The Cat That Almost Co-Starred in So Ends Our Night

Some cats are destined for film stardom. For others, fame is fleeting. And for still others a life before the cameras is just not meant to be.

Such is the case of a tabby who apparently vanished from a shoot and likewise vanished from the film itself!

There is a photograph of actress Frances Dee on the set of the film Flotsam (based on the book of the same name and later retitled So Ends Our Night) sitting on a windowsill with a longhair tabby cat on her lap. The back of the photo has the press copy, dated September 23, 1940, which reads as follows:

Cat Hunt on in Hollywood

HOLLYWOOD, CAL – Spurred on by a $1,000 reward, searchers scoured Hollywood for the cat shown here with actress Frances Dee. The cat had wandered into the studio offices and was made a pet by the employees. Later the cat was used in this scene from the new film “Flotsam”, with Frances Dee. After the day’s filming the cat wandered off and has not been found since. The movie company is faced with the problem of finding the truant feline for future scenes, or getting a new cat and making retakes at a cost of $5,000.

The story was picked up by a few newspapers (in most instances the story apparently wasn’t important enough to run the photo alongside). But these blurbs offer a few more details:

News-Pilot, San Pedro, California – September 18, 1940:

Film Director Offers Reward for Alley Cat

     Film director John Cromwell is looking for a grayish-white alley cat which had been hanging around the Universal studio lot and was used in several scenes for the picture “Flotsam.”
     Cromwell said the cat, needed for additional scenes, had disappeared. He offered $1,000 for its return.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle – September 29, 1940:

Offered: All of $1,000 for Stray Film Cat

     A gray mongrel cat unwashed and unwanted until recently, has become the object of a city-wide search by a film company, with a $1,000 reward offered for its return to the studio.
     Ads have been inserted in “Lost and Found” columns while searchers prowl back alleys in quest of the vagrant animal. The feline just wandered into the offices of David L. Loew – Albert Lewin productions one day last month, it was explained. Kind-hearted office girls made a pet of it. The other day, when a scene in “Flotsam” called for Frances Dee to sit on a windowsill holding a cat in her lap, the newcomer was pressed into service by Director John Cromwell. With the sequence still incomplete, the cat was turned loose on the set at the end of the day’s work. Overnight, it disappeared.

Sure enough, an ad did appear in the Los Angeles Times at this time:

Of course there is a possibility that this was all a publicity stunt. No such scene exists with Frances Dee sitting on a windowsill. Was the cat simply brought in for a quick photo to create the story? Or was this a case of a cat truly going missing during a film shoot?

Sadly, we assume the wayward cat was never found, as there are no cats in the movie as it exists today. Wherever the cat disappeared to, we assume she had some exciting stories to tell about her brief foray into Hollywood.