The Press: Cat Nap

In the July issue of Coronet (circ. 2,650,000), readers got a beguiling glimpse of Cat Island—a South Pacific “paradise you may have for the asking,” complete with palm trees and coral beaches. There was only one catch, reported Author Lucille Beckhart; the island was inhabited and ruled by hordes of ferocious cats.

According to Author Beckhart, Cat Island, which she located as “near Tahiti,” had first been invaded by rats from a sinking ship. To get rid of them, a French traveler imported hundreds of cats. When the cats in turn multiplied and grew vicious, the natives were forced to desert the island.

Fascinated by the Coronet account, Reporter William Kennedy of the Los Angeles Herald & Express tried to find Cat Island on a map, but couldn’t; he asked Coronet and was referred to the governor of Tahiti. To Los Angeles Mirror Columnist Fred Beck, who promptly told his readers all about it, Kennedy and two friends confided their tongue-in-cheek plans for Cat Island. They would bomb it with poison gas to kill the cats, then build a comfortable hotel for tired newsmen (The Cat House) and start a profitable local industry (catgut).

But Kennedy wiped away the grin when a Pasadena millionaire made a serious offer to underwrite a vacation trip to Cat Island in his 136-ft. schooner. Last week, as the expedition got ready to sail, a disillusioning cable arrived from Tahiti’s governor: THERE IS NO SUCH ISLAND.

The story, which catnapping Coronet had printed as fact, was fiction. Where did Mrs. Beckhart, a fortyish California X-ray therapist and housewife who writes freelance articles “as a hobby,” get the yarn? Said she last week: “A friend of mine, a very well-traveled person, told me about it. Unfortunately, he has since died . . .”