In the Roaring Twenties, nearly every Broadway theater had a mascot—a dog, a monkey, or most often, a cat. But none captured the public’s imagination quite like Minnie, the undisputed queen of the Winter Garden.
Her story begins in the fall of 1928. A tiny stray, Minnie wandered into the Montmartre Club, a nightclub then housed within the theater building at Broadway and 50th Street. The cook took a liking to her, and with a steady supply of mice to chase, Minnie earned her keep. When the club went bust after the 1929 stock market crash, an engineer for the Winter Garden named Larry McAllister found her alone in the deserted space. He brought her backstage, where she promptly caught a rat twice her size, sealing her fate as the theater’s official mascot.
Minnie was, by all accounts, a proper lady. According to her biggest fan, New York Daily News columnist John Chapman, she never once left the building. She was adored by the theater’s 60-odd stagehands, who brought her treats and catnip. In return, she would leave her latest catch just outside the stage door as a thank-you gift. If a favorite stagehand was transferred to another show, she’d wait by the door all day for his return.
While she was famously aloof with the showgirls, she did win over Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice, who begged to adopt her. But Morrie, the night watchman, wouldn’t hear of it. Minnie was a theater cat, through and through.
Her fame even sparked a crosstown romance. Midnight, the mascot cat of Radio City Music Hall, supposedly "sent" a letter to the Daily News seeking an introduction. "I am a bachelor, 2 ½ years old," the letter read. "I can offer her good grub, as I am fed on calf’s liver, chicken and fish. Sometimes... I get caviar." A high-society suitor indeed!
A Star is Born... Or Is She?
Did Minnie ever actually perform? Reports conflict. Some say she once sauntered on stage during a dramatic ballad, stealing the spotlight and ruining the number. Her most famous alleged role was in the 1933 comedy "Hold Your Horses," where actor Joe Cook supposedly "poured" the cat out of a small goblet in one scene. It was a legendary piece of Broadway lore.
When Minnie passed away after an operation in 1937, the theater world mourned. But her death also brought a shocking secret to light, courtesy of a letter to the editor from none other than Russel Crouse, the playwright behind "Hold Your Horses" (and later, The Sound of Music).
Crouse’s letter was a bombshell. "Now I may speak freely," he wrote. "Minnie was a nice cat... But she had been getting away with murder in the way of publicity for several years."
The truth? The cat poured from the goblet wasn't Minnie at all. It was Crouse’s own cat, Miss Frothingham!
"The cat that was poured out of the cocktail shaker was Miss Frothingham, who sits before me as I write," Crouse confessed. He had found her as a kitten in an alley in Boston during the show's tryouts. But Miss Frothingham’s career was short-lived. As Crouse cheekily explained, "She suffered the fate of many a promising actress. She ate too much. She finally got so fat she couldn’t fit into the cocktail shaker."
After being replaced by a smaller understudy (whom she promptly slapped in the face), Miss Frothingham retired from the stage to live with Crouse, content to be a homebody. "But I know she is still an actress," Crouse concluded. "She likes to bite producers."
From Horses to House Cats
It’s only fitting that the Winter Garden has such a rich animal history. Before it became a theater in 1911, the building had a completely different life. Next time you’re standing on Broadway and 50th, picture this: you’re at the site of the former American Horse Exchange, a massive stable and auction house built by William K. Vanderbilt for the city’s elite horse traders. The theater was cleverly constructed right inside the shell of the old horse market, with the original arched roof trusses once covering the riding ring now soaring over the audience.
So, the next time you pass the Winter Garden Theatre, forget the Jellicle Ball for a moment. Tip your hat to Minnie, the beloved mascot who ruled the roost, and to Miss Frothingham, the diva who had a brief, shining moment in the spotlight before retiring in a blaze of glory. They were the *real* cats of the Winter Garden, and their charming story is a hidden piece of Broadway magic.
