CATS!

Allegorical Cats, Metaphorical Cats, & Mrs. Trumbical’s Cat

Although often talked about, house cats were rarely seen on screen. Practically speaking, cats are harder to train than dogs, making their appearances unpredictable and possibly costly and time-consuming. Despite this, there were some cats in the Lucyverse!

HISTORICAL CATS

In November 1943, Lucille Ball appeared on the cover of Movie Show Magazine holding a basket of kittens! Note that her dog is lurking in the background!

“Liz’s Superstitions” (1949) ~ In this episode of Lucille Ball’s radio series “My Favorite Husband”, Liz (Lucille Ball) is obsessed with superstitions. 

LIZ: “If you walk under a ladder it might fall on you. If a black cat walks in front of you, you might trip over it.”

In the usual closing bedroom tag, Liz and George (Richard Denning) are sleeping when a neighborhood cat screeches.

GEORGE: “What’s that?” 

LIZ: “Well, it ain’t Bing Crosby.”

Liz tells George to do something about the cat, but he doesn’t know how. Liz solves the problem by throwing something at it.

GEORGE: “What did you throw at him?” 

LIZ: “Our cat!  Goodnight, George!”

Lucille Ball was an animal lover. She had both cats and dogs, although the dogs seemed to get more press. 

It is established that Mrs. Trumbull (Elizabeth Patterson), who lives in the same building with the Ricardos and Mertzes, has a pet cat – although the animalis never given a name. The cat was most famously mentioned in “The Business Manager” (1954) when Mrs. Trumbull asks Lucy to pick up a can of cat food at the market. A can of All Pet is interpreted by Ricky to be a stock named Canadian Allied Petroleum. Is Lucy shopping at the corner market or the stock market?!  Interestingly, although the building has a no pets policy we learn about when Little Ricky gets a dog, Mrs. Trumbull’s cat seems exempt from the rule. 

“Ricky Minds the Baby” (1954) ~ When Ricky is supposed to be watching the baby, Lucy thinks every sound is Little Ricky crying out for her. 

LUCY: “I heard a cry.”

ETHEL: “Oh, wait a minute. That was Mrs. Trumbull’s cat.”

LUCY: “Are you sure?”

ETHEL: “I am, unless Little Ricky’s sitting on the windowsill going meow.”

Elizabeth Patterson, the actress who played Mrs. Trumbull had starred in the feline films The Cat Creeps (1930) and The Cat and the Canary (1939). 

“The Handcuffs” (1952) ~ While Ricky takes a cat nap on the sofa, Lucy sneaks in and handcuffs them together! To rouse Ricky from his sleep, she runs her fingers across his lips. Half asleep, Ricky looks around saying “Here kitty, kitty, kitty”. Is he having a dream or are stray cats allowed to wander around the Ricardo apartment? 

“Lucy Does the Tango” (1957) ~ In Connecticut, Bruce Ramsey tells Little Ricky about his cats.

LITTLE RICKY: “We’re going to have to get rid of all our chickens. They don’t lay enough eggs so my daddy says they got to go.”

BRUCE: “That’s what mine said when our cat had kittens.”

LITTLE RICKY: “Did he give the kittens away?”

BRUCE: “He couldn’t.”

LITTLE RICKY: “How come?”

BRUCE: “Because I hid the kittens so he couldn’t find them.”

On “The Lucy Show,” the Danfield Volunteer Women’s Fire Brigade brags that they have rescued 43 cats; 12 of them of the same cat. This was likely Grandma Sutton’s cat, a reference that has been made several times throughout the series and the reason for the Fire Department’s first alarm. Viv says that there was once a rumor that Grandma Sutton had run off with a 22 year-old cat food salesman! Like the cat, Grandma Sutton never appears on screen. 

METAPHORICAL CATS

“Nursery School” (1955) ~ Lucy is mad that Ethel let the cat out of the bag about her plan to enroll Little Ricky, but not actually send him to Nursery School. 

RICKY (to Ethel): “I wouldn’t know anything around here if you didn’t come up once in a while and spill the beans out of the cat bag.”

LUCY: “It’s not ‘spill the beans out of the cat bag’. It’s ‘spill the beans’ or ‘let the cat out of the bag’.”

Letting the cat out of the bag is a colloquialism meaning to reveal a secret carelessly or by mistake. 

The expression is used again in “Don Juan is Shelved” (1955). When Fred reads in Variety that Ricky’s picture has been canceled, she tells him not to mention it to Ricky.

