The original Scoopy was a tiger-striped tomcat who wandered into the cluttered Villager office then in the basement of 65 University Pl. Scoopy’s column, originally known as Scoopy Mewses, was for years written by Emeline Paige, who eventually became the paper’s editor. In his early years, Scoopy was the most famous thing about The Villager; artists painted his portrait, he received his own mail and the Christian Science Monitor sang his praises. In August 1945, Scoopy’s demise was mourned in the national press, including Time magazine and the New York World Telegram. The tenures of Scoopy II (above) through IV, however, were relatively brief. The last Villager cat columnist, Scoopy V, died in 1965, but the column continues today in the form of Scoopy’s Notebook.
