Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 227
For any of them. So Briggs is the director. Read More
For any of them. So Briggs is the director. Read More
You are?… Read More
Some of ’em on the inside of his lip, some on the outside of his lips. And that was somethin’. That’s kind of unusual. Another time he had a baby chimpanzee. Right in the middle of the show, urinated and defecated all over me. In those days, we used the… Read More
It was taped live and there was no editing. At the end of the show, they used that on a program, then it was erased. And the next week, they used the same tape again. They used it over and over again, so none of those were kept. There’s no… Read More
Were there any memorable situations or surprises on television?… Read More
I’m gonna tell you a really interesting story about the St. Louis Zoo show. Dave Thompson who was a zoologist at that time was holding a baby caiman. It was about 2 1/2 feet long. It had been in a cloth sack. And he was gettin’ ready to hand it… Read More
And just as he blew, the caiman clamped down on both lips, clamped his mouth closed and the blood started streamin’ down. And ‘course we all started bust out laughin’. And of course the television crew. He bled like a stuck pig. He handed me the caiman and so we… Read More
Absolutely. Because he always said, “Speak distinctly and make sure that you talk in terms that everybody could understand.” Was the show well-received?… Read More
Very well. It was popular for 10 years and our sponsors was like Ralston Purina. We had a big-name sponsors. Read More
Any stories?… Read More
I know that there are some Marlin stories about “Zoo Parade” when he was sick and other issues. Read More
Did you have guests?… Read More
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