The Cat From Outer Space

The Cat From Outer Space by Ted Key

Published April 13th 1978 by Archway/ Pocket Books

ISBN: 0671561065

ISBN-13: 9780671561062

#: 56106-5

Paperback

4 x 7 inches, 166 pages

Novelization of the Disney movie: — A spaceship? A telepathic cat who communicates with humans and wears a collar with magic power? That's Jake, an unusual cat who landed on Earth when his spaceship was hit by "space garbage" in the Earth's atmosphere. — Now that he's on Earth, all he wants is to escape. But, with the military and the most brilliant scientists in the land trying to capture him, it won't be easy.

The fun and excitement begin when jake and his friends, Wilson, Link, and Liz, plan all kinds of outrageous schemes to outwit everyone - to get Jake off the ground and back to his home in outer space!

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Plot

An unidentified flying object makes an emergency landing on Earth and is taken into custody by the United States government. The occupant of the "flying saucer" turns out to be a strange cat-like alien named Zunar-J-5/9 Doric-4-7. Since the Mother Ship cannot send a rescue party before it leaves the solar system, the cat sets about investigating how to repair the ship himself. Using a special collar that amplifies telekinetic and telepathic abilities, he follows the military to the Energy Research Laboratory (or E.R.L.), where they hope to learn how the UFO's power source works. One of the lab's scientists, Dr. Frank Wilson, attracts the cat's attention when his theory on the power source, while ridiculed by the rest of the staff, is actually on the right track.

The cat follows Frank to his office, where Frank nicknames him Jake. Another scientist, Dr. Liz Bartlet, storms into his office, upset at Frank's sense of humor in light of such an important scientific discovery. Frank is able to calm her down, mostly by introducing Jake and inviting her to dinner. After Liz leaves, Jake reveals his true nature to Frank, demonstrating his abilities and offering to exchange his advanced knowledge on energy for Frank's assistance. That evening, the pair plan to break into the military base where Jake's ship is being kept, but must dodge Liz who has arrived for their date with her own cat, Lucybelle. Jake feigns being sick, allowing them to proceed to the base. At the base, Frank uses a back-up collar to fly to the top of the ship and attach a diagnostic device. Jake learns that he needs an element that he calls "Org 12". When Jake reveals the element's atomic weight, Frank realizes that "Org 12" is elemental gold.

Back at Frank's apartment, Frank tells Jake that an amount of gold costing $120,000 will repair Jake's ship. Dr. Norman Link, a colleague of Frank's, comes over to watch horse races and football games on which he has wagered money. Jake uses his powers to help Link's horse win the race, prompting Jake and Frank to convince Link to help them by parlaying all of his bets to win the money. However, Jake gets knocked out by a well-meaning vet that was brought in by Liz because she thought Jake was still sick. Frank informs Liz of the situation and the group heads to a local pool hall where Link has placed his bets. Learning the last game in the parlay was lost and desperate to raise the money needed, they agree to a game of pool with a hustler named Sarasota Slim. Frank's first attempt to use Jake's collar fails, but Jake regains consciousness in time to manipulate the final game and win the money they need to acquire the gold for Jake's ship.

However, an industrial spy named Stallwood, who works for a master criminal named Olympus, has learned of their activities, as has the military. Frank and Jake manage to elude the military and the criminals, only to have Link, Liz and Lucybelle captured by Olympus and his men. They plan to ransom them back for the collar, which forces Jake to send his ship back to the awaiting Mother Ship and stay on Earth in order to help rescue his friends. Jake and Frank use a broken-down biplane to rescue Liz and Lucybelle from Olympus's helicopter, which crashes, but Olympus, Stallwood and their men survive and are presumably arrested. In the final scene, Jake is allowed to stay on Earth as a representative of an off-world "friendly power", with Jake applying for and being granted United States citizenship.

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Ted Key (born Theodore Keyser; August 25, 1912 – May 3, 2008), was an American cartoonist and writer. He is best known as the creator of the cartoon panel Hazel, which was later the basis for a television series of the same name, and also the creator of Peabody's Improbable History.

Born in Fresno, California, Key was the son of Latvian immigrant Simon Keyser, who had changed his name from Katseff to Keyser, and then to "Key" during World War I. Though his family thereafter went by Key, Theodore Keyser did not legally adopt the name until the 1950s. Attending the University of California, Berkeley, Key became the art editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Californian, and was associate editor of the campus humor magazine, the California Pelican and was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. After graduating from college in 1933, Key relocated to New York City, where he published cartoons and illustrations in a number of periodicals, including Better Homes and Gardens, Collier's, The New Yorker, Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, Mademoiselle, Look and Judge. Key also worked as associate editor of Judge in 1937.

Key's most famous creation, the single-panel Hazel, about a wry and bossy household maid, came to Key in 1943 in a dream that he drew the next morning and sent to The Saturday Evening Post, where it was accepted and began running regularly. He soon afterward gave the character a name and employment at the Baxter household. In 2008, the cartoonist's son, Peter Key, said, "He picked the name Hazel out of the air, but there was an editor at The Post who had a sister named Hazel. She thought her brother came up with the name, and she didn’t speak to him for two years."

The cartoon ran until the weekly magazine ceased publication in 1969. Hazel was then picked up for newspaper syndication by King Features Syndicate. With the increased output of six cartoons a week, Key hired veteran gag cartoonist Stan Fine to lend a hand.

Key later adapted his comic panel into the television show Hazel, starring Shirley Booth as the titular maid. It ran from 1961 to 1964 on NBC; for its final 1965 season, the show switched to CBS. Key continued to draw the strip until his retirement in 1993. King Features reprints panels in over 50 newspapers as of 2008.

Key's other work in the comics field includes Diz and Liz, a two-page feature that ran in Jack and Jill magazine from 1961 to 1972, as well as creating the segment Peabody's Improbable History for producer Jay Ward's animated television series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Key also provided illustrations for the long-running "Positive Attitude" series of motivational pamphlets and posters, published biweekly by Economics Press Inc. from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Key also wrote radio plays during the 1930s and 1940s. His radio drama, The Clinic, broadcast on NBC, was chosen for Max Wylie's Best Broadcasts of 1939-40 anthology.

He was the screenwriter for three Disney films (The Cat from Outer Space, Million Dollar Duck and Gus), and he created several classic children's books, including Phyllis and The Biggest Dog in the World (later adapted into the film Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World).

During World War II, Key served with the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946, primarily in public relations, where he wrote a play aimed at recruiting women into military service. Key retired in 1993, but King Features continued to syndicate Hazel using material he had prepared for his retirement. Hazel still runs today in some 50 newspapers.

Diagnosed with bladder cancer in late 2006, Key suffered a stroke in September 2007. He was 95 at the time of his death in Tredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania. Key was married twice; his first wife, Anne, died in 1984, and Key was survived by second wife Bonnie and by three sons: Stephen, David and Peter.