Dec 28th 2011 07:57 am Attention, please!
I ran across some news this morning that absolutely floored me. I mean, I encounter a lot of information on the Internet, in periodicals and on TV, but I’ve rarely been as amazed as I was when I learned the chimpanzee who played opposite Johnny Weissmuller in the 1930s Tarzan movies died Christmas Eve, this past Saturday! Cheetah, who portrayed himself, was 80 years old! He outlived Tarzan (Weissmuller, 1904-1984), Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan, 1911-1998) and even Boy (Johnny Sheffield), who died last year at 79. Apparently, he and Cheetah were the same age. Cheetah lived in a primate retirement home in Palm Harbor, Florida. It was said he loved finger painting and seeing people smile.
I saw all the Weissmuller-as-Tarzan movies on television when I was a boy, and to me they’ve always been the genuine item. To think that little rascal Cheetah has been living quietly in retirement all these years. Is it just me?
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
38 Responses to “Attention, please!”
George from Hornby on 28 Dec 2011 at 8:10 am #
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. That chimp was born about 1960.
Bob S. on 28 Dec 2011 at 8:16 am #
We’ve got the story n the local paper. Also on TV news last evening. I believe he was the real deal or talk to the woman who has cared for him at the Palm Harbor home. I’m sure you can find a phone number for the primate retirement home in Palm Harbor.
He also threw poop when he didn’t like something.
Dave in MA on 28 Dec 2011 at 8:19 am #
George from Hornby, the chimp that played in the movies made in the 1930s was not born in the 1960s, and yes, chimps DO live to be as old as humans, and yes, this chimp was the original one from the original Tarzan movies. Not sure where YOU get your information….
Kathleen on 28 Dec 2011 at 8:24 am #
Wow! I had never thought of that chimp still being alive! I remember those shows well! I’m also enjoying my Arlo & Janis book that I received for Christmas. I’m just starting the transition years and looking very forward to it.
MINDY on 28 Dec 2011 at 8:27 am #
Cheetah also served as a consultant with NASA during the Sixties and early Seventies.
George from Hornby on 28 Dec 2011 at 8:35 am #
Maybe not the best source, but I read it in the Los Angeles Times.
George from Hornby on 28 Dec 2011 at 8:36 am #
Google los angeles times cheeta.
nick chik on 28 Dec 2011 at 8:57 am #
My husband asked me this morning, “Do you remember Cheeta?” I said, “What?” He said, “ya, know…Cheeta…in the Tarzan movies.” I said, “yeah”. He said, “Well, he died.” I was totally confused…what do you mean he died???? He answered…he was 80 and he died. I was still shaking my head about it when I read your post.
I mean, who would have thought he was still alive! Crazy!
Dave in MA on 28 Dec 2011 at 9:10 am #
George from Hornby, I can find nothing on the Los Angeles Times site that indicates the cheeta who just died was born in the 1960s. Can you please send a specific URL that clearly states that this chimp that just died was only born in the 1960s?
I CAN find references, as JJ indicated, that say that they normally live to around 45 in captivity, but that doesn’t mean this one was only in his mid 40s. He was truly the original chimp from the 1930s movies.
The fact that he lived in captivity that long is amazing, but chimps in the wild CAN be that old without much fuss, so it’s no surprise that this one lived to that age.
Dan in SWMo on 28 Dec 2011 at 9:11 am #
FWIW, I did as George from Hornby suggested and Googled for the LA Times story. Here is where it can be found, an investigative article from a couple of years ago: http://articles.latimesdotcom/2009/feb/13/local/me-outthere13
Dan in SWMo on 28 Dec 2011 at 9:14 am #
Note: I put the word “dot” into the dot com address, because I wasn’t sure it would post otherwise. Substitute a real dot in the appropriate place to try the address.
Sylvia in MS on 28 Dec 2011 at 9:21 am #
To Cricket and Ellen … and any one else that would like it, my Grandmother’s Teacake recipe.
GRANDMAMA’S TEACAKES
1½ cups sugar
¾ cup shortening
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup milk
3 cups self-rising flour, at least*
Cream sugar and shortening. Add salt, eggs, and vanilla; mix well. Alternating milk and flour, add to shortening mixture.Roll out to ¼-inch thickness on well-floured cloth. Cut into desired shapes. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes. Cool. My Grandmother, Mary Rone, would use her wooden flour bowl to mix these in…by adding the ingredients, without measuring, and mixing to the right consistency – all with her hands.
