Easy Rider, Raging Bull: The Incredibly True Adventures of Amber the 70's Cat

Happy Hug Your Cat Day!

If there's one thing this bottomless pit of family photographs isn't lacking, it's vintage cat pics. I inherited so many damn snapshots of people holding cats, hugging cats, kissing cats, and loving cats, that I think this family was part feline.

I considered showcasing them all in a grand exhibit to honor this special day—but then I said to myself, "Nah." Better to spread the love over an entire year. Also, I already used up a few on previous posts. Also, it would be too ambitious as it requires an attention to detail.

So, anyway, to commemorate this holiest of holidays, I present this small collection of Technicolor prints spotlighting the legendary Amber!

Amber was the Steve McQueen of cats; I'm too young to remember him, but growing up, I heard a lot about him. Amber was the best cat. Amber was the smartest cat. Amber slept with Ali MacGraw. I believe these candids were taken sometime in the early 1970's, somewhere on Beverly Street in the Merced Heights (formerly known as Lakeview) district of San Francisco.

One interesting technical aspect to these photos—aside from Amber—is the Technicolor logo in the edging. I think, perhaps, these snapshots were taken with a Tecknipak camera. Tecknipak was, like, the grandfather of disposable cameras. You can read a lot about them here. The prints looked similar to Kodak Instamatic pics of the era, but Technicolor used a proprietary development process that, I believe, resulted in this little logo-stamp thing on the bottom-left of the picture. They also strangely—or not-so-strangely, considering it's Technicolor—retain their, er, color better than Instamatic prints.

Anyway, back to the cat. Did you know Carly Simon wrote "You're So Vain" about Amber? In a 1977 interview with Cat Fancy, Amber said, "Let's be honest. That song was about me." A few years later, Simon said Amber "certainly thought it was about him — he called me and said thanks for the song.... Then he coughed up a fur ball and shredded my couch."

Amber was a good friend of author William Peter Blatty, who based the "Chris MacNeil" character in The Exorcist on him. Unfortunately, Amber was unable to option the book as a potential starring vehicle—but he did go on to star in another interesting, albeit far-less-successful occult film, The Purr-ssession of Catnip McTuna.

Amber's death has always been something of a mystery. Some say—like William Holden—he got drunk and hit his head on a coffee table. Others say he he jumped off a boat and drowned after he caught Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken in bed together. But who knows? Maybe he just died of lung cancer like Steve McQueen.

You can check out more vintage cats—including some more pics of Amber—here and here.