64. Much Better than CATS — Esther Averill’s Jenny and the Cat Club
AMY: Hey everybody, welcome back to another Lost Ladies of Lit mini episode. I’m Amy Helmes, here with my writing partner, Kim Askew, and Kim… today, we’re talking about cats.
KIM: The Andrew Lloyd Weber musical? Can we NOT?
AMY: Let’s just go there for a second because I have a true love-hate relationship with that musical. I mean, it’s based on poems by T.S. Eliot, right? (That should be good).
KIM: That’s true.
AMY: And some of the music is good. I have seen it performed several times; I tend to enjoy it, but I do find myself, in the midst of watching CATS the musical, thinking, “This is so dumb! This is so random!” (It really is.)
KIM: Right. And the film version that came out a few years ago is said to be only worth watching if you’re high.
AMY: That looks so bad that even though I will go see a stage production of CATS, I have not brought myself to watch that movie yet, because the trailer was just so awful. (I did enjoy reading the reviews of that. There were some really funny reviews of that movie.)
KIM: Yeah. I’ve read the reviews even though I haven’t seen the movie, or actually, I haven’t seen the musical either.
AMY: You haven’t?!!
KIM: No, which is why I don’t really have any room to laugh about it, because I actually haven’t seen it. However, you know, what I do know about it does make me sense that I might not love it, but the fact that you like it, and we like a lot of the same things…
AMY: I don’t think you’re as into musicals as I am.
KIM: No.
AMY: But I will say there’s something about the stage version I do find endearing. I like the costumes. I like the dancers writhing around on stage as if they’re cats. But the plot just sucks. I remember the last time it came to town I was trying to cajole my kids into going with me and Julia did not want to go. Jack grudgingly came with me because he just knew that I needed a date. And I almost apologized to him after it was over. Like “I'm so sorry, I made you sit through that.” Because it's not for everyone.
KIM: But what a sweet kid!
AMY: If I were Andrew Lloyd Weber, I think I would have stuck with the cat theme (I think that’s a good idea) but I might have turned to another author for my inspiration. And you might even call her a “lost lady,” in fact: Her name is Esther Averill.
KIM: Oh my gosh! Yes. I know where you’re going with this now, and you are absolutely right. That would have been way better. So Esther Averill is the author of a series of 13 children’s chapter books all about a black cat named Jenny Linsky. She’s an orphan who’s been rescued by a kindly sailor named Captain Tinker, and he encourages to go out into the neighborhood and make some friends.
AMY: And there just so happens to be an official “Cat Club” amongst all these neighborhood cats, hence the title of the first book, Jenny and the Cat Club. They all have these fun names like Mr. President, and Macaroni and Concertina, and they invite Jenny to join the club. All these anthropomorphic cats have special talents. One of the cats can play a nose flute (which I thought was funny). But Jenny, poor Jenny, is feeling inadequate because she doesn’t have a special talent that would help her join the Cat Club. So in the course of the book, she does find her talent and she is admitted to the club, and the adventures continue from there in the rest of the series. And I’m sorry, but the cat club and all these cats with unique monikers — that is basically the stage show of CATS, but with a more cohesive story. I just think it could have worked better, I don’t know. Kim, anyway, I didn’t grow up with these books. I think you’re the one who mentioned them to me, but when did you discover them, and what do you like most about them?
KIM: I actually didn’t know about them until I bought my niece, Chloe, a New York Review of Books’ Children’s Book Club Subscription (which is great, by the way). And I think she was 9 or 10 at the time, and she immediately loved them and wanted more.
AMY: Okay, and I think we have a little clip of Chloe, who we invited to share her thoughts for us.
KIM: Yeah, she’s going to give us a little book review.
AMY: Yeah, let’s play that.
[Plays clip of Chloe]
CHLOE: Well, what I really love about the Jenny and the Cat Club series was it was very cute, innocent …. very calm, chill vibes. It was just a sweet little story about a little black cat who has a red scarf knitted by her old owner who's a sailor. And she goes out one night and she meets this group of cats who dance and they have fun. And they jump around the gardens and go on picnics. And she has a bunch of adventures with them. And it's a really, just a really sweet book.
[end clip]
AMY: So I agree, I mean, just for this episode I did a quick catch-up on these books and I love how quirky they are. During the first meeting Jenny spies on, she sees the cats attending to financial matters. (The club is very official. They even have their own emblem.) It’s little details like that which just cracked me up. And I think these books would make a really good animated series for kids even today, don’t you think?
KIM: Absolutely. And my daughter is obsessed with cats, so I could see her loving that. So Esther Averill wrote the books and illustrated them. She was born in 1902 in Bridgeport, CT. She actually contributed some of her cartoons to a local newspaper when she was a teenager, then after attending Vassar, she went on to work in magazines. She eventually moved to Paris and started her own short-lived press, Domino Press, and it specialized in children’s picture books. (That is really cool.) After moving back to the states in 1941 (because of the war, I’d assume), she took a job at the New York Public Library. It’s during this time that she started writing The Cat Club books. She continued creating them until 1972. They were translated into six languages, and in 1954, one of the titles, Jenny’s Birthday Book, was named The New York Times’ Best Children Book of the Year.