*NOTE: use the 3 cups of flour, and when rolling out, be sure to have your cloth well-floured so the dough doesn’t stick to cloth.
Enjoy!
Happy New Year to everyone. May you all be safe and have a healthy year ahead.
George from Hornby on 28 Dec 2011 at 9:32 am #
R. D. Rosen’s Wasington Post article about his research can be found at http://www.washingtonpostdotcom/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/25/AR2008112500939.html I used the (dot for . trick also). Or Google R.D. Rosen cheeta.
Dave in MA on 28 Dec 2011 at 9:47 am #
Dan in SWMo, that story, from 2 years ago, about a chimp purportedly found to be NOT the original chimp from the Tarzan movies based on one person’s comparing photos to a TV image, does NOT make the case that the one who just died is that same chimp or was born in the 1960s. Again, I’m asking for something that definitively shows that this chimp that just died was a phony……. Haven’t seen it yet.
George from Hornby, your article from 3 years ago also does not prove that this one that just died is that same chimp.
And, in both cases, the article is making the assertion based on the research of one man who was NOT an expert in chimps or primatology.
Will Overby on 28 Dec 2011 at 9:52 am #
Wow. I think we all need to take a teacake break.
Steve from Royal Oak, Mi on 28 Dec 2011 at 9:55 am #
If true, I hope that we don’t get a bunch of tell all books talking about the Chimp’s sexual exploits. I mean, let him rest in peace!
Michael Herr on 28 Dec 2011 at 10:32 am #
Sorry, I do not like chimpanzees. I do not think they should be kept as pets and I do not think they should ever be trusted. I’ve read too many stories about the damage they can do to a human when they turn on them. However, they make a good character for a novel.
Galliglo in Ohio on 28 Dec 2011 at 10:53 am #
@Will Overby – Right!
Bill in Paducah on 28 Dec 2011 at 11:19 am #
Funny coincidence – I was listening to an episode of “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” on the way in to work this morning. This was a “recap” episode where they replay some of the recent Not My Job portions of the show. Peter was asking Jason Bateman questions about Cheeta and according to the podcast:
1) Cheeta retired to Palm Springs and dabbled in art;
2) Jane Goodall attended his 75th birthday party and attempted to sing Happy Birthday with chimpanzee hoots that she had learned over the years; and
3) The Cheeta living in Palm Springs was really only about 40 years old, had never been in a Tarzan movie and was generally a complete fraud.
And, since it’s on the internet, it must be true!
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=142724017
John in Virginia on 28 Dec 2011 at 12:05 pm #
I am very much tempted to ask: Who is Cheetah? I think that I’ll Google Johnny Weismuller and see how old he was and when he died. NASA, Mindy?
James Pollock on 28 Dec 2011 at 12:09 pm #
I can think of some OTHER “movie stars” that I wish would retire to a life finger-painting…
George from Hornby on 28 Dec 2011 at 12:14 pm #
After eating my teacakes I must defer to Dave in MA. The Cheeta that died in FL was not the fake one in CA.
James Pollock on 28 Dec 2011 at 12:16 pm #
The news coverage is now discussing the possibility that the chimp who recently died was not the original… although they don’t seem to have any proof, either. (although, for some reason, both sources are from the UK, they’re just the top couple that came up in a Google search with the keywords (“Cheetah chimp fake”).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079272/Cheeta-1930s-Tarzan-chimp-dies-aged-80–real-star-old.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/dec/28/chimp-cheeta-cheetah-tarzan-dies?newsfeed=true
On the other hand, apparently there IS a Cheeta(h) tell-all book:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/184-6767527-2993266?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=me+cheeta
George from Hornby on 28 Dec 2011 at 12:51 pm #
Stranger than fiction indeed. Could Cheetah be the simian version of Peter Novak in Robert Ludlum’s “The Janson Directive”?
debbie on 28 Dec 2011 at 1:27 pm #
JJ: I with you! Is it just me?
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 28 Dec 2011 at 1:54 pm #
Rumor has it that Cheetah got his name when he beat Johnny Weissmuller in a card game by hiding an ace in his prehensile feet.
And don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.
Boise Ed on 28 Dec 2011 at 3:52 pm #
Right on, George from Hornby. According to the first-hand account at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/25/AR2008112500939.html?hpid=features1&hpv=national, ‘ “It’s not true,” Wells said. “Tony got that chimp from Wally Ross. … When Pacific Ocean Park closed [in 1967], he had a chimp he owned and trained, about 6 or 7, the turning point for a chimp. …
‘If Cheeta was 6 or 7 when Pacific Ocean park closed, he was born in 1960 or 61.’
