significant cardiac problems (he would pass away in 1964). Spread across too many Paramount cartoons from 1960-61, he had co-directors for every film in the release schedule. Kneitel had two different ones over four Cat cartoons (Irv Spector helped with three of them).
The Cat himself had three different voice artists, never having a consistent tone. Some histories suggest that Bob Mc Fadden voiced the character, but the studio record indicates that Dayton Allen, Jack Mercer, and a Paramount studio player named Will Jordan played The Cat. Sometimes the character sounded like Rex Harrison, at other times like Cary Grant, but never like “himself” in the way a Mel Blanc character might.
The Cat
The first cartoon, Top Cat, written by Irv Spector, was released in July 1960. In that cartoon, producer J. Caeser Bandwagon of Blocbuster (sic) Pictures is hunting for new stars and loses his hat, which The Cat picks up. He gives the producer a spirited rendition of “When You’re Wearing the Right Kind of Hat” (including impersonations of celebrities and historical figures). JCB whisks The Cat away to stardom.
The cartoon’s snappy musical number (written by Winston Sharples) was well done, but little else was. Top Cat lists four animators: Isadore Klein, George Cannata, Jack Ehret, and Morey Reden, and it’s difficult to see why the cartoon needed more than one. Simplistic character depictions, limited and reused animation, and background artist Robert Owen’s estimation of early-period UPA set design leave a limp impression.
Top Cat was submitted to the Academy Awards as a nomination for Best Animated Short in a field of 15 contenders. (It did not make the shortlist; the Award went to Munro, another Paramount release).
The second cartoon, Cool Cat Blues, was released after a six-month lapse in January 1961. The Cat is a private eye hired as the bodyguard to P.B.Q. Network’s Ed Solvent, a caricature of Ed Sullivan. The frozen Solvent is kidnapped by I.O.U network, but before Sadie the sexy strangler can incapacitate The Cat, the clever detective substitutes a wax figure of the entertainer.
This short showed somewhat more sophistication in the animation, possibly because William Pattengill and Gerry Dvorak were on board. The Cat, this time voiced by Will Jordan, is a meatier character. The cartoon apes a noir film, lending it a more complicated plot (which includes several hoods shot to death!) Ed Sullivan’s stone-faced nature is caricatured with less success.
The Cat’s third outing did not premier until August 1961, after another six-month hiatus. Bopin’ Hood had The Cat and his trio of jazz musicians come to Ye Olde Squaresville, where the violin-playing king has banned jazz music, much to the regret of the princess and the people. When The Cat saves the king from his incompetent guards, jazz becomes the official music of the kingdom.
Jack Mercer now voices The Cat, and Robert Owen abandons his UPA-influenced style for a softer look, but the animation dooms what might have been a better cartoon. Irv Spector, Jack Ehret, and John Gentilella animate in a flat style that features mostly character profiles and a rare full-face, without even an occasional three-quarter visual. There is a laugh when the princess transforms into a beatnik, but not anywhere else.
The series’ final cartoon, Cane and Able, released in October of 1961, was much brighter. Animators Irving Dressler and Larry Silverman now joined Irv Spector, and Dayton Allen was back as The Cat. Jackson Beck voiced the villain Honest Ace Palmer and the narrator. The story was a parody of the 1958 TV Western “Bat Masterson,” with The Cat in the Gene Barry role.
Most of the short consists of a rigged poker game, in which we learn that The Cat’s cane has almost mystical powers. When Honest Ace Palmer employs showgirl Lilly Belle to get the cane (in a nifty singing performance by Corrine Orr), the theft backfires and The Cat and his cane triumph.
And for The Cat, that was the end. In 1964, Seymour Kneitel would pass away – and the world would never see another Cat cartoon.
Could anything have lifted The Cat to stardom? By 1961, there were possibly no resources, budgets, or talent at Paramount that could have done it. The old hands who worked on the series, had been part of the 1930-1940 Fleischer studio, and were nearing the end of long careers. The theatrical cartoon was dying, and animation fans were turning to the newer TV cartoons pioneered by Hanna-Barbera. While The Cat was at times an appealing character, there was no fertile ground to launch him from.
Martin Goodman is a veteran writer specializing in stories about animation. He has written for AWN and Animation Scoop – and lives in Anderson, Indiana.
Nice post, Martin.
I suspect because Will Jordan was famous for his Sullivan impression, that’s why he was hired for the second cartoon.
Good point. Will Jordan was an impressionist and did impersonations of Mr. Sullivan on Ed’s TV show.
Paramount must have loved the title.
In 1966 they had a prime time TV series called T.H.E. Cat starring Robert Loggia as a cat burglar.
Allegedly the negatives of the series no longer exist – because Paramount tossed them in a dumpster during house cleaning.
Since the Cat lacked a proper name, and in his debut sang a song about hats, comparisons with “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss are perhaps inevitable. Certainly both characters shared the same slender physique, ingenuity and aplomb. The main difference — and it is a significant one — is that the Cat cartoons were oriented to an audience of adults, rather than very small children.
