My philosophy is you don’t want to ever get the press involved until you get the park funded and pretty well finished. Then you should do it because otherwise you have people that’ll look at your holding areas. I was hired by Ringling brothers to design a park in Haines… Read More
That one did get off the ground as the zoological park, but it was quite different. Alf Feld who owned Ringling brothers. One of the main restaurants was a 50 foot tall elephant that you went up escalators or elevators through the legs up to the top. And I designed… Read More
They think of what the heck does he know about presenting wildlife to the public?… Read More
See. But in spite of that, I was hired by ABC in the early 70s to design a part that they had purchased the land from a Ross Perot of all things (laughs) in Washington, DC. And I knew some of the upper management of ABC who bought it. So… Read More
And it was finally sold I think to one of the amusement park companies, Great Adventure, I think it was, yeah. Read More
I don’t know where… Well, I’ll tell you what Giggling Gorilla Productions is some friends of mine in California. He used to be the Mike. I’m trying to think of his name. Colbert. Mike used to be the curator of animals at the San Diego Zoo. And he had the… Read More
So in the field of lecturing and doing films. I haven’t been able to really work with them as much as I’d like, but they named their production. By the way, they’ve done some real good children’s books and they have the potential to do some good filming. Read More
Can you tell me the briefly some of the stories about how things went with like the, for example, one, the Largo Wildlife Preserve?… Read More
Oh, sure, yeah. Yeah. In life I think you have to try things. You have to work at it, you have to stick at. It’s not very easy to come up with innovative new situations in the world. Frankly, I was known primarily for my experience with Wild Kingdom. And… Read More
Is that part of the Giggling Gorilla Productions?… Read More
No, but I know him very well. Read More
What is Giggling Gorilla Productions?… Read More
What were you up against?… Read More
Well, you’re really first of all– (indistinct) Well, no, you have to have some space. If you do a proper wildlife park that’s got combines adventure with education. Oh, by the way, after the lions follow you and get a food reward, a bear come out of a tree over… Read More
And also, how do you raise the money within the limits of the city or the foundations that you have access to?… Read More
Right now I’ve had to go there some big plantations around Albany, Georgia, and I have set the stage so that they’re willing to donate, but unless I have the control, personally, if I tell them I wanna raise money for, let’s say one of my mobile exercise tunnels for… Read More
Well, I never have had the never been in the catbird seat. The only way I can be in the catbird seat is to raise the money myself to build something there. And I did that with a oddly enough with a Birds of Prey park, one of the first… Read More
But at the one in Albany, Georgia that I built, I’ve got a holding area. It’s up on stilts with a couple of a nighttime holding area and also preparation of food. But then I have another cabin on top of that. And that’s where the eagle flies out of… Read More
I have another flight cage that’s 150 feet long for bald eagles. And you can see them come right down to you ’cause I have a bleacher inside of the flight cage. People could sit there and see a bald eagle come down and grab a fish out of the… Read More
“This looks like a safari in Africa you know.” Well, the people don’t know it, but as you leave, the lions have become accustomed to jumping up and following you, running after you, because they know they’re gonna get a food reward 50 yards down the trail. But you gotta… Read More