Today is Marlin Perkins' (RIP) birthday. Many Americans learned about wildlife conservation

[cherokeeprogressive]

watching Wild Kingdom. I used to LOVE that show. My favorite part was when Mr. Perkins would say something like "We'll just sit here quietly while Jim wrestles the angry anaconda in four feet of water...".

Wiki states that "Because Walt Disney had fabricated footage of a mass suicide of lemmings in its film White Wilderness, CBC (at that time) journalist Bob McKeown asked Marlin Perkins if he had done the same. Perkins, then in his eighties, "firmly asked for the camera to be turned off, then punched a shocked McKeown in the face."

You Go Marlin!

I posted this as a little diversion from the ObamaWars. Hope it made ya smile. It's a beautiful day here in Big Bear Lake. Gonna be 60 degrees today! Time to break out the shorts. The lake re-opens to boating on 4/1. MMMMM mmm I can taste the fresh rainbow trout already...

[davsand]

1. "I'll be circling in the Land Rover while Jim wrestles that wild wildebeest."

Just a couple of weeks ago I took my 79 year old mother to the eye doctor's office and I told her I'd "circle in the land rover" while she went in for her test. The office nurse started laughing.

Wild Kingdom is a cultural icon for a couple of generations for many reasons. Without a doubt Marlin Perkins was a huge force in the early days of conservation of wild life, but he also gave a lot of gifts beside that.


Laura

[tularetom]

4. I have to tend the campfire while Jim pulls that croc from the piranha filled pond

Cant tell you how much we've laughed about that over the years. I'm 67 years old myself and I'm pretty sure I started watching that show over 50 years ago.

[mitchtv]

9. Didn't he start with "Zoo Parade"?

from the Lincoln Park Zoo ?

[cherokeeprogressive]

10. Yes he did, when he was the Director of the zoo.

More from his Wiki entry:

"Perkins briefly attended the University of Missouri, but quit school to become a laborer at the St. Louis Zoo. It was the start of a brilliant zoological career. He rose through the ranks, becoming the reptile curator in 1928. After being hired as a curator of the Buffalo Zoological Park in Buffalo, New York, Perkins was eventually promoted to director in 1938. He then served as director at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois, from 1944 until 1962, when he returned to the Saint Louis Zoological Park, this time as director. During his time at the Lincoln Park Zoo, Perkins joined Sir Edmund Hillary as the zoologist for Hillary's 1960 Himalayan expedition to search for the legendary Yeti.

Perkins was the host of Zoo Parade, a television program that originated from the Lincoln Park Zoo when he was the director there.<1> During a rehearsal of Zoo Parade, he was bitten by a timber rattlesnake, one of several bites from venomous snakes Perkins suffered throughout his career (over the years he was also bitten by a cottonmouth and a Gaboon viper<2>). Although the incident occurred during a pre-show rehearsal and was not filmed, it has become something of an urban legend, with many people 'remembering' seeing Perkins receive the bite on television."

[roguevalley]

18. my uncle was an agronomist (i am sure that is misspelled) in Africa for about

30 years and was there the day they tranquilized the elephant that sat down. if they didn't get it up or over it would suffocate. He helped them. He *hated* marlin perkins. I never asked for more stories because he was so mad. I liked Marlin, especially his segueways into mutual of omaha commercials. Jim was great. he was always falling down with something. :) I remember when perkins wrestled a snake in the water. he was really almost killed by that snake they said. such good memories. :)

[soothsayer]

2. I hear that great Nat. Geo theme music (ba ba ba BAH ba, ba ba ba BAH

ba ba ba ba ba (boosh boosh))

Gawd I hope that was him

[uppityperson]

3. RIP Marlin Perkins and I loved the show and poor Jim. eom

[JFN1]

5. Loved that show growing up

[Medusa]

6. Bump for Marlin, Wild Kingdom

and good memories.

[Cass]

7. Oh I loved that show!

How I wish they would replay Wild Kingdom these days. Marlin Perkins was pip....I loved the story about him in your OP. Thanks for the smile today!

[FSogol]

8. I wonder how many of us environmentalists where influenced by that show? n/t

[Doc_Technical]

11. "A porcupine has quills for protection,

and people need protection too. That's why Mutual of Omaha
has a policy...."

Nice product lead-in Marlin.

[bulloney]

29. And while Jim's dealing with that angry crocodile in heat, here's some advice on Mutual of Omaha.

[CreekDog]

12. And I still remember, "Mutual of Omaha is people, you can count on when the going's rough"

i take it they got back their investment in the sponsorships. :rofl:

[jmondine]

13. and Jim Fowler is still alive. Yay!

[Skittles]

14. I remember Merlin

droning into the camera while Jim was back there wrestling all kinds of critters :thumbsup:

[coyotespaw]

15. Marlin Perkins, Joan Embry, and Jim Fowler

Inspired a love for animals and nature that is second only to my multi-generational Union family for me being a D instead of an R. Thanks for the memories...

[rasputin1952]

16. Oh...one of those shows I never missed...

Occasionally, there will be a repeat of some of them, but not very often. When I catch them, it takes me back to a time where things didn't seem so "out of place" as far as nature goes. There was some pretty dry wit involved w/the shows and there was always a message of preservation in there. Generations are in debt to the conservation and knowledge that little show put out for us to satiate our curiosity. While it may seem outdated these days, it was the first to bring nature into our living rooms on a regular basis, and had a dramatic impact on how we view our planet.

I would have loved to see that interview where Marlin popped that guy...:D

[DemBones DemBones]

17. Disney faked the lemming suicide in "White Wilderness"?

I need to call my brother and see if he knows that… "White Wilderness" was a favorite childhood film and we had a neighbor whose son was a cameraman on the film. He was killed in an avalanche during the filming and she had film of that, which, needless to say, did not make the movie's final cut.

R.I.P. Marlin, we miss you.

[cherokeeprogressive]

27. From what I understand, it's where the lemming/mass suicide myth started.

From Snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp

[DemBones DemBones]

30. Learn something new every day. At least it

was a beautiful movie.

[Stevenmarc]

19. And as the anaconda squeezes the life out of Jim, let's look at Mutual of Omaha's .......

[MinM]

20. "Just as the mother lion protects her cubs, you can protect your children with Mutual of Omaha"

My favorite insurance salesman. :rofl:

[freddie mertz]

26. Love that line!

We quote it all the time at home.

I lived Marlin Perkins.

[DemBones DemBones]

31. …

:rofl:

[JanMichael]

21. Look's like Jim's in trouble....now for a word about what who you can count in when you are in

trouble; our sponsor, Mutual of Omaha......

[LWolf]

22. I was watching when I was still in single digits.

4 decades ago.

:wow:

[LeftHander]

23. The giant snake! I remember that one....

Marlin almost drown...the snake pulled him under and Jim saved him....
As a kid it was Wild Kingdom that sparked my interest in Biology and zoology....

Went to college for Bio and ended up a DBA....go figure...

[SidDithers]

24. Classic clips here...

including one where Marlin, yes Marlin!, wrestles a great big snake :)

http://www.wildkingdom.com/nostalgia/classic_clips.html

Sid

[cherokeeprogressive]

28. Whoa! Props to Marlin! He was no spring chicken in that clip. n/t

[4_TN_TITANS]

25. Truly an inspiration to us all... n/t