And in the course of collecting, I got bitten by a rear-fanged snake. I can’t remember the name. But I grabbed the snake off the log, and it turned around and bit me. And this was the rear-fanged snake. Wasn’t terrible. I was bit numb, this hand, I think. I… Read More
I trip up. We pulled into, pulled into a trader’s place in Guatemala City, and I got treated further that afternoon (chuckles). God, I nearly passed out from the treatment, but the bite was nothing. Read More
The treatment was worth experiencing. (chuckling) And was this a collecting tour?… Read More
John Mertens operated the reptile house by a remote control. He would tell his stepson, “Do this and do that,” and everything would be all right. They had been operated under this way for a year since the reptile house had been opened. Shortly after I came there, John Mertens… Read More
The Fort Worth Zoo was sort of a one-man zoo. It wasn’t, wasn’t entirely a one-man zoo, but damn near it. He called the shots on everything. Lawrence Curtis. I took the job of general curator. I was sorry that I had taken it later on. We moved there, bought… Read More
Steve Dobbs was invited to attend, I guess it was a vacation in Guatemala. I went along as general curator, more or less in charge of the operation. And a third person, I don’t remember the guy’s name, but a friend of Steve’s went along. We went to Guatemala. We… Read More
What was the zoo like when you came to Fort Worth?… Read More
It was a one-man zoo. The previous year, they had built a reptile house. It was one of the most complete reptile houses in the country. The man in charge of the reptile house was a kid, 19 year old, roughly, kid. But his stepfather was John Mertens. Steve Mertens… Read More
I mean, what kind of zoo was it?… Read More
Sheer money. But they survived. Okay, let’s recap a little, and that is Mr. Lindemann has let you go, and you’re moving to Florida. You were thinking about fish, but you go to the Fort Worth Zoo about 1961. But how did you get… Here’s my question. Read More
How did you know there was a job at the Fort Worth Zoo as general curator?… Read More
The director of the Fort Worth Zoo was at one of the Zoo directors conferences. As a matter of fact, I think I sold him a pair of tapirs that we had at the, we had brought them in from South America. Little weight, little guys. Weighed 20 pounds a… Read More
Roland had connections?… Read More
Well, Roland, of course, visited all the zoos in Europe, and he had a lot of money, and he offered enough money to buy these things. Read More
A lot of what we got in those days were what?… Read More
So you were- So you were at the game farm when some rare animals, like the Somali wild ass, came through the game farm?… Read More
Do you remember how that came about?… Read More
Which was very rare. Read More
He went in place of him. I was replacing Roland Lindemann, who had suddenly been called overseas or whatever. And I went to Chicago to represent the game farm. My God, (chuckling) I was terrified. But I met Marlin Perkins, who was doing weekly TV show. I was assigned, assigned… Read More
I met her, and I was assigned a job of collecting some funds from everybody there. I survived the week, and I went to the, I think, the next, next with Roland, but I don’t remember. Read More