Among the many traditions and tales that have enriched the Algonquin Hotel since it opened in 1902 is its famous resident cat. The practice of keeping a cat dates back to the 1930s when hotel owner Frank Case took in a stray, lovingly pampered him, and virtually allowed the cat to run loose throughout the Algonquin. He was named “Hamlet” by, it is believed, the great John Barrymore and ever since then the hotel kept a cat, allowing it the same pampered freedom: each male cat named “Hamlet” and each female “Matilda.” No one knows why or, for that matter, why the female cats aren’t named Orphelia.
The first Algonquin cat (or Hamlet) used to drink milk out of a champagne glass; but its current cat, Matilda, is no less pampered. Matilda (photo above) is an 11year old Ragdoll who was crowned cat of the year at the Westchester (Long Island, NY) Cat Show. When relaxing from her freestyle wanderings through the hotel, she has a reserved spot on a miniature chaise lounge, to the left of the Algonquin’s entrance, all to herself.
Matilda has been memorialized in a children’s book and a 24-karat gold pendant. She can also be sent an email; these are answered by Matilda’s ghost writer, hotel assistant Alice de Ameida , with the following: “Have a Purrfect day.”
Be it Hamlet or Matilda or Orphelia, there’s method in the Algonquin’s madness.
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