Friday, June 23, 2006

Jungle Larry #1

Posted by Buckles at 6/23/2006 06:35:00 AM

2 comments:

Bob Cline said...

Good Morning gang,
Jungle Larry and Safari Jane were in Ohio on Television as I grew up. They did school shows as well as a park operation at Buckeye Lake, Ohio. They eventually settled into the Carribbean Gardens in Naples as a permanant home and Cedar Point, the largest amusement park in the world located in Sandusky, Ohio as their summer season.
Over the years, many animals were exhibited that even zoos didn't have at the time. Larry served in the military milking snakes for their venom. The operation also presented some terrific animal acts over the years. With those animal acts came trainers of all different walks of life that learned their craft from the ground up as they say while at Junge Larry's.
Thier oldest son, David, duplicated Gunther's leopard act with the utmost in perfection as well as a brilliant 6 tiger act. Other trainers to call Jungle Larry's a stop in their career were Pat White, Roy Wells, Wade Burck, John Illig, and myself. Several people took up Zoological careers and a few maintained the life long employment relationships you rarely hear about anymore. My folks just saw the family two weeks ago and the animal acts are no longer presented but the animal lectures are with a push currently underway in the way of reptiles which was Jungle Larry's beginning.
Bob

23 June, 2006 07:15
Anonymous said...

From Eric:

Bob,

Many thanks for sharing these photos. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and can remember Jungle Larry from his appearances on Captain Penny’s TV show. In the late 1950s, he had his “Circus Africa” exhibit at Puritas Springs Park, which was located not too far from where I grew up on Cleveland’s West Side.

23 June, 2006 10:59

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