I've heard it was because the bright pink food colouring was found to be carcinogenic. Magic Cat was abruptly yanked from the shelves, after only a year or so.
All I have is a memory of seeing the name 'ANGLO' on the wrappers back then. I seem to recall that Anglo made the various 'Cat' bubble gums, but I haven't been able to find a photo of any of the old wrappers to verify this. It blows great bubbles (even with just one piece), and it's not as overpoweringly sweet as North American bubble gum. The closest equivalent I've found is Anglo Bubbly bubble gum, with a flavour described as 'pear'. The flavour was a mild, marshmallowy-fruity kind of flavour. But when you put it in your mouth and chewed it a bit, it turned the brightest hot pink I've ever seen in a bubble gum. When you unwrapped a piece of Magic Cat, it was pale yellow. In Canada, the 'Cat' gums sold for 2 cents a piece, in the mid-1970s. They also made Green Cat (spearmint) and Purple Cat (grape). This stuff came in a similar yellow wrapper to Black Cat, but the cat on it was hot pink. The same company also made Magic Cat Bubble Gum.
