Jim Fowler & the Anaconda

Do any of you know where I could watch the video of Jim (from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom) wrestling with that anaconda?



Gotta remember that guy and the intrest he sparked in many of us to visit the great outdoors!

They had another guy named Stan

– Last Updated: Nov-10-09 11:14 PM EST –

I can't remember who came first, Jim Fowler or Stan Brock. As a kid, I never missed that show! Even when I was a kid, I got a kick out of how every time they cornered or trapped some big and dangerous animal, Marlin Perkins' narration would always be the same: "Now we'll wait 'till Stan gets here." Like Jim Fowler, Stan did all the dirty work, but always in bare feet.

Really a discussion forum topic, but
I don’t remember Fowler doing the wrestling. I recall old Marlin Perkins wrestling a BIG anaconda while the show’s burly Australian sidekick stood by and watched. Marlin Perkins got started at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, back in the 50s, and gravitated to Mutual of Omaha later.

So
Was it Stan and not Jim? I know Stan and Marlin got one but if I remember right Jim did one by himself with only the cameraman who didn’t help.

Wild Kingdom
youtube.com has a butt load of 'em.

Come into the Everglades with us
this winter, and we’ll find one that you and I can wrestle.

Man how about that in a trip report !



Cheers,

JackL

I believe the other guys wrassled too,
but the picture of old Marlin struggling with that snake in the mud while Crocodile Stan stood by is burned into my visual memory.

i saw some
vids in that category on u tube.

I did a bunch of searching, …

– Last Updated: Nov-11-09 9:30 PM EST –

... and on the topic of anaconda wrestling I found a couple of dozen references to a SINGLE episode that involved BOTH Marlin Perkins and Stan Brock. The descriptions make it pretty clear that both men ended up in rather serious trouble for a short time. Stan Brock had so MANY close calls (even came within inches of losing a race with a grizzly bear once, where the "finish line" was a tree with the right structure to let him fly up the thing without breaking stride) and was so eager to jump into the fray on all other occasions that I honestly don't believe he would have stood there like a bump on a log while Perkins struggled. Of course, YOU know what psychologists say about the "reliability" of even the most indelible memories after time passes. I even had a dose of that myself last night. I was certain that I'd read when I was a kid that Stan Brock was a silver-spoon child from Australia who was sent to the U.S. by his father as a "lesson" in how good he had it. In fact, he was British, and when he moved out he went to live and work with a native tribe in South America. Big difference on both counts, but I was sure I remembered correctly (maybe there IS something about Australia in his background, somewhere along the way).

I
I guess Stan was the man then.

After
Doing a little research it was a boa constrictor and not an anaconda. I would still like to see the video.

I’ve got a picture of…
Brazilbrasil wrasslin’ a cayman. Does that count?

Well, I only remember Marlin
wrasslin’ an anaconda, in an open marsh environment typical for anacondas. If it was a boa, it was a darn big boa.

Marlin Perkins
Marlin wrestled an ,anaconda, I believe from a dugout canoe. He rolls into the water wrapped in the snake.



To set up the shot the snake was ‘cooled down’ so it was hardly moving. Marlin was a bit older in that shot and needed some help.



Great show but remember film is always edited and animla people are all about slight of hand when it comes to publicity and self promotion.



I take nothing but good will away from that great show.

Well, some probably ARE all about…

– Last Updated: Nov-12-09 2:14 PM EST –

... "slight of hand" when it comes to self-promotion, especially the ones who've been a bit too daring when dealing with large and toothy critters.

Now, "sleight of hand" is a whole other topic, probably sometimes justified/explained by the ending comment on every episode of Wild Kingdom: "All of the scenes in this program, whether actual or created, depict authenticated facts."