The Cat is also something of a precursor to Warner Bros./Seven Arts’ Cool Cat: both characters represented the hip youth subculture of the day as seen through the eyes of rather unsympathetic middle-aged men, and both starred in only a brief series of cartoons, culminating in a western, before “cutting out” for good.
As for what could have made a star out of the Cat in the declining years of the theatrical cartoon, probably nothing. Two cartoons a year wouldn’t have been enough to make much of an impression on audiences. I like the idea of the Cat’s magical cane in his final cartoon, and I think it had potential for use in other stories; but it may have been just a little too close to Felix’s magical bag of tricks for comfort.
Although the Cat has faded into obscurity, he and his cartoons are definitely worthy of attention from fans of mid-20th century animation. I hope you will be able to contribute more articles like this to Cartoon Research in the future. I enjoyed your reviews of the Disney features in Jerry Beck’s “The Animated Movie Guide” very much.
“Elegant bum” feline characters really seem to flourish in the animation zeitgeist of the early Sixties–Besides The Cat, there was Doc from the Lantz studios, H-B’s Top Cat, and the most successful of the litter, the Pink Panther courtesy of DFE. Coincidence or “creative borrowing” amongst the studios?
“The Cat” was a fairly decent series, especially “Blue Cat Blues.”
Another wannabe: The little European matchmaker, whom I think got three tries: The one with the parade (“Army! Navy! Department de Sanitaire!”); the one with the spaceman; and the one where a overgrown baby wants to marry a princess. Maybe stories were too hard to work out.
One more: “The Pig’s Feat”, a fable that now carries weird undertones, is narrated by a Mr. Harmonica. The time they take introducing Mr. Harmonica suggests that was going to be a stock footage frame for more animal stories.
As for The Cat: I thought “Cool Cat Blues” was riffing on some specific TV series. The idea of him playing jazz as a hobby feels like a reference rather than a gag.
The Cat is a visual design in search of a character. In the first he’s suave and assured; maybe even a con man. But aside from singing a song he’s totally passive; no hint he’s doing anything other than showing off for a random square. “Cool Cat Blues” makes no use of the Cary Grant affectations; likewise “Boppin’ Hood”. Only “Cane and Able” seems to be on to something. Despite being a specific one-joke parody the Cat has a definite character: sly and sophisticated, a dude daring the western villain to underestimate him. An upscale Bugs Bunny. Interestingly, some of the earliest Pink Panthers took a similar angle.
As for The Cat: I thought “Cool Cat Blues” was riffing on some specific TV series. The idea of him playing jazz as a hobby feels like a reference rather than a gag.
Seems to be a allusion to Johnny Staccato (1959-60, NBC) starring John Cassavetes. The series’ concept has the character as a jazz pianist who does detective work as a sideline, a reversal of TC’s situation.
Never heard of him before. Thanks for sharing!
Paul’s point above about not having a name is a good indication of why he was forgotten. And speaking of names…”Top Cat”?
It was definitely the late and great impressionist Will Jordan in the first two Cat entries. He was all the voices, especially when the cat dons the hats and does quickies of Maurice Chevalier, Charles Laughton, Jimmy Durante and Winston Churchill. His famous Ed Sullivan imitation was in COOL CAT BLUES, along with the cat’s Cary Grant voice. He told me that Seymour Kneitel was a very nice man who let him go in the studio and went along with all the voice suggestions. He said he was in a Manhattan nightclub circa 1959 and the Paramount guys asked him to audition for cartoons. Told me he based the studio chief on a famous old entertainer named Harry Richman. He did a few non-Cat titles such as HOUND ABOUT THAT (1961), and even did a few for Shamus Culhane in 1966-67 using an Andy Devine voice in titles like FORGET-ME-NUTS.
I also meant to say in my first posting here that Will Jordan is also voicing the Cat in CANE AND ABLE, with Jackson Beck as opening narrator and villain. Jordan told me that he did that cartoon before I ever saw it, and he was accurate. He said the girl’s singing was recorded at a separate session and he didn’t work with her.
Love The Cat and his theme! I wanna know, can you consider doing posts about some of the others around this time, like the dogs JEEPERS AN CREEPERS… and Prof. Schmaltz?
Paramount had bankable cartoon stars, and sold them off at the first opportunity. But they managed to get back the biggies (Popeye, Casper, Little Lulu) temporarily. The Cat needed a more promising beginning than a slowly dying, imagination-depleted cartoon studio was able to provide. Howard Post’s Honey Halfwitch and Shamus Culhane’s Magoo rip-off Sir Blur didn’t catch on, either. Even at its peak, Famous Studios introduced several characters (remember Dogface? Junior the Owl?) that went absolutely nowhere.
Popeye and Little Lulu — and Superman, for that matter — were licensed from print. Paramount paid to use them in animated shorts and I’m guessing they didn’t get a share of merchandising for any of them. Given the changing economics of theatrical cartoons, that had to hurt.
Later, when Paramount did some of the King Features television shorts, it was as a contractor.
When the deal with Harvey happened, Famous / Paramount was a minor asset of Paramount Pictures and somebody upstairs called the shots.
Mr. Beck covered the history of Famous / Paramount in depth, including the relationship with Harvey Comics:
https://cartoonresearch.com/?s=Paramount+Cartoons&submit=Search