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Cleveland Amory

Cleveland Amory (1917 – 1998) was a prominent author and animal-rights activist. Among his best-selling books included The Proper Bostonians , Home Town, and The Last Resorts and his popular series on "Polar Bear," the cat he rescued from the streets of Manhattan on Christmas Eve in 1978.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Amory wrote prolifically for TV Guide (for which he was chief critic for over a decade), Saturday Review, Parade, and other publications. He was a regular commentator on the Today Show until 1963, when he was fired for a story on animal abuse that greatly disturbed NBC's breakfast audience. In 1967, Amory founded the Fund for Animals, employing his charm, intelligence, and understanding of human nature to garner national publicity for a movement that was, in the 1960s, relatively obscure. He was the first to use celebrities -- including Mary Tyler Moore, Doris Day, Grace Kelly, Dick Cavett, and Jack Paar -- to rally support for animal rights.

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What with all this democracy things will never be the same