Tuesday, October 27, 2020

RAMAR & JACK BADAL (NOT CHARLIE GEMORA)


 

8 comments:

Mr.Lee said...

Sorry Chic ,,this is not Charlie Gamora..There is a great gorilla actor site called ..Ape suit cinema..it is a who's who of gorilla actors...

Unknown said...

Could this actually be Jack Badal, longtime keeper and trainer from the Los Angeles Zoo and his gorilla, Ramar? Bob Kellogg

Jim Alexander said...

Another vote for Jack Badal and his real gorilla Ramar. Jack had Ramar until he got to be near adult size. The gorilla went to the North Carolina Zoo and sired a few babies. After 20 years in N.C. Ramar went to Brookfield Zoo. In Ramar's youth he did a little act I saw on a kids TV show long ago.

Chic Silber said...


Sorry folks but this image was

found on a Charlie Gemora website

I appologize Lee for being sure

even though I was wrong

Internet bit me in the ass

Chic Silber said...


Thanks for the corrections

Roger Smith said...

This is Jack Badal, my friend since my early Jungleland days of the mid-'60s. We are still in touch. Jack is well, and living in Southern California.

Mr.Lee said...

Never any apologies needed for me Chic ! You are a hero for keeping this wonderful site going as busy as you usually are.. I miss our lunches also...

Roger Smith said...

Ramar lived some 18 years beyond the normal captive gorilla age. He died aged 50, at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, on April 12, 2018, euthanized for his failing quality of life.. He topped out at 440 pounds at age 24. Coverage by the zoo of his history noticeably by-passes Jack Badal having raised him after he was orphaned in the wilds of Cameroon. The Brookfield release barely states Ramar spent some time with "a private family", ignoring the fact that neither they nor the SC zoo would have had Ramar but for the importation and rearing of him by Badal. That was Ramar in the memorable 1970s ads of the gorilla trampling the American Tourister luggage. Jack won better notice for his years with Ramar in his excellent book, JUNGLE TO STAGE.