Auditions for a black cat, 1961

Here's a wonderful series of 1961 photos from the LIFE archive documenting "Black Cat Auditions in Hollywood." The photographer is Ralph Crane. One of the photos includes a shot of Vincent Price, suggesting that this audition could have been for director Roger Corman's Tales of Terror (1962), film adaptations of a trio of Edgar Allen Poe stories including "The Black Cat." "Audition for a Black Cat" (via a 2009 Thought Patterns post)

• [Anonymous]

  The series is fantastic, Nick. Very good work of photojournalism. Really good.
  Thanks for your post.
  Cesar Barroso

• [g0d5m15t4k3]

  Basement cats, unite!

• [Charles H.]

  Not just a shot of Vincent Price, but a shot of Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and a blonde actress — all of whom are holding black cats.

  Which probably confirms the Tales of Terror supposition, as Lorre was in it as well, and was specifically in “The Black Cat” segment. (Which, to me, would suggest that the actress might be Joyce Jameson, the female lead from that segment.)

  • [CognitiveDissident]

    Ahhh, Peter Lorre.
    I’ve always thought of him as the prototypical Igor, but did he ever play a lab assistant to a mad doctor?

• [Anonymous]

  What happens when they all cross your path?

• [Cook!EMonstA]

  Pyewacket..? Ops, no, Bell Book and Candle was 1958…

  • [Anonymous]

    plus, pyewacket was a siamese! :D

    kim novak with several pyewackets:

    http://www.life.com/gallery/22865/celebrities-and-cats#index/1

• [That Evening Sun]

  This casting call was also the inspiration for The Stepford Wives. True story.

• [Anonymous]

  I knew it! Vulcans are cat people. That photo on the right proves it!

  (Also, you know, alien species infiltrating Earth and whatnot, although probably breaking the Prime Directive.)

• [Nawel]

  I can’t open any image. :(
  All I get is a distressed robot doodle

  • [Anonymous]

    “Distressed Robot Doodle” is my next band name.

• [Culturedropout]

  “Middle-aged white women with young black pussies in hot group bondage action on the sidewalk!” Film at 11…

• [Maddy]

  You should seen the line of melons for the Pyscho knife-into-flesh sound effect auditions …