LUCY: “Whatever you do, don’t let the cat out of the bag.”

But very quickly, Lucy blurts out the news.

FRED: “That cat wasn’t let out of the bag. It was yanked out.”

“The Operetta” (1952) ~ Part of Camille’s incantation in song includes:  

“I took the wing of an owl! And the eye of a yak! The lost brown tooth of an alley cat!”

The chorus keeps chiming in to cover Lucy’s off-key singing. 

“Lucy Is Jealous of Girl Singer” (1952) ~ “What Cuban bandleader with the initials R.R. is making cat’s eyes at his dancing mouse?” The episode also describes Ricky’s suspected infidelity as playing “cat and mouse”.  Webster’s defines the expression as ‘to engage in behavior that is like the way a cat chases a mouse or plays with a mouse before killing it.’

“New Neighbors” (1952) ~ The girls use binoculars to get a glimpse of the new neighbors moving in. 

RICKY: “Curiosity killed the cat, eh, Fred?”

FRED: “Yeah, but we’ll never get a break like that.”

“Curiosity killed the cat” is a proverb used to warn of the dangers of unnecessary investigation or experimentation. It also implies that being curious can sometimes lead to danger or misfortune.

“Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined” (1953) ~ Ethel borrows Lucy’s cloche for a 1920s number.

ETHEL: “Ain’t I the cat’s pajamas?”

In the 1920s, pajamas were just coming into fashion as women’s apparel, though still slightly risqué. The term ‘cat’ also was coming into use by the flapper set as a slang word for a cool person. Thus, ‘the cat’s pajamas’ became a way to say that someone was cool, great, special, the best.

The episode features Jitterbug expert Arthur ‘King Cat’ Walsh.  

“Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright” (1956) ~ When Little Ricky is going to perform on stage for the first time, the adults are more nervous than he is!  

ETHEL: “Oh, I’m as nervous as a cat. I was so nervous, I couldn’t eat my breakfast.”

FRED: “And, believe me, for Ethel, that’s nervous.”

This expression alludes to the skittishness and anxious behavior of cats.

“The French Revue” (1953) ~ Lucy and Ethel get free French lessons from a waiter. 

DUBOIS: “Cat?”

LUCY: “Cat. Oh, cat, cat, yes.”

DUBOIS: “Le chat.”

LUCY: “Le chat.” 

“Ragtime Band” (1957) ~ Fred plays the violin for the PTA show, but the last time he played it was three chins ago at a Roosevelt Rally (Teddy, not Franklin)! Ethel compares his playing to the screeching of a dying cat! 

ETHEL: “Oh, Fred, Fred! That cat sounded better when it was alive.”

FRED: “Never mind the wisecracks.”

ACTUAL CATS

“Lucy the Fixer” (1969) ~ When the wall of Harry’s living room is torn open to repair a light bulb (!) he finds a stray kitten behind the plaster.  

Lucy asks it “What’s new pussycat?” which was the title of a 1965 film by Woody Allen and an Oscar-nominated song of the same name by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The punchline was also used in “Lucy Meets Mickey Rooney” (1966). 

On “Here’s Lucy,” Kim (Lucie Arnaz) had a cat she named Harry after her Uncle. Lucy cat-sits with Harry while Kim is busy. 

CERAMICAL CATS

“Lucy and the Ceramic Cat” (1965) ~ When Lucy and Viv are entrusted with Mrs. Mooney’s elegantly wrapped birthday gift, they naturally drop it – shattering it to pieces. They finally figure out what it was – a ceramic cat – and must try to replace it. 

A silmilar cat in yellow turns up as set decoration in “Lucy and the French Movie Star” (1967). This one remains safely on the shelf. 

Although Kim’s cat Harry never reappears, there are several ceramic cats in her new apartment.  The crazy cat with the long neck was first glimpsed in Flip Wilson’s office in “Lucy and Flip Go Legit” (1971). 

DRAMATICAL KITTYS

Lucille Ball played Kitty Winslow, a dance instructor who inherits a prize fighter in “K.O. Kitty”, a 1959 episode of “The Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse,” Ball’s first dramatic outing without Desi. 

Lucille Ball also played characters named Kitty in Follow the Fleet, The Facts of Life, and Without Love. 

“Meanwhile Back at the Office” (1974) ~ Mrs. Skyler’s Kitty Cat was brought up on milk. Kitty Cat was played by Neil the Lion. But that’s another blog.