Wednesday, August 02, 2017

#1 Performing Chimpanzees!


3 comments:

Jim Alexander said...

Paul and Anna Fritz with the DelMonte Chimpanzees. Paul was at the Phoenix Zoo around 1966 and later at a primate sanctuary.

Unknown said...

If I am not mistaken Paul Fritz had a cat act on Ringling in the fifties. Also, Anna was Rudolph DelMonte's mother. Wish I knew more about them but this info may help to get some further response.

4pawfan said...

Both of you are correct. Fritz had taken over Oscar Konyot's Lion act (1955)? after being an asst. Paul had started at the Hagenbeck Zoo before joining Ringling. Oscar's new wife got him to change from lions to chimps and the reason the lion act was available to Paul.
Somewhere I have photos of the Konyots on either Barnum and Bailey or Ringling Bros in the 1909-1912 era.
Fritz retired from the Phoenix zoo and started "Primate Foundation of Arizona" in Tempe and later moved to Mesa in the 1970's with his new wife Joanne Chambers. Natgeo did a story on them a while back. Ended up with too many chimps and ended up on food stamps to feed and to try to take care of them all. Arizona State stepped in for a little bit, but do not know the rest of the story as Paul Harvey used to say. I do know that the "Primate Foundation of Arizona" was taken over M.D.Anderson and they closed the Mesa location and moved the chimps in with the 1800 other primates they look after in Bastrop.