by G. Jack Urso
From the Aelous 13 Umbra YouTube channel.
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| Beaten up, neglected, and starving, the cat had no one to care for it, until J.T. |
The story, as
summarized on the back of the Yearling Edition paperback:
To the guys on the block, J.T. is the kid who stole the radio out of the red convertible before they could get to it. His neighbor, Mrs. Morris, declares him a first-class nuisance. His mother is bewildered — “He’s just gone bad, that’s all. Stealin' and lyin' and I don't know what all.” But the sensitivity, responsibility, and care of which the ten-year-old J.T. Gamble is capable emerge when he finds an old, one-eyed, badly hurt alley cat. J.T. takes on a new dimension as he lavishes the love he is unable to express to the people around him on the battered cat he has found in the junk-filled empty lot.
Unable to bring the
cat home, J.T. builds a place for it to live out of garbage and begins
to feed and care for it. The local bullies, however, who want that radio, discover
J.T.’s secret, which leads to an unfortunate and tragic end for the cat. Nevertheless,
there is always another stray cat that needs help, and, in the conclusion, J.T. gets a job so he
can take care of it at home.
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| Unable to bring the cat home, J.T. builds it a place to live made out of garbage. |
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| Period TV Guide advertisement. |
Despite the serious material, I immediately
identified with J.T. The second year the show aired I made my father sit down
and watch it on the small black and white television in the bedroom I shared
with my brother. I even had the photo book of the film which I wore out reading
all year round. As time went on, though I did not forget the story, I forgot the title and thought it might be a piece of my childhood forever lost. Persistent
search engine inquiries eventually helped me track down the show, and the sheer
delight upon finding a lost part of one’s youth is a Christmas gift in and of
itself.
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| J.T. cares for the cat's bad eye by making it an eye patch. |
Baby Boomers
will notice some familiar names and faces from classic 1970s TV shows and film.
J.T. himself is played by Kevin Hooks, a prominent cast member on The White Shadow; Ja'net DuBois, the
outspoken next-door neighbor on Good
Times, is J.T’s mother, and Gordon Parks Jr., who later directed Super Fly (1972), was the on-set
photographer and his photos, which can be seen in the book, help create a
realistic portrayal of inner-city life. Additionally, Holland Taylor, from Two and a Half Men, turns up as J.T.'s
teacher in her first screen credit.
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| Holland Taylor and Kevin Hooks. |
On a side note, comedian Lily Tomlin, impressed by J.T.’s
author Jane Wagner’s writing, invited Wagner to work with her on a project. The
two fell in love and have been together for over forty years.
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| Though the cat he was trying to save was killed, there is always another life that needs love and care. J.T. gets his Christmas wish after all, and so does this cat. |
J.T. has also inspired in me a life-long
love of animals and a calling for rescuing stray cats. As I write this, a black
and white domestic short hair cat, not unlike the one in J.T., rescued from the outside just this past week, sits in my home
snug and warm on this cold Northeastern Christmas Eve. As it has been said
before, the lessons we learn as children are the ones we remember for the rest
of our lives — and the lessons J.T. taught
are still worth learning.
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| Collage of scenes from the film (IMDb). |
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