JELLICLE CATS

I first saw the musical CATS in London around about 1985. As I watched it, I idly wondered what a Jellicle was, and also what on earth was a Gumbie? I resolved to try to find out, but having left the theatre, I promptly forgot all about it.

Twenty years later, while on a business trip to Seoul, a Korean friend asked if I'd like to go and see CATS with her, which I agreed to do. The show was staged in a black coloured marquee in the car park of the Olympic stadium, just south of the Han river. This friend has always claimed not to be able to speak much English, but after we'd taken our seats and the show had started, one of the cast started singing about Jellicle cats. I thought "Please don't ask me what a Jellicle cat is". No sooner had I thought it, than my Korean friend whispered urgently in my ear "What's a Jellicle cat?", This was promptly followed by the cat on stage singing:-

There's a man over there with a look of surprise,
As much as to say, "Well now how about that!"
Do I actually see with my own very eyes
A man who's not heard of a Jellicle cat?
What's a Jellicle cat? What's a Jellicle cat?

Boy did I feel foolish! When it later transpired that I didn't know what a Gumbie was either, my Korean friend became convinced that I had been lying about being a native English speaker. "You are not a proper Englishman" she would from then on frequently tell me.

Under that kind of pressure, of course I Googled for Jellicle and Gumbie (Google hadn't been available to me in 1985). I never did find an answer for Gumbie. One theory for Jellicle claims that when T. S. Eliot's young niece tried to say "dear little cats", it sounded more like "jellicle cats" to T. S Eliot's ears.

I figured that for someone who claimed not to be able to speak English, my Korean friend had done a good job of latching onto the two words in the whole show, which I couldn't explain.

Today I was reminded of the incident again. I was walking past a shop and there in the window on display, was what was clearly a doll of a Jellicle cat. The box however proclaimed that it was a Jericho cat. I had to buy one as a souvenir.

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CATS is sometimes available on DVD from Amazon. Click the image on the left for code 1 (US) pricing and availability and the image on the right for code 2 (Europe).