Mary in Ohio on 28 Dec 2011 at 4:31 pm #
Well, it isn’t on Snopes.com so I can’t contribute anything to the discussion. But thanks for the teacake recipe!
George from Hornby on 28 Dec 2011 at 6:12 pm #
Weissmuller lived in Florida until the end of 1973, then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. In the late 60s, early 70s, he was involved with a doomed tourist attraction in Titusville, FL called Tropical Wonderland, aka Tarzan’s Jungleland which shut down for good in 1973. There are reports of monkeys which escaped from this park still sighted until a few years ago.
According to Debbie Cobb, the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary’s outreach director, Cheetah came there from Weissmuller’s estate in Ocala in 1960. This “sanctuary” is reportedly just another tourist attraction with small cages and stressed animals. My guess is he came from Tarzan’s Jungleland, had never played cards with Weissmuller, was not as old as reported and had never been in the movies.
Bob, near Mark on 28 Dec 2011 at 6:33 pm #
Well, we could look up Cheeta’s bio on the Internet Movie Database, but if IMDb revealed his true age, they might be sued for “age discrimination,” as an unnamed actress is doing.
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/11/29/blacklist-imdb-lawsuit/
Check that link, or Google imdb actress age suit.
Mark in TTown on 28 Dec 2011 at 9:20 pm #
I checked Wikipedia and they had a list of several chimps who were used as Cheetah in the movies. There was one in Palm Springs whose owner claimed he had been used in the 1930′s. That is the one referred to in the quote about “Tony got that chimp when Pacific Park closed”.
Then there was the one in Florida who supposedly came from Weissmuller’s estate. Not the estate he left when he died, but apparently his home. That is the one which just died in Florida.
You pays your money and you takes your choice.
Bet Cheetah would have liked the teacakes, though!
Crickett on 28 Dec 2011 at 10:33 pm #
Thank you, Sylvia! I can’t wait to make them!
Jerry in Fl on 28 Dec 2011 at 11:09 pm #
Ok, take your hand off the mouse, stand up slowly and back away from the keyboard. Otherwise I’ll have to go find my book on the entire history of Tarzan movies and yes I still have Buster Crabbe’s autograph from 1964. And just bcause I have his autograph hidden away doesn’t mean that I know how to spell his name. I’ve finished the two books that I was reading and now I’m going for entertainment with a historical twist, King’s 11-22-63.
llee on 29 Dec 2011 at 7:27 am #
re: teacakes “….by adding the ingredients, without measuring, and mixing to the right consistency – all with her hands.”
Grandmas can do that. They have magic. And lucky for us when they share! My grandma would make mince meat for the holidays (start it in late summer so it is REALLY good come Christmas, & keep any leftovers going so next year it is really really good). Good for pies or fruitcake or even cookies. I can make it close to hers, but only close….
Lost in A**2 on 29 Dec 2011 at 8:00 am #
My mother’s recipe for mince-meat pie started with, “Buy a jar of NONESUCH mince meat.”
Jean from Dahlonega Ga aka Trapper Jean on 29 Dec 2011 at 8:05 am #
I read the Cheetah article in the Atlanta Journal yesterday and thought “I’ll be darned…who knew?” Oddly enough I don’t remember seeing anything in the news when Johnny Sheffield died.
My grandmother really hated the tv Tarzan with Ron Ely playing the title role. She said he was too skinny and spoke English too well. No matter how often I tried to tell her that according to the book he was the most correct she swore that Johnny Weissmuller was the definitive Tarzan, better even than Buster Crabbe or Lex Barker.
Pass the teacakes, please.
Sylvia in MS on 29 Dec 2011 at 9:03 am #
llee & Lost in A**2,
Years ago, my baby sister was given mincemeat pie at a family gathering. When she asked what mincemeat was, my uncle told her from a mince. A bit later, he gave her a piece of hide from something and told her it was was the hide of a mince. She was at Mama’s back in the summer and went through her box of things that’s stored in the attic and found her “mince” hide. We still miss that uncle!
Cricket, let me know how they turn out. I bake mine until they are barely browned on top so they are soft. Mmmmmmmm good!
Mark in Boston on 29 Dec 2011 at 4:53 pm #
Tarzan swinging through the air,
Tarzan lost his underwear.
Tarzan say, “Me no care.
Jane make me another pair.”