All cats are gray

Posted by ESC on October 03, 2000

In Reply to: Pulling my hair out!!!! Help!!! posted by Bryan on October 03, 2000

: I've been trying to figure out what a certain phrase means. Maybe someone can help me. The phrase is from the movie "Valley of the Dolls". In the movie the character Helen Lawson says "All Cats Are Gray". I can't find anyone who knows what this means and I've looked online for the past hour without success. Can anyone help me?

"ALL CATS ARE GRAY IN THE DARK -- Things are indistinguishable at night. Used in a variety of contexts. Listed in John Heywood's book of proverbs as 'When all candles be out, all cats be gray.' First cited in the United States in 'Papers of Benjamin Franklin' .(the proverb) sometimes has a sexual connotation." From Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).

In other words, when the lights are out, everyone is beautiful/handsome.

A companion saying to the old Micky Gilly tune, "The girls all look prettier at closing time. They all begin to look like movie stars..."