Friday, October 20, 2017

#6 Chimps!

Tony Gentry.

4 comments:

lesa mcclay said...

I see "THOUSAND OAKS" written on the truck.
Is this by chance in connection with Dorothy Herbert and A.W. Kennard??
If someone has info on Dorothy, or was related to her, would you kindly contact me?
I am related to her, and have a few questions. Love_Lucy@verizon.net

This blog is great! Thanks for the time dedicated to bring it to us.

My mom is Millie Ward's younger sister, and all this time she never knew about the elephant named after her (and the other ladies on the show). Those interesting facts are priceless!

Roger Smith said...

I met her one night up at Jungleland's Big Barn. She introduced herself simply as Mrs. Kinnard, and we jackpotted for over an hour. Later that night, I told Dick McGraw what a nice lady I had been talking to, and he amazed me by revealing she was Dorothy Herbert. To my regret, I never saw her again.

A friend I knew about this time had worked for them when they had the trained birds on the Burt Lancaster film, THE BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ.

BANDWAGON Magazine ran a 6-part life story on Ms. Herbert, which gives great details of her career, including her co-starring roles in the movies. Look this up by typing in her name on IMDb. It has been stated that Dorothy Herbert had more paper out on her than any other top name, including Clyde Beatty. Good Luck, LUCY, and yes, this Blog is priceless.

Roger Smith said...

Our late, most colorful and redoubtable Tony Gentry. He was an alum of Frank "Bring "em Back Alive" Buck, the fabled animal trapper and importer. Tony segued to the Goebel Compound and worked on countless pictures. His last grab at notice developed as he tried to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for an old chimp he had, which he claimed was a Cheetah from the Johnny Weissmuller "Tarzan" films. Hollywood's honorary "mayor", Johnny Grant, had Tony's claims of the chimp being 75, and the true Cheetah actor, looked into. There could be no verification, and the application was denied. The truth was, another Jugleland guy found this aged, bargain-basement chimp and gave it to Tony so he would have something to do. Tony died very much alone at 86.

lesa mcclay said...

Funny, I had just read that story about you meeting her at Jungleland,....and here you are, lol.

Thanks Roger for the IMDb info. I appreciate it. -Lesa