AMY: The books were actually reissued back in 2003. And I think if you’re looking for a great gift to give a child, you should consider these books as an option. They’ve got a cool retro vibe and they’re just so charming… and I mean, I haven’t vetted them all, but I suspect they hold up in terms of appropriateness as well. And since we’re on the topic of cats, I thought this would be a good episode to bring up another children’s book that I first heard about late last year. It involves a few other lost ladies, and it might be kind of specific to Los Angeles where we live, but the anecdote behind this book is really endearing and so I wanted to share it. So A Cat Called Room 8 is an out-of-print book by Virginia Finley and Beverly Mason. There’s a copy of this book at the Los Angeles central library downtown, but it was not available for circulation (It’s reference only) and because of Covid restrictions, I wasn't able to get down there to check it out in person. However, I was able to find a digitized copy of the book (which means you’ll be able to check it out, too). The book is based on a true story. So in the 1950s, Beverly Mason (one of the authors) was the principal of Elysian Heights Elementary School here in L.A. (which is a school that isn’t too far from where I live). Virginia Finley (the other author) was a teacher there, and they wrote this book, A Cat Called Room 8, to memorialize a big gray cat who began visiting a sixth grade classroom day after day, and year after year. He would disappear back into the hills during summer vacations, but on the first day of school he’d pop up again, and for over a decade he was a fixture at the school. The first class that he visited named him “Room 8” because they were “Room 8.” And every year when the graduating sixth grade took their class picture, Room 8 was included in the photo. (You could see him on one of the kids’ laps.)
KIM: Awww!
AMY: And if you go on the Internet, you can find some of these class photos with Room 8. Over time, the cat became a legend at Elysian Heights Elementary, not just to the kids and the staff, but he became famous world-wide for his attendance at the school! So some local newspapers and TV stations began reporting on this cat that had taken up residence at the school, and then Look magazine did a three-page spread about the cat, which resulted in tons of fan mail coming to the school from all over the world! When he died in 1968, this cat got an obituary in the Los Angeles Times.
KIM: Oh, I love that story. And the students at the school actually raised money to buy him a gravestone. He’s buried at the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park in Calabasas, CA. Before he died, his pawprints were set in cement outside of the school, as if he were a Hollywood star. Oh, that’s so sweet! And we’ll try to find the Look magazine cover and put it on our social.
AMY: And also, if you Google it, you can also find messages that the children at the time wrote into the concrete alongside his little paws. So one message says, “We loved him, for he gave us much cheer.” Another says, “He came in our room and sat on my table. I loved him.” And another one said: “Without a name, to room 8 he came, to give our school the greatest fame.”
KIM: The rhyming… that is adorable. There’s also a colorful mural devoted to Room 8 on the school’s outer wall and inside, there’s a sort of shrine to him with historic photographs.
AMY: “Memories….. All alone in the school yard….!!!!” I know you know that.
KIM: I know that song. I didn’t know it was from CATS.
AMY: YOU DID NOT KNOW THAT SONG WAS FROM CATS, KIM??!!
KIM: Nope.
AMY: Oh my god.
KIM: I know.
AMY: Maybe we … the next time CATS comes to town you’re coming to see it with me, because it’s got tons of ballet in it. There’s a white cat that’s a really beautiful ballerina — they always cast it with a ballerina. I think you might oddly like it, and it’s got the T.S. Eliot connection. It’s based on his poems.
KIM: Yes. No, that’s great. You know, we’ll go to tea afterwards…
AMY: To decompress. Or laugh. Or I have to buy you tea because you’re angry at me.
KIM: Yes. Yes.
AMY: Seriously, though, A Cat Called Room 8 is such a sweet story and I’m glad I was able to find a copy of it online. It’s really cute, with really good illustrations by a woman named Valerie Martin. And we’re going to post some pages from the book on Instagram so you can see how cute it is. (The book apparently is still read to incoming kindergarteners at Elysian Heights Elementary, which is fun.) And we’ll have a few more links about the real-life Room 8 cat in our show notes.
KIM: That’s all for today’s episode…. Let us know what you think of today’s episode. Are you a Jenny Linsky fan? We want to hear about it.
AMY: Or do you despise Andrew Lloyd Weber’s CATS like so many people do? Tell us! We want to hear from you!
KIM: And do us a favor and leave us a rating and review wherever you listen to this podcast to let us know you’re out there! It really helps us find new listeners.
AMY: Until next week, bye everybody! Our theme song was written and performed by Jennie Malone, and our logo was designed by Harriet Grant. Lost Ladies of Lit is produced by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes.