Seriously, people have been asking me about this strip for past year. It all started back in January when Denise Fisher wrote: "My friend and I both remember a cartoon character called drag-a-chair cat from the mid- to late-Sixties. He was probably a character in a strip that was named after someone else. Can you enlighten us both please?"Well, I spent a couple of days scratching my head wondering what on earth a drag-a-chair cat was. Then I had a brainstorm. When Look and Learn purchased a group of nursery titles from IPC, one of the strips we bought was called "Num Num and His Funny Family". I dug out a volume of Playhour and, lo and behold, there was Drag-a-Chair Puss-Cat.
Mystery solved... and when I asked Denise whether she would mind me using her query for a column she replied: "I don't mind you using my name and I don't even mind people knowing that I've remembered Drag-a-Chair all my life because I've always been just a little bit too short to reach the things I needed to. When I was a chemical lab. technician I had to drag a wooden box around with me so that I could reach the fume cupboards. Now I am a library assistant, and they gave us all new chairs last year, but I couldn't jack mine up high enough to reach the keyboards, so I kept an old one. This is labelled "Denise's chair" and it gets dragged around to whatever computer I am working at."
A month or two later I received another query: "I'm desperately trying to trace a cartoon strip that used to be around in the early '60s called, I think, The Puss Cats. It was a family of cats (seven, I think) and they all had something with them. The one I remember is drag a chair puss cat."
And there have been others. So I mentioned Num Num in the piece I wrote last July about Gordon Hutchings and from the comments you'll see that Drag-a-Chair Puss-Cat is the one that everybody remembers. (And those are just the comments I've had to Bear Alley, not the ones I've had directly.)
So, especially for fans of Num Num, here's another episode of the strip.
Num Num first appeared in TV Toyland in May 1966 before appearing in Playhour in January 1967, first featuring in a text story to introduce people to the strip that was launched in February when TV Toyland was merged with Playhour. Gordon Hutchings was the strip's original artist and, later, the family adventures were drawn by his younger brother, Tony Hutchings and coloured by Colin Wyatt.Num Num and his family deserve their own TV show! Seriously, there seem to be an awful lot of people of a certain age who remember them... of an age when they'd have kids of a certain age. A TV producer's dream -- a show that parents would be actively encouraging their kids to watch!
(* Num Num and His Funny Family © Look and Learn Magazine Ltd. The two strips above are from Playhour, 9 September 1967 and 30 September 1967 respectively.)
But who was "Untidy Idy"?
ReplyDeleteWasn't this strip in Toby as well,Steve?
ReplyDeleteI've no idea if Num Num was reprinted in Toby as I've only ever seen a couple of early issues. Maybe someone with copies can let us know.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Steve.
Wow, this brings back memories! I was a toddler in the early 70's. Now I've seen this, I remember Sonny and Sally, Paddy Paws, Tommy Trouble, Toad of Toad Hall, Sally and Jake, Meet the Beans, Ginger the Gingerbread Man, and Nurse Susan and Doctor David. (I might be confusing Playhour and Teddy Bear comic.)
ReplyDeleteI think Nurse Nancy and Doctor David were in Twinkle comic
DeleteMy dad used to refuse to read this cartoon to me, and dismissed it as "Numb Bum and his dysfunctional family!"
ReplyDeleteBut I'm sure people didn't use the word "dysfunctional" back then.
DeletePS - don't think I'm saying you are wrong, I just think that particular word may be a back-reading memory. He probably said something very similar.
DeleteHi Steve, thanks for this - and as I emailed to you, I recall Playhour as being brought for me in India by my cousin who worked with BOAC / British Airways. I seem to recollect that it was given out on board, but it may be that she merely picked up copies for me during layovers and it had nothing to do with the airline.
ReplyDeleteI remember one Num Num episode where he makes a rainbow with the garden hose - that's how I learnt about rainbows.
In passing, did Playhour have anything at all to do with Rolf Harris? There's a vague, nagging connection in my head - involving Dougal - but it could just be childhood memories getting jumbled up.
Wow, so pleased to have found this my work collegues all swore i was mad when i started talking about drag a chair and num num.
ReplyDeleteThanks for finding this Steve. When my now wife and I met one of the things that she was struck about with me was that I remebered the cartoon character Oggie Doggie and his doggie daddy (this was before the cartoon boom which brought back many formerly obscure characters such as the above). I asked if she remembered Drag a chair along puss and she asked if I did lots of drugs as a child. She has since confessed that she has sometimes worried that I may one day meet a woman who remembers Drag a chair along puss and run away with her.
ReplyDeleteCould this be the first marriage saved by Bear Alley? After all, you do now know a woman who knows about Num Num (if you've showed the post to your wife, that is).
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1968 and I grew up reading Playhour and Jack & Jill - this has brought back memories and, as I am a "cats-come-first-people-come-second" person, as were my parents, num-num was the story that was always my favourite and which I have always remembered.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these.
When I met my husband 27 years ago I mentioned a favoutite character of mine called Drag a Chair and he too asked if i'd been taking drugs! I have been teased by my family and even my children for this but today he found the little cat and I have been proved right - it was worth the wait!!
ReplyDeleteStacy Portsmouth
After 27 years of my wife telling me about Drag a Chair i took some of her drugs and i too found Drag a Chair
ReplyDeleteStacys Husband Portsmouth
Ha! So that's what Drag-a-chair puss cat's strip was called!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember one of the extended family who's obsession waas to hang a picture straight? I always think of him when i notice a picture that's wonky, and he's become a sort of personal cypher for all OCD behaviour - mine or anybody else's!
OMG - fabulous - i keep getting these flashbacks of a character called 'drag-a-chair-pusscat' and i knew it was something to do with play hour comic/annual - thank you! LOL
ReplyDeleteand anyone remember (on that note) mooney from the moon?
ReplyDeleteRings a bell, Mooney, short chap, big ears, nose and feet and black skin with with polka dots?
ReplyDeleteOMG! Thank you so much for this article. I remembered a character called Pussy Drag a Chair but nothing else, other than that I loved it. You have brought back many very happy memories. I live in Australia now....I wonder if any of the comics ever came over here, I'd love to find one. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteSusan
Thank you. I do remember Playhour and Robin from 1970 and Drag-a-chair was the little cat that stuck in my memory. Great to see him again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this - brings back lots of memories!
ReplyDeletethere was a tv show of these cats in the uk. was one of my favs lol
ReplyDeletemy mothers always talked about this strip but we could never find it. Over the moon now ive found this. does anyone remember the name of the other characters. Drag-a-Chair was all mam could remember too
ReplyDeleteThere was also "never-hang-his-coat-up-cat". Just seeing David Cameron throw his jacket down on TV, reminded me of that! I told my partner who is 7 years younger than me and doesn't remember the lovely Num Num. It was fab finding this thread.
ReplyDeleteAt last! For years, I'd had it in mind that it was a teddy bear who dragged along a chair in a comic in my pre-school days (I'm 51). Mystery of why Id not been able to find it has been solved. What memories this has brought back of my early childhood in the late-60s.
ReplyDeleteI actually named my cat Num-Num after this character. As I grew up it became increasingly embarrassing calling him in from the garden. Parents were so pleased I didn't want to call him Drag A Chair!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a joy to see this after all these years. I absolutely loved this cartoon strip and it was always the first thing I turned to when I got my copy of Playhour.
ReplyDeleteI also have to admit to naming my first cat Num Num as well.
Wow! I've just seen this. I was beginning to think I must have dreamt up "Drag-A-Chair" in some kind of cheese-fuelled delirium or something, although I couldn't remember if he was supposed to be a bear or a cat. Very glad to find out that I'm not cracking up. Yes, "Playhour", that would be the comic I had as a kid in the late 1960s before graduating to The Beano.
ReplyDeleteSo, I have just been pushing and dragging a white board and a flip chart board through the office to a meeting room. When someone offered to help, I instinctively responded, 'no thanks, I'm OK just like drag-a-chair'. And I have no idea how or why I dragged that out from the depths of my mind. I got a quizzical look from the girl who offered to help, but could I for the life of me remember who drag-a-chair was, or even why it should pop into my head after so many years??!!! Absolutely not... until I found this on a search. I think it must have been in another cartoon stip/comic as I remember it from the 70s too.
ReplyDeleteWhat comic was Drag a Chair Pussey Cat featured in...I thought it was Pippin but seems not...I remember reading it in a comic regularly as a child.
ReplyDeleteHi Carolyn, Num Num first appeared in TV Toyland (beginning in 1966) and then in Playhour (beginning in 1967) when the two titles merged. It may also have been reprinted elsewhere, but not Pippin, as Pippin was from an entirely different publisher.
ReplyDeleteI think that there were other cats called 'Never Wipe His Feet Pusscat' and 'Never Tuck His Shirt In Pusscat'. Anyone know where will I find these cat stories?
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1965. I remember "Drag-a-chair" so well, I cannot say I remember the other kitties so vividly. Even Num-Num isn't ringing bells.I was just talking to the little cat who visits me regularly. She stays over with me or my neighbour. I don't know what prompted me but I suddenly thought of Drag-a-chair and I had to google him...Thank you!
ReplyDelete