The Cat Men of Gotham by Peggy Gavan

Author:Peggy Gavan [Gavan, Peggy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Nature, Pets, History, Americas, United States
ISBN: 9781978800236
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 2019-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

Tommy Casanova Lamb. (Photo courtesy of The Lambs collection)

One of the reasons Tommy may have felt so at home with The Lambs is that, according to the club members—tongue in cheek—he was a direct descendant of one of the performing cats in Charles Swain’s Rats and Cats vaudeville act. This act featured rats dressed as jockeys that would ride on the cats’ backs around a little racetrack. The climax of the act was a comedy skit featuring two cats boxing each other. Not only did Tommy reportedly mimic the boxer John L. Sullivan by drinking a lot of beer, but he also had a bad habit of flirting with the other tomcats’ wives. Many a boxing match took place when Tommy tried to add another female to his harem, earning him the titles of “Great Lover of the Forties” and “New York’s Toughest Tomcat.”

One time, Tommy got into a fight with Felix Adelphi, the neutered tuxedo cat of the Alpha Delta Phi Club at 136 West Forty-Fourth Street. Another time, after an all-night battle in the winter of 1936, he limped home in such a shocking state of disrepair that he was put in a taxicab and rushed to the Ellin Prince Speyer Hospital for Animals. He spent several days there—at a cost of three dollars a day—healing from his wounds. James R. Kinney, chief vet, said it was one of the worst cases of mayhem and mussing up that he had ever seen. Although the vet thought Tommy’s wounds would lead to gangrene, the tough cat pulled through, albeit with quite a few more battle scars.

To celebrate Tommy’s recovery from the big fight, the Gallery Boys, as the younger set of The Lambs was known, decided to hold a testimonial dinner for Tommy Lamb in March 1936. On March 21, the headline in the New York Post read, “Lambs Club’s Tough Tomcat to Take Girlfriend to Party.” (Right above this story, the headline read, “Hitler Is Asked for Counter-Plan.”) According to the article, Joe Laurie Jr., super president of the Gallery Boys, came up with the idea for the special dinner. It featured all of Tommy’s favorite dishes, including scallops, stuffed olives, cantaloupe, and beer. Tails and white tie were compulsory, and it was agreed that Tommy would sit at the head of the table (although no one wanted to volunteer to make him sit there). Tommy’s girlfriend, a little “black and white cutie” who lived at the nearby Central Union Bus Terminal under the Hotel Dixie on West Forty-Second Street (the precursor to the Port Authority Bus Terminal), was invited to be his escort for the evening. The Alpha Delta Phi fraternity asked if Felix could attend, but that request was shot down by the Gallery Boys.

Laurie, who wrote about the event in Vaudeville from the Honky-Tonks to the Palace, reported that everyone wore evening clothes, many great speeches were made, and Tommy took it all in stride as he stretched out on a special throne surrounded by catnip.

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