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Room 8, The Most Famous Cat in Los Angeles by Roger Vargo |
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He was portly, gray even at a young age, and liked to drink from faucets. He slept on desks, under desks and on rugs. He roamed halls and entered classrooms with impunity. He was Room 8, the most famous cat in Los Angeles. He was my friend and schoolmate.
Room 8 was a large, shorthair gray striped tabby cat who adopted Elysian Heights Elementary School in Echo Park. He showed up one day in 1952 and stayed at the school until his death in 1968. Except for summer vacations─Room 8 disappeared each summer, and then returned to school on the first day of classes in September. I first became acquainted with Room 8 in 1956 when I was in kindergarten. Our teacher, Miss Allen, told us about the cat, and his story, but I thought she said his name was "Room Mate." It made sense, too, as the cat was the roommate of all the students at the school. Former student Angie (Medrano) Nicolai, who graduated in 1965, remembers kindergarten, "My first recollection of Room 8 was Miss Mason introducing him to our kindergarten class. I remember thinking that he was a big cat in her arms. She wanted us to know that he belonged to the school and that there may be times he would come into our classroom to visit. She put him down and he immediately jumped up on the desk next to the window to take a nap in the warm sun." Like most elementary schools in the 1950's, Elysian Heights had lots of rules. Don't talk in class. Wait in line. Raise your hand. Don't run in the hallway. No talking for the first ten minutes at lunch. All these rules were dwarfed in comparison to THE RULE. I remember from later years transgressors of THE RULE returning palled from a session in the office with Miss Mason, the principal. And these were the very boys who snickered at authority, ran in the hallway and talked during the first ten minutes of lunch. There were few, if any, second violators of THE RULE. For me THE RULE was easy to follow. I adored cats. Former teacher, Bob Bedwell recalled, "I saw one kid move (his seat) because the cat took his place." THE RULE, of course, was "Don't bother the cat."
One former student said, "I never liked Room 8 because he sat on my homework." Former teacher Richard Arrow recalled that in deference to THE RULE, he appointed a student as "cat remover" whose job it was to relocate the tubby tabby when he interfered too much with classroom operations. Former teacher Ray Howell recalled Room 8 as "a very important member of the faculty," who occasionally slept on his foot while he was lecturing. Room 8 came to Elysian Heights in 1952. "It was 1952 when a cat walked into the school. Many of the students who saw him are grown-ups now." wrote Beverly Mason and Virginia Finley in Room 8's biography, "A Cat Called Room 8" (published in 1966). "The cat walked around the room. He jumped up and walked on the desks. Hands reached out and petted him. Someone said, ‘This I the skinniest cat I've ever seen.' " The children gave the cat some milk and went out for recess. When they returned, they discovered their lunches had been raided and the cat was fast asleep.
Later, the cat followed the children to lunch. According to the book, "The children gave him food from their lunches. He ate, and he ate, and he ate! Then, he walked across the playground and out the gate." The following morning, the children were met by the cat who followed them into the classroom. Overcoming objections from the teacher, the cat was eventually adopted by the children, but he still didn't have a name. One student said, "Why not call him ‘Room 8', since that is the number of our room?" Mason wrote in 1968, "No one knew where he went at night or during vacation. Like the swallows of Capistrano, he returned every September for the opening of school to sleep on the desks of children. Finally, he became the school mascot." According to Mason, Room 8 was a neighborhood cat who was born in 1947 and was mistreated by a boarder in the home where he lived. Room 8's notoriety began to grow. The local news media began to take notice of his annual autumnal return to school. To students such as me, he was just part of the everyday scene at school. After all, didn't every school have a famous mascot? He usually could be seen patrolling the hall or asleep in some warm, sunny spot. He frequently made an appearance during lunch. Even though feeding him was discouraged, he didn't discourage handouts when sampling delicacies from our little metal lunch pails. Room 8 was no longer a skinny cat. He had grown to be a big boy! I don't remember much about our student government organization at Elysian Heights. I do remember, though, the most important position a student could hold wasn't that of student body president. It was the cat feeder.
The cat feeder or cat monitor wasn't an elected position. That most prestigious of all positions was appointed from within the ranks of the sixth grade class by collaboration between the teacher and Principal Beverly Mason. An added benefit of being the cat feeder was having access to that most secret and restricted area on campus, the teachers' lounge, where Room 8 dined. The chosen one also got to hold Room 8 for the annual sixth grade class portrait. Room 8's fame grew beyond the borders of Echo Park, or even Los Angeles. LOOK magazine ran a three page spread by photographer Richard Hewett in November 1962, titled
"Room 8: The School Cat". His biography, written by principal Mason and teachers Finley and Valerie Martin was published by Putnam's in 1966. Room 8 made personal appearances with Mason and his feeders at local cat shows and community groups. He was made an honorary member of various organizations. A short article about him appeared in the Weekly Reader (a national newspaper for elementary school pupils) in January, 1967. He appeared on Art Linkletter's "House Party" television show several times and was featured in a segment of the 1968 NBC-David L. Wolper television documentary, "Big Cats, Little Cats." Teacher Shari Kerr later wrote, "I remember the many times radio, television, and newspaper people came to visit our classroom, Room 8. The only calm member of our class was Room 8. We were always nervous but to him it was routine and he was a ham actor." Room 8 is remembered in different ways. Beverly Graham, whose children attended Elysian Heights, and now has a grandchild attending the school said, "He was always there. (He was a) great cat. Everybody liked him." Jean Baird, a former school clerk said, "Room 8 gave the school something that the students liked-a symbol-a cat taken in and cared for." |
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