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Jiggs (chimpanzee)
Encyclopedia
Jiggs was a male chimpanzee and animal actor who originated the character of Cheeta
in the 1930s Hollywood Tarzan
movie
s. He was owned and trained by Tony and Jacqueline Gentry.
Tarzan films, Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) and Tarzan and His Mate
(1934),. He also appeared in the Buster Crabbe
serial Tarzan the Fearless
(1933) and the Herman Brix serial The New Adventures of Tarzan
(1935), also released in feature-film form as Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938). In the Brix films, which were more faithful to Edgar Rice Burroughs' original stories than the Weissmuller ones, Jiggs was cast as Nkima
, not Cheeta.
Jiggs was cast in at least one additional film, Her Jungle Love (1938), starring Dorothy Lamour
, which was his last picture.
Cheeta is a male chimpanzee born about 1960, formerly owned by Tony Gentry and now residing at the C.H.E.E.T.A. Primate Sanctuary (Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes) in Palm Springs, California. Gentry claimed at various times that this chimpanzee was born in 1932 or later in the 1930s and succeeded Jiggs as the film Cheeta, portraying the character in most of the Johnny Weismuller and Lex Barker Tarzan films. He was alleged to have appeared in non-Tarzan films in other chimp roles as well, and based on the 1932 birthdate alleged by Gentry became celebrated as oldest living chimpanzee on reaching the supposed age of 64 in 1996 (chimpanzees typically live to be 40-45 in the wild). All of these claims were debunked in 2008 by journalist R. D. Rosen in an article that settled the animal's true age and established that he had not appeared in any movies, let alone in the role of Cheeta.
In the usually related account, Gentry originally acquired the animal by purchase from Henry Trefflich
, a New York animal importer and dealer. Cheeta was supposedly born in the wild in Liberia
some months prior to 9 April 1932, which is celebrated as his birthday because it is the date he is said to have arrived in the USA, in New York
. Other accounts of Cheeta's origins from Gentry include having found the animal himself in the Belgian Congo
in 1932 or having bought him in Santa Monica
about 1938 or in the late 1940s.
Gentry's acquaintances and fellow animal trainers Hubert Wells, Stewart Raffill and Cheryl Shawver have disputed all of these accounts, stating that "Tony got that chimp from Wally Ross ... one of the managers of Pacific Ocean Park
on the pier in Santa Monica" when the park closed in 1967. According to them, Cheeta was only about 6 or 7 years old at that time, which would put his birthdate around 1960 or 1961 rather than 1932.
Gentry claimed Cheeta was the primary animal actor used in the role of Cheeta in the Tarzan movies. His first appearance as Cheeta is usually stated to have been in the second Johnny Weissmuller
Tarzan film, Tarzan and His Mate
(1934), in which he appeared uncredited as a young chimpanzee riding on the back of the older chimp (Jiggs) who originated the role. He was then allegedly cast in the role himself in the other Weissmuller Tarzans that followed, as well as the succeeding Lex Barker
Tarzan films. Journalist R. D. Rosen, who investigated this story, counters that this animal in fact never appeared in any Tarzan film.
Besides his supposed role as Cheeta in the Tarzan films, Cheeta reputedly appeared as other chimpanzee characters in unrelated films, including Ramona the Chimp in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
(1952) and Chee-Chee in Doctor Dolittle
(1967) with Rex Harrison
, supposedly his last role before retirement. However, according to Wells, Raffill and Shawver, as reported by R. D. Rosen, Cheeta never appeared in any movies. Rosen himself confirmed that the animal could not have been the Chee-Chee in the Dolittle film.
, where he reportedly watches television
, makes abstract painting
s which are sold to benefit primate
-related charities
, and often watches "his" old films with his grandson, Jeeter. He also leafs through books and "plays" the piano
.
His birthdays, calculated from the date of his supposed 1932 arrival in the United States, are regularly celebrated. In 2006, coinciding with his "74th" birthday, Cheeta received an award for his supposed film career from the International Film Festival of Peniscola Comedy. Later that year, the 4 October 2006, edition of the Palm Springs newspaper, The Desert Sun, reported that he had received his first-ever visit from famed primatologist Jane Goodall
the previous day. His "75th" birthday was covered by National Geographic. His "76th" birthday was celebrated on 9 April 2008, at his "Casa de Cheeta" in Palm Springs at an event hosted by Dan Westfall and Diane Weissmuller, (Johnny Weissmuller, Jr.'s widow). The press and many Palm Springs celebrities attended.
A literary agent was hired on his behalf for his ghost-written autobiography, Me Cheeta, published in the U.K. in October 2008. The American edition will be published on February 17, 2009.
On the basis of his apparently fictitious history, Cheeta was cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest non-human primate.
The character of Cheeta was honored with a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars
on 31 March 1995. His star is at 110 South Palm Canyon Drive.
Since 2004 there have been several unsuccessful campaigns to secure a star for Cheeta on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
, and as of 2008 filmmaker Matt Devlen was continuing the effort. Attempting for the seventh time to get him a sidewalk star, the handlers of Jiggs launched an online petition to get supporters to urge the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to give him a star in 2009. As of June 2008, Cheeta was not selected to be so honored.
Cheeta
Cheeta is a chimpanzee character appearing in numerous Hollywood Tarzan movies of the 1930s–1960s as well as the 1966–1968 television series, as the ape sidekick of the title character, Tarzan...
in the 1930s Hollywood Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s. He was owned and trained by Tony and Jacqueline Gentry.
Career
Jiggs appeared as Cheeta in the first two Johnny WeissmullerJohnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...
Tarzan films, Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) and Tarzan and His Mate
Tarzan and His Mate
Tarzan and His Mate is a Tarzan film based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was the second in the Tarzan film series to star Johnny Weissmuller....
(1934),. He also appeared in the Buster Crabbe
Buster Crabbe
Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe was an American athlete and actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930s and 1940s.-Birth:...
serial Tarzan the Fearless
Tarzan the Fearless
Tarzan the Fearless is a 12 chapter film serial starring Buster Crabbe in his only appearance as Tarzan. It was also released as a 71-minute feature film which comprised the first four chapters of the serial version. Co-starring was actress Jacqueline Wells, who later changed her name to Julie...
(1933) and the Herman Brix serial The New Adventures of Tarzan
The New Adventures of Tarzan
The New Adventures of Tarzan is a 1935 American film serial in 12 chapters. It is a more authentic version of the character than most other adaptations, with Tarzan as a cultured and well educated gentleman as in the original Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. It was filmed during the same period as the...
(1935), also released in feature-film form as Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938). In the Brix films, which were more faithful to Edgar Rice Burroughs' original stories than the Weissmuller ones, Jiggs was cast as Nkima
Nkima
Nkima is a fictional monkey character in Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan novels, and in adaptations of the saga to other media, particularly comics.-Character:...
, not Cheeta.
Jiggs was cast in at least one additional film, Her Jungle Love (1938), starring Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope .-Early life:Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise Dorothy...
, which was his last picture.
Death
Jiggs died on February 28, 1938 or March 1, 1938 at age 9, of pneumonia, and was buried March 2, 1938 in the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery.Other Gentry chimpanzees associated with the Cheeta role
Tony Gentry was a professional animal trainer who owned a number of apes, at first together with his wife Jacqueline and later on his own. The Gentrys appear to have separated before Jiggs died, as Jacqueline alone is cited as his owner in the accounts of the animal's death. Two of the Gentry chimps in addition to Jiggs have also been associated with the Cheeta role.Jiggs, Jr.
Jiggs, Jr. (also known as Jiggs II), was a male chimpanzee born about 1935, also owned and trained by Tony and Jacqueline Gentry. He is also alleged to have appeared in a number of Tarzan films, and possibly other movies. Stated to have gone to the Baltimore Zoo when Tony Gentry went into the service in World War II, his ultimate fate is unknown.Cheeta
Gentry's allegations
Tony Gentry made conflicting claims regarding Cheeta's age, origins, and supposed movie roles.In the usually related account, Gentry originally acquired the animal by purchase from Henry Trefflich
Henry Trefflich
Henry Trefflich was an animal importer and dealer. He procured animals of many different types and sizes from Africa, Asia and South America and imported them to the United States via ship and airplane. He sold them to zoos, circuses, Hollywood studios and also to various private and government...
, a New York animal importer and dealer. Cheeta was supposedly born in the wild in Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
some months prior to 9 April 1932, which is celebrated as his birthday because it is the date he is said to have arrived in the USA, in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Other accounts of Cheeta's origins from Gentry include having found the animal himself in the Belgian Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
in 1932 or having bought him in Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
about 1938 or in the late 1940s.
