…the cat tradition began with a general manager in the 1930s, Frank Case. "The story goes that a stray cat wandered in off the street," she says, "It was all raggly-taggly and everything. He felt sorry for the cat and he kept it."
That first cat reportedly drank milk out of a champagne glass. Actor John Barrymore insisted he have a theatrical name, so he was called Hamlet. The idea inaugurated a tradition: When the Algonquin cat is male, he’s Hamlet; when female, she’s called Matilda.
The Algonquin Hotel’s Feline Celebrity at NPR.
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