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July 1951. Los Angeles, California. "Nipper, a two-year-old cat owned by Dorothy Brinn of Hollywood, likes to eat his corn in comfort, so his mistress fixed up this skewer. The cat uses it for about two ears a day, having been a corn addict since his kitten days. Nip likes it best with butter." Acetate negative from the Shorpy News Photo Archive. View full size.
In the caption of the Shorpy photo we learn that Nipper was two years of age in July 1951. Yet Notcom posts a clipping from the Windsor Daily Star which reports that he had progressed to five by September of 1952.
[They use Imperial years in Canada. - Dave]
This story made it into papers from coast-to-coast -- apparently missing only Delaware, Idaho and Wyoming -- mostly from mid-July thru August, but as late as November. ("Cobby cat" was the pre-Shorpy witticism.) The next year Nipper had moved onto watermelon, but there seems to have been less interest.
Nipper is the name of the RCA dog.
There should be a small dish under the skewer, so Nipper doesn't have to eat directly off the wood base. It's not good for the base either. The plate on the table is Franciscan - Apple, my maternal grandmother's pattern. I'm certain Dorothy Brinn also had bread and butter plates.
Good name placement, Shorpy.
I have a notion where Dorothy Brinn got the idea.
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