Cool For Cats

Country: United Kingdom

The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This British TV series from the 1950s and early 1960s presented pop music for a young audience. It featured record playing, commentary, dance routines, and cartoons.

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What happens

Cool for Cats was one of the first shows on British TV to feature music for a teenage audience. It was produced by Associated Rediffusion, part of the ITV network, and ran from December 1956 to February 1961. The show was originally presented by Daily Sketch journalist Ker Robertson and then by Kent Walton. Ker gave up presenting duties and took on the role of record arranger. The show lasted 15 minutes. Discs were played and then commented upon. Sometimes The Dougie Squires Dancers, which included the then unknown Una Stubbs, Amanda Barrie, and Patsy Rowlands, who performed dance routines to the music. Sometimes Desmond Hennessy, and later by Neville Wortman would draw a relevant cartoon a 'Cool Cartoon', while the record played. It was originally described by the TV Times (listing magazine) as “An intimate record programme in which Ker Robertson brings viewers the hits and near hits, the songs, music and stories of the people who make discs a £25,000,000 a year business”. The programme was originally broadcast (only in the London area) on Mondays at 7:15 pm and then later moved to Fridays. Owing to its success, it was a twice-weekly show (the second show was a repeat), later expanding to half an hour. It got national exposure across other early ITV regions. The show's initiator was director Joan-Kemp Welch, the drama innovator, and the first—and the show's longest-running—choreographer was Dougie Squires. Parlophone Records released a tie-in series of Cool For Cats EPs in 1959 featuring Ken Jones and His Coolmen, while Kent Walton and Don Lang made a 45 using Waltion's end-of-show catch-phrase "See You Friday?" in August 1959. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.