Owl Club

The Owl Club of Cape Town, South Africa, is a gentleman’s dining club formed in 1894 to provide a social meeting place for those with an interest in the liberal arts and science. The members are entertained and informed by a tradition of speakers and musical performance.

Background to the name

It was the wife of the first Secretary, C. G. Lowinger, who coined the name. Soon after the genesis of the idea of its formation, four men sat in the twilight near the Royal Observatory in Cape Town discussing what it should be called. W. E. Ranby, the first chronicler of the Club, takes up the tale: “Into the gathered darkness came Mrs Lowinger with the natural inquiry, ‘Why are you all sitting here in the dark like a lot of owls?’ ‘The very name for our Club!’ they cried, and the Owl Club it was called and remains” (Ranby 1952: 7). Members are designated as “Brother Owl” or Owl so-and-so. The first formal meeting of the Owl Club took place on 1 October 1894.

Location of the Club

Down the years, the Club has met in various venues in the City of Cape Town. Between 1975 and 1998 it met at the Cape Town Club (formerly the City and Civil Service Club) in Queen Victoria Street. Since 1998, the venue for meetings has been the Kelvin Grove Club at Newlands, Cape Town, usually in the Grill Room.

Owl (disambiguation)

Owls are nocturnal birds of prey.

Owl, Owls or OWL may also refer to:

Organizations

Places

Military

Arts and entertainment

Film and television

Owl (Dell Comics)

The Owl is a fictional superhero character who first appeared in Dell Comics in 1940; not to be confused with the Marvel Comics villain of the same name or with DC Comics’ Owlman.

Fictional biography

Police detective Nick Terry became The Owl so that he could more freely protect his home city of Yorktown from criminals. Not having superpowers, he instead relied on his fighting skills and a number of gimmicks, such as his flying “Owlmobile,” a cape that functions as a hang glider, and a hand-held “black light” gun that casts a beam of darkness. His girlfriend, newspaper reporter Belle Wayne, found out his secret and became his sidekick, Owl Girl.

At some point after World War II, The Owl (along with dozens of other heroes) was trapped in the Urn of Pandora by the misguided Fighting Yank. Decades later, the Urn was shattered and the heroes freed, many of whom were transformed by the experience. The Owl now had the power of flight and the power to emanate a field of black light from his body. He returned to Yorktown and found that it was now being watched over by a ruthless new Owl Girl who was the granddaughter of the original.

The Owl (TV series)

The Owl, also known as La Chouette, is a series of short CGI-animated episodes for children's television. The series features the eponymous owl, pink in colour, and with blue feet that "float" below her body. Each of the minute-long fifty-two episodes centres on the owl attempting to overcome unfortunate circumstances (sometimes created by her negative attitude and antisocial behavior), but end in her demise by her various appendages and body being dispensed of in unusual or comical ways. The series also feature a surrealistic world with floating objects and exploding apples.

List of episodes