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Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Friends of the Famous - D






The Raven might have been Poe’s best work but the inspiration and real-life version called Grip belonged to someone else. Indeed, highly acclaimed for such timeless novels as A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens had a side that not many knew. For instance, in addition to the family pet raven, a cat named Bob was his constant companion for many years; following Dickens around the gardens, patiently watching him write for hours on end and upon occasion (according to some), going so far as to snuff out the candle when it was clear his friend needed rest or, Bob just craved attention.  Consequently, upon Bob’s demise the devastated Dickens had one of Bob’s paws taxidermed and attached to an ivory blade to be used as a letter opener.
“What greater gift than the love of a cat” ~ Charles Dickens

Renowned painter Salvador Dali may have had good reason for being a bit eccentric and engaging in unusual and grandiose behavior; having been taken to his brother’s grave (by his parents) as a very young child and told he was his brother’s reincarnation. Dali harbored the unusual concept throughout his life and later embedded the image of his long-dead brother in some of his artwork. In addition to his pencil mustache, Dali professed deep respect for cauliflowers; for their “logarithmic curves” he explained, and once drove from Spain to Paris with his entire Rolls Royce filled with them. He was often seen with an anteater on a leash, but that was before disrupting a game of ‘What’s My Line’ by repeatedly giving misleading answers (to be fair, he was immodestly sagacious), which caused the host, John Daly to intervene before the contestant up and quit the game!  By the sixties, Dali had acquired a treasured friend in an ocelot he called Babou that accompanied him everywhere, including a Manhattan restaurant where Dali was overheard assuring a distraught customer that the cat was really a regular feline painted to look exotic.
“We resembled each other like two drops of water but we had different reflections” ~ Salvador Dali




Do you have a keepsake of a past pet? Would you take a pet to a restaurant?

21 comments:

  1. Hi, dear Diedre!

    I enjoyed reading about these famous men and their unusual/exotic pets. I tend to agree with Dickens that there is no greater gift than the love of a cat, simply because, by nature, cats are known to be aloof rather than loving and affectionate.

    The Salvador Dali Art Museum is located in St. Petersburg, Florida, not far from where I live, and I have visited and taken the docent tour several times. My eyes popped when you described Dali's guest appearance on What's My Line because I actually remember watching that episode. I wonder if he ever took his anteater along to a restaurant and ordered a plate of chocolate covered ants and candy coated bees for it. ("Chocolate Covered Ants (Candy Coated Bees)" is the title of a R&B record I once owned. Don't ask me who sang it because I can't remember.)

    Thank you, dear friend Diedre!

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    1. Hi Shady!
      Your comments always make me smile:-)
      Yes, I can personally attest to the truthfulness of the love of a cat quote and would dearly love to still have a few around.
      Wow, my friend you witnessed history in the making while watching a game show!
      I googled the song and kept coming up with both a singer and a wooden dummy named Chuck Wood. Back to the drawing board, huh?

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    2. No need to go back to the drawing board, Diedre. You got it right! Apparently we both got the answer at the same time. I found it just before logging back on to your site.

      I remembered that the 45 "Chocolate Covered Ants" came in one of those shrink-wrapped bundles of 10 or 12 records for 99 cents. I bought it at Woolworth or McCrory's, one of those discount department stores. I remembered that the 45 was on the Era label. I searched the online Era Records discography and found proof:

      Era 3145
      Chuck Wood
      Chocolate Covered Ants
      b/w Blind Date (1965)

      Thank you for helping me solve that mystery, dear friend Diedre!

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  2. I loved learning about these famous men's feline friends! I don't think I would want a keepsake quite like Dickens had, though.

    Sarah Foster
    Stormy’s Sidekick!
    The Faux Fountain Pen
    @Sarah_A_Foster

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    1. Hi Sarah!
      Glad you enjoyed :-) I agree, stuffed animals are adorable as longs as I know they were not once alive. It was quite a gesture by Dickens, though taxidermy was pretty popular in the Victorian era.

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  3. Wonderful post! I'm a big fan of Dickens but not really of Dali's work, although I really appreciate his eccentricity! I have two blogs in the A to Z challenge Around My Kitchen Table and That's Purrfect

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    1. Thank you :-) I checked out both of your blogs - you're a busy bee - and loved them both!

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  4. Great post! Very entertaining. I knew about Dickens, but Dali - these quirks are new to me!

    A-Z Challenge no 1334

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    1. Thank you, A.J.:-)
      I was only vaguely aware of Dali before I began this challenge. My initial intention was to write about his ocelot, but I got a little carried away;-)

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  5. Oh, I love the story of the cat. So sweet. No, I haven't saved any of my cats parts as a keepsake. Right now, I'm trying to teach one cat to stop bullying the other. I'm losing. Wonderful posts. Thanks.

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    1. Hi Beverly!
      I enjoyed learning about his cat and can't believe I forgot to mention the cat was deaf. But yes, a sweet story indeed.
      Ha! I wouldn't keep pet 'parts' either :-)
      Is one of your cats younger than the other? The tides could well turn with age ;-)

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  6. Somehow I thought Dali was from the 19th century. Either way, I love his 'Persistence of Memory' painting.

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    1. Indeed he was, Jeffrey :-) 1904-1989. Those melting clocks are intriguing; as if he felt time was slipping away. He was pretty deep. Thanks for popping in:-)

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  7. He was a little strange. I saw part of a movie about him not so long ago and he seemed very tortured.

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    1. You're right about the strangeness, Stephanie. Ha! I may have seen part of that same movie ;-) I can see why he may have been a tortured soul.

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  8. I love reading stories about pets, both famous and ordinary. A nice pet keepsake for me would be the key to the pet's coffin, worn on a chain around my neck. Some folks on the Taboo episode about pets took it to quite an extreme, like having their heads mounted on the wall, or putting the stuffed body on the sofa.

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    1. What a wonderful idea about the key, Carrie-Anne! That's something I'd consider:-) I toured a home that was full of taxidermied big (and little) game and couldn't imagine myself living under all those eyes - and teeth ;-)

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  9. I've seen artwork featuring Dali's surrealistic watches.I wonder if the inspiration behind those watches have anything to do with him being told he was reincarnated, and if that had made him feel that he had limited time to fulfill the things his brother would've done and what he wants to do.

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    1. I was thinking along those lines too, Cynthia! His paintings often reveal an inner turmoil, yet those butterflies...what a character, huh?

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  10. Another fascinating read! I wouldn't keep a pet's paw; that seems grotesque. Salvador Dali was stranger than I realized. His parents sound a bit off the wall, too. In Germany, people take their dogs everywhere. My parents, grandparents and I used to go out for lunch every Sunday and always brought our dogs to the restaurant.

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    1. Thanks, Debbie:-)
      I was appalled by how his parents treated him, but in the long run his eccentricities brought him fame and fortune.
      I bet those Sunday lunches with your dogs were a wonderful family affair;-)

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Any thoughts? Join the conversation, comments welcome here!