And then I would bring assistant curators and curators in as my guest. I had Ed Schmidt, Dave Thompson, Ron Gildner who were all curators, assistant curators coming up through the ranks as my guest. And Diane Hodel became the education department, she was my co-host at times. So we… Read More
Did Marlin’s influence help you?… Read More
And so then I became. He was replaced by a man named Bob Briggs who was a PR person. And he didn’t wanna get in the show business, so I became the host of that show. So that show ran from 1968 to 1978, so I carried on for the… Read More
What was it like?… Read More
It was patterned after “Zoo Parade” actually where we had a theme. It might be an introduction to snakes and we’d have about 20 different kinds of snakes. We’d tell you the difference between venomous snakes and harmless snakes. The difference between hemotoxic and neurotoxic venom, basic information. Then we… Read More
Was there another television program at the St. Louis Zoo?… Read More
Yes. By the way, I have to mention that while Marlin was doing Wild Kingdom, he did the intros at his studio in St. Louis, downtown St. Louis, so that we would bring baby chimpanzees, baby lion cubs. So that when he did his introduction to his commercials or introduction… Read More
He had had a zoo show at Cincinnati Zoo patterned after the old “Zoo Parade” where they would bring animals from the zoo to the studio and then talk about each animal with a theme, birds or mammals or reptiles. So when he came to St. Louis, the producer from… Read More
Phil Ogilvie?… Read More
Phil Ogilvie offered Moody Lentz a job and Moody suggested that Jerry take that job. So Jerry went to Oklahoma City as assistant director. And he wanted to get out from under his dad’s wing. He really wanted to spread his own wings and do something on his own. So… Read More
Then of course Jerry went from Oklahoma City to Busch Gardens in Houston, Texas when they opened up a new zoo in Houston, Texas. That didn’t last very long. And when it closed up, he was transferred to Tampa and ultimately became director at Tampa. Meanwhile, Lawrence Curtis arrived at… Read More
I have to look at my biography. I don’t remember what year. But probably in the late ’60s, ’68 maybe. Then I became general curator, deputy director. I was deputy director for some time. So when you were made assistant general curator, Marlin was still there. Yes, Marlin was still… Read More
I mean Moody actually shared his responsibility with me willingly and helped groom me. He helped me to become the best that I could be. There was never any jealousy of any part on his side. Now there are these other assistant curators who are moving up. You mentioned Jerry… Read More
So he took the job at Oklahoma City. It was the director that preceded Lawrence Curtis. Read More
I also found out that we could negotiate our produce by wheeling and dealing with the produce suppliers. We’d find someone give us a more competitive price, so we start buying bananas in big quantity and oranges in big quantity. I was able to save a lotta money in commissary. Read More
At that time, the buying and selling of animals was a cocktail party event. It was more fun than it was science. And during the cocktail party, you take turns getting up at a microphone and reading off your surplus list. And the other zoo directors of the audience would… Read More
What year?… Read More
Well during my role as curator, the assistant director Henry Sanders got sick. He spent some time in the hospital. He bought all the food for the animals, the fish and ran the commissary. When he was out sick, Moody had to take it over and Moody wasn’t really happy… Read More
Would you mind helpin’ me with the commissary?… Read More
Would you mind helping me with the fish?” So I started buying fish. At that time, there was a big seafood company in St. Louis. We were buying our frozen fish every week. I forgotten. 10,000-pound lots of feed. We had a walrus, sea lions, all the penguins. Well I… Read More