According to the Internet Movie Database, Mel Koontz got
his show business start in the mid-1920s selling popcorn at the old Selig Zoo
while still a teenager. Beginning as a
cage cleaner, he worked his way up to trainer and, by the early 1930s was
wrestling lions for the movie industry.
After appearing at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, he returned to
Selig, where he remained until 1946, when he became Chief Trainer at Jungleland,
in Thousand Oaks, California. He held
this position until 1964, when he retired due to failing eyesight. He passed
away in 1992 at the age of 82.
|
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Mel Koontz #14
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Reading this post makes me realize I could have had the opportunite to meet him and possible work under him? Back in 73 just before I moved to Venice from Texas , I was in California delivering Dr Martin Dinnes VDM 's mobile vet clinic and a trailer full of hospital equipment to him. He took me around to most of his stops that week and I met his future wife Tippy Heddren and Dave McMilion at Japanese Village and Deer Park. Dr Dennis was telling me he could get me a job with an MGM Cat Trainer...I didnt get to meet him and instead flew home to Texas and Jewell New and I headed to Houston to pick up Buddy the lion cub and then to Winter Quarters...
Right. When Billy Richards and Trader Horne took over Goebel's Lion Farm, in 1946, they named it World Jungle Compound, and elevated Mel to Chief Trainer. It was during this era when Anthony Patrick Vitanza was breaking in under John C. "Chubby" Guilfoyle, emerged as a finished wild animal trainer, and went professional in 1953, as Pat Anthony. The succeeding man to hold the top trainer title was Chet Juszyk.
Hello! Sorry I know you wrote this last year, but I'm Mel Koontz's great-granddaughter. I'm his son Robert's daughter Kathryn's younger daughter. It's so great to see these pictures of him, I've scoured the internet for information but it seems like so little has come up. I find this recently and am overjoyed to see him hugging that beautiful lion. It brought tears to my eyes. I was born in 1993, a year after he died, but I desperately wished to meet him since I was a little girl. thanks for the post.
-Shannon Young
Post a Comment