History Behind the Kit-Cat Klock's Enchantment

Though more than half of Americans were not even alive when it debuted, 1985’s Back to the Future remains one of the most popular movies ever made. Part of the appeal is the time-travel plot (Marty McFly and Doc Brown going back to the 1950s in a scientifically modified DeLorean) and part of it is the time itself: Director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Bob Gale took extraordinary pains with re-creating 1958 in granular detail. You can see it in the 3D glasses and the boys’ Vitalis-slicked hair. It’s in the musicians smoking “reefer” and McFly playing the Gibson ES-345 electric guitar. It's even in the first few seconds of the movie itself, which features a Kit-Cat Klock. With the possible exception of TV dinners and Lego bricks, few other consumer items from the 1950s have endured as long (or aged as well) as this, the kitschiest of all wall clocks. Emblematic of postwar-era prosperity, likable for its sheer inanity, the clock graced the turquoise walls of millions of American kitchens. It was only logical that Doc Brown, the eccentric “student of all sciences,” would have a Kit-Cat Klock in his workshop. “They were very popular in the ’50s,” Gale recalled to the Hollywood Reporter in 2020. “And it’s a perfect movie clock because it’s constantly and very clearly in motion.” Gale was referring to the synchronized oscillation of the cat’s tail and huge eyes, the signature element that sold millions of clocks during the Eisenhower administration and continues to now. That, and the feline's expression. “That is what drives the sales of the clock. People love the smile,” said Woody Young, owner and president of the California Clock Co., maker of the Kit-Cat Klock. Though Young has been called “Mr. Kit-Cat,” he’s careful to point out that he's the cat clock’s custodian, not its inventor. That distinction belongs to an Oregon man named Earl Arnault, who was not just an inventor but apparently also an oracle: He created the 1950s’ favorite clock way back in 1932. Arnault’s motivation was to lift spirits (and make a little cash) during the worst year of the Great Depression. Young’s theory is that the clock found its footing after World War II because Americans “had gone through such dark years” during the war and longed to return to domestic optimism in a hurry. And, apparently, that desire has never ebbed. Back to the Future might have been the Kit-Cat Klock's Hollywood moment, but there have been countless others since 1985. In one of their many colors, the clocks have popped up everywhere, from music videos by Katy Perry and Taylor Swift to The Simpsons and Futurama to Route 66 gift shops and even to the Museum of Modern Art design store. “This an American icon,” Young said. “The world loves it. We sell tens of thousands of clocks in Europe, in Australia, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong—you name it. But part of its mystique is that it’s an American icon.” House Cat Nothing shows an unyielding love for a brand like tattoo. It’s hard to imagine people falling in love with, say, their alarm clock or the hall clock at the office. But Young believes that some of his customers develop a kind of interpersonal relationship with their Kit-Cat Klocks. Absurd? Maybe. But he has the fan mail to prove it. Young received a letter from a college professor who, after long classroom lectures, finds that the Kit-Cat Klock in his office “just releases all the tension in my body.” A homemaker told Young that she relieves her loneliness by talking to her Kit-Cat Klock. Customers, Young said, “actually feel that there is a presence with them in the kitchen.” A few fans, meanwhile, don't even need to go into the kitchen to see their Kit-Cats—they get them inked on their bodies. Claw and Order Though it was invented in 1932, the Kit-Cat Klock made it big in the postwar years (1), and company president Woody Young (2) cherishes that cultural tradition by making the clocks in America. Starting with its famous cameo in 1985's Back to the Future (3), the kitschy timepiece has popped up everywhere from Wheel of Fortune (4) to Futurama (5) to a Katy Perry video (6). Despite the range of color choices, classic black is still the bestselling cat (7) and has become storied enough to sell at the Museum of Modern Art's design store in New York (8).

Perspective

An American Icon of the '50s, the Kit-Cat Klock Still Enchants

America's kitschiest timepiece has quite a tale

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara