Mystery surrounds Cheeta, purportedly the world's oldest chimpanzee

latimesblogs ^ | February 14, 2009

[JoeProBono]

Could Cheeta the chimp, the famous performing primate who's said to have starred alongside Johnny Weissmuller in the Tarzan films and Rex Harrison in Dr. Doolittle, be an impostor?It's a story whose plot resembles a 1930s screwball comedy, but author R.D. Rosen says it's true: Cheeta the chimp, said to be the oldest nonhuman primate in the world at 76, is not who he claims to be. (Or rather, he's not who his deceased trainer, Tony Gentry, claimed he was.) In 2007, Rosen set out to write a book about Cheeta: his abduction from the wilds of his native Liberia; his storied history in Hollywood; his bizarre post-stardom life with trainer Gentry, who stipulated in his will that Cheeta be euthanized after his death, fearing no one else could provide the proper care for him; Gentry's subsequent reversal of that decision at the behest of a relative and fellow animal trainer, Dan Westfall, who runs the Palm Springs sanctuary to which Cheeta was eventually retired.

[JoeProBono]

Top photo: A chimp as Cheeta, Johnny Sheffield as Boy, Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan, Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane in 1939's "Tarzan Finds a Son."

Bottom photo: "Cheeta" with actor Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan, and his mother. Credit: Collection of Dan Westfall.

[a fool in paradise]

Someone was selling Cheeta autographs in the 1990s.

[JoeProBono]

[a fool in paradise]

Pong!

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[Ditto]

I’d sure like to monkey around with Maureen O’Sullivan.

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[martin_fierro]

* kaff *

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[Constitution Day]

Page not found.

Shorpy is a super cool site, though!

[Liberty Valance]

"Someone was selling Cheeta autographs in the 1990s."



Cheeta (Jiggs) (1932- ) Movie chimpanzee. Cheeta’s Hollywood career began in 1933 after he was taken away from his mother in the jungle when he was only a few months old. He starred in numerous movies and television shows, most famously many Tarzan films of the 1930s and 1940s, in which he portrayed a fictional chimp of the same name. 8” x 10” black and white movie still from a Tarzan film signed. There is a 6” x 4” color photograph of Cheeta signing the picture.

[martin_fierro]

aw po0p.

[Ditto]

[JoeProBono]