Hollywood Cats Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation
Introduction by Gareth Abbott
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Clark Gable, MGM, 1945
Ann Rutherford, MGM, 1941
Gable poses with one of the cats that lived on his 22-acre ranch in the San Fernando Valley. The actor had just finished filming Adventure when this publicity photograph was shot. It was his first credit following his service in the Army Air Corps and MGM promoted the film with the line ‘Gable’s back and Garson’s got him’. Despite audiences at first lining up to see his return, the film received poor reviews and proved to be a commercial failure. Gable was so disappointed with the finished product that it was over a year before he agreed to act again
With the prize cat Sonny Boy, a shaded silver Persian who competed at the California Annual Cat Club Show. Rutherford famously starred as Scarlett O’Hara’s sister, Carreen, in the 1939 production of Gone With the Wind
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Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, MGM/Hal Roach Studios, 1927 During the filming of the silent short The Finishing Touch
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Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, Paramount Pictures, 1961 Animal actor Orangey stars as ‘Cat’, Holly Golightly’s ‘poor slob without a name’ in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Hepburn obviously had a natural affinity with cats as she went on to say that the scene where she throws ‘Cat’ into the rain from a New York cab was the most distasteful thing she ever had to do on film
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Charlie Chaplin, Charles Chaplin Productions/United Artists, 1928
Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, Paramount Pictures, 1939
With a particular talent for comedy, and a long list of credits to his name, Numa was considered to be the besttrained lion in Hollywood at the time and therefore a natural choice to star alongside Chaplin in The Circus, the eighth highest grossing silent film in cinema history
With a cat hanging limply from her hand, Goddard appears amused by something the comic actor Bob hope has said during the filming of The Cat and the Canary
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James Mason, c.1950
Julie Christie, 1963
Mason and his wife Pamela were devoted to their cats – so much so that in 1949 they co-authored The Cats in Our Lives. Written and illustrated by the couple, the book tells the story of the cats they had known and loved during their lives, including Flower-Face, Folly, Sadie and Whitey
Two years before appearing in David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago and becoming an Oscarwinning actress for her role in Darling, Christie was photographed attempting to engage with a cat on the streets of Birmingham whilst appearing at the city’s Repertory Theatre Photograph by Michael Ward
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Hollywood Cats D/J Final 10/09/2018 12:43 Page 1
Hollywood Cats
ISBN: 978-1-85149-757-7
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www.accartbooks.com Hollywood Cats Blad.indd 12
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