What are Vincent Price and Peter Lorre doing with those cats, you ask?
They're auditioning them, of course! What else?
Apparently Price and Lorre were part of a 1961 Hollywood casting session for black cats, presumably for a horror movie. LIFE Magazine was there to capture the proceedings, and as you can see, the results were fantastic.
What impresses me most is not that some Hollywood executive decided it would be a good idea to have an open casting call for cats, but that so many people managed to wrangle their cats into coming with them. No matter how lovely I may find my two black cats, I know there's no way they would tolerate being put on a leash and trotted down to a movie studio. Although, to be fair, the cats at above don't look too happy about it, themselves.
There are a bunch more truly awesome photos from the LIFE Magazine shoot here, and here. [Via BoingBoing]
Cute photo! The movie was "Tales of Terror", released by American International Pictures in 1962, and the black cat (or cats) who won the audition appeared in the middle segment titled "The Black Cat" as the pet of Annabel, played by Joyce Jameson. She's the blonde lady in the photo.
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