Gentry's acquaintances and fellow animal trainers Hubert Wells, Stewart Raffill and Cheryl Shawver have disputed all of these accounts, stating that "Tony got that chimp from Wally Ross ... one of the managers of Pacific Ocean Park
Pacific Ocean Park
Pacific Ocean Park was a twenty-eight acre , nautical-themed amusement park built on a pier at Pier Avenue in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica, California, which was intended to compete with Disneyland...
on the pier in Santa Monica" when the park closed in 1967. According to them, Cheeta was only about 6 or 7 years old at that time, which would put his birthdate around 1960 or 1961 rather than 1932.
Gentry claimed Cheeta was the primary animal actor used in the role of Cheeta in the Tarzan movies. His first appearance as Cheeta is usually stated to have been in the second Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...
Tarzan film, Tarzan and His Mate
Tarzan and His Mate
Tarzan and His Mate is a Tarzan film based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was the second in the Tarzan film series to star Johnny Weissmuller....
(1934), in which he appeared uncredited as a young chimpanzee riding on the back of the older chimp (Jiggs) who originated the role. He was then allegedly cast in the role himself in the other Weissmuller Tarzans that followed, as well as the succeeding Lex Barker
Lex Barker
Lex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:...
Tarzan films. Journalist R. D. Rosen, who investigated this story, counters that this animal in fact never appeared in any Tarzan film.
Besides his supposed role as Cheeta in the Tarzan films, Cheeta reputedly appeared as other chimpanzee characters in unrelated films, including Ramona the Chimp in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla is a 1952 comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring horror veteran Béla Lugosi and nightclub comedians Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo in roles approximating Martin and Lewis.-Plot:...
(1952) and Chee-Chee in Doctor Dolittle
Doctor Dolittle (film)
Doctor Dolittle is a 1967 American musical film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar, Anthony Newley and Richard Attenborough. It's adapted by Leslie Bricusse from the novel series by Hugh Lofting, primarily The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, The Story of Doctor...
(1967) with Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
, supposedly his last role before retirement. However, according to Wells, Raffill and Shawver, as reported by R. D. Rosen, Cheeta never appeared in any movies. Rosen himself confirmed that the animal could not have been the Chee-Chee in the Dolittle film.
Later life
In 1991, whatever the truth of his origins and prior life, Cheeta was given by Gentry to his distant cousin Don Westfall, the current caretaker. Gentry died two years later. In Westfall's care, Cheeta lives at a primate sanctuary called Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes (or CHEETA) in Palm Springs, CaliforniaPalm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
, where he reportedly watches television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, makes abstract painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s which are sold to benefit primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
-related charities
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
, and often watches "his" old films with his grandson, Jeeter. He also leafs through books and "plays" the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
.
His birthdays, calculated from the date of his supposed 1932 arrival in the United States, are regularly celebrated. In 2006, coinciding with his "74th" birthday, Cheeta received an award for his supposed film career from the International Film Festival of Peniscola Comedy. Later that year, the 4 October 2006, edition of the Palm Springs newspaper, The Desert Sun, reported that he had received his first-ever visit from famed primatologist Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
the previous day. His "75th" birthday was covered by National Geographic. His "76th" birthday was celebrated on 9 April 2008, at his "Casa de Cheeta" in Palm Springs at an event hosted by Dan Westfall and Diane Weissmuller, (Johnny Weissmuller, Jr.'s widow). The press and many Palm Springs celebrities attended.
A literary agent was hired on his behalf for his ghost-written autobiography, Me Cheeta, published in the U.K. in October 2008. The American edition will be published on February 17, 2009.
On the basis of his apparently fictitious history, Cheeta was cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest non-human primate.
The character of Cheeta was honored with a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars
Palm Springs Walk of Stars
The Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California, is the portion of Palm Canyon Drive, Tahquitz Way and Museum Drive where "Golden Palm Stars" are embedded in the sidewalk pavement...
on 31 March 1995. His star is at 110 South Palm Canyon Drive.
Since 2004 there have been several unsuccessful campaigns to secure a star for Cheeta on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
, and as of 2008 filmmaker Matt Devlen was continuing the effort. Attempting for the seventh time to get him a sidewalk star, the handlers of Jiggs launched an online petition to get supporters to urge the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to give him a star in 2009. As of June 2008, Cheeta was not selected to be so honored.