| Thomas Vincent Cator | |
| Birth Date: | 23 March 1888 |
| Birth Place: | Jersey City, New Jersey, US |
| Death Place: | Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, US |
| Occupation: | Composer |
| Spouse: | Irene V. Campbell |
| Children: | 4 |
Thomas Vincent Cator (23 March 1888 – 9 April 1931) was an American composer. His most significant achievement was the discovery and use of what he called the aura-modal scale.
Thomas Vincent Cator was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on March 23, 1888. He was the son of Thomas Vincent Cator Sr. (1851-1920),[1] a lawyer and politician who ran for office for the Populist Party in California in the late 19th century. He had a sister Marie (1883-1968), who became a writer and poet and first married Max Wardall (from 1902 to 1912) and later the famous figure skating couch Gustave Lussi (from 1921 to around 1930).[2]
Cator became popular in the late 1910s and 1920s with his songs. A notable story was when renowned singer Eleonora de Cisneros sang his song "The Kiss" in a Liberty Bonds sale in New York City in early 1919 and received 43 million dollars for 43 kisses to bankers.[3] He also invented the Aura-Modal Scale, in which he composed several piano pieces.[4]
In 1922, Cator wrote the composition operetta for the play Inchling, written by Ira Mallory Remsen, that was a story of an inch worm and its struggle for wings, which captured the fantasies of young children.[5] [6]
Cator died of a heart attack on April 9, 1931, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California at the age of 45.[7]