Marlin Perkins, after attending M.V. in the mid-twenties, went on to fame as zoo director and producer of animal films for TV, and ... IT STARTED WITH SNAKES

By CLARISSA START DAVIDSON

THERE ARE THOSE who believe there must be College of Agriculture at the University of Mis­ something special in the halo and wing department souri, he was doing a public relations job for snakes. of the next world for those brave and stalwart "At Farmer's Fair that year, I put on an edu­ women who have seen duty as landladies in col­ cational exhibit of snakes and gave away a little lege boarding houses. High among the ranks of piece I'd written about snakes in . It told these unsung heroines is one who surely must have of the benefit of snakes to the farmer and how one an extra star in her crown-Mrs. Waggoner, who good bull snake was worth a certain amount of operated a student residence on College avenue in money because it ate up so many mice which Columbia in the 1920s. would have eaten so much grain. I had the sums It was Mrs. Waggoner's lot to have among her all figured out. In a way, it was my beginning in paying guests, one Richard Marlin Perkins, a boy this field." with a fondness for snakes which he kept in his His admiration for snakes dates back long before room. Perkins has always been of the opinion that his college days, however. When he was a boy of the king snake which disappeared probably fell eight in school in Pittsburg, Kan., and later in down the heating ventilator and was burned to Carthage, Mo., he had his own backyard zoo of death. Mrs. Waggoner was not so sure and her snakes, skunks, coyotes, groundhogs, ground squir­ peace of mind was shattered for months. rels and lizards. ·Since his father was Circuit Judge Perhaps it would have softened the blow had Joseph D. Perkins, the family had a certain amount she known that she was nurturing, not a viper, but of status in town but even so, they had some trouble a future famous man. Better known today as R. keeping maids. Marlin Perkins, he is the director of the Zoological Gardens of St. Louis and a television film performer PERKINS WAS· the youngest of three boys in his whose fan mail is postmarked Japan and New family. After grade school in Carthage, he attended Zealand and Rhodesia. Wentworth Military Academy for two years and He is still fond of snakes and thinks it regret­ here again he found some of his choice companions table that they have such a bad "image." were persona non grata to others. On one occasion, "Snakes are grossly misunderstood," said Perkins, he had to let a small blue racer bite him to convince a distinguished looking, silvery-haired man of 60 an instructor the snake was not poisonous. with an easy and urbane manner. He was leaning He finished his last two years of high school at back in the chair behind his desk in his office at Carthage High. Then because he didn't quite know the St. Louis Zoo. A striking backdrop is provided what he wanted to do or be, he went to California by a handsome zebra skin, once attached to a Lin­ to live with his older brothers, Pierce and Carl, coln Park Zoo friend named Prince. who are still in business there. Marlin worked as a "People often have preconceived notions about solicitor for a laundry. This didn't seem to be what snakes which color their entire lives and make them he had in mind so he came back to Missouri and miserable. This is why I feature reptiles so often told his father he'd like to enroll in the College of on my television show, , so people Agriculture. He thought he might like animal hus­ will get better acquainted with them." bandry. Even when Perkins was a freshman in the "The first course I took turned out to be duller

2 I MISSOURI ALUMNUS I FEBRUARY '66 Marlin Perkins, as a young man, with "first love." ... He has fond memorit~ s of Hinkson Creek, because it was a good area for hunting snakes. than dishwater," he said bluntly. "It was all statis­ He remembers Columbia as a "sleepy little town tical stuff about stockyard receipts in and with one main street, some rough cobblestone East St. Louis and Kansas City. So many swine, streets and beautiful shade trees. You walked every­ so many cattle. It didn't tell me a thing about where; there were few cars. One Beta had a Stutz breeding animals which is what I wanted to know." Bearcat, a red one. He could have all the dates He dropped out of Agriculture and enrolled in the he wanted." College of Arts and Science. Here he found some He remembers Hinkson Creek, mostly because courses which did fire his imagination, notably a it was a good area in which to hunt snakes. class in zoology with Dr. Winterton C. Curtis and He doesn't recall a lot of social life on campus one in comparative anatomy with Mary A. Guthrie. and says he wasn't very much interested in dating. He still has the textbooks from both courses. He did not have a job because he didn't have to work. His father had a salary of $5500 a year as HIS YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY were 1924, circuit judge which was not wealth but was sub­ 1925 and 1926. He can still recall some of the fac­ stantial and comfortable. ulty members-Isidor Loeb who taught English He didn't go out for sports although he'd won a and civics in a big lecture hall; Dr. Mazyck P. Rav­ letter in football at Carthage High School. "I've enel who taught a popular course in preventive often wondered," he added reflectively, "if I'd played medicine, and had a dog which followed him to football whether or not I would have stayed." class and sat at his feet; Walter Williams at the The bald truth is that, while this may not point Journalism school, and Professor Jesse "Monkey" a moral to the student of today, Perkins, an artistic, Wrench, hero of many an anecdote, then and later. financial and happy success, was a college dropout. Perkins lived at 610 College avenue with the "We're going to save the old World's Fair bird­ Waggoner family. cage, one of the few Fair landmarks standing. Right "The house was two doors down from the Phi now we're printing a brochure to tell people how Delt house and two doors up from the Phi Garn they can give gifts to the Zoo, ranging from a small house," he placed it. "The Waggoners were a nice tree for $10 or a park bench for $50 to a lion house family and Mrs. Waggoner set a good table ; there for a million dollars." were 12 or 14 who sat down in the dining room every night, some of whom roomed elsewhere but " IT WAS A PLEASANT TWO YEARS," said came in for meals. The W aggoners had several boys Perkins, "but I was in a situation in my life where as I recall. One of them was Col. Hugh Waggoner, I didn't know what I wanted to do and it didn't head of the Missouri State Highway Patrol who make sense to me to stay on. died last year." "I ran into so many fellows who had specialized in one thing and planned to practice another that hell er retired as St. Louis Zoo director and Perkins I asked myself, why g o to school all these years succeeded him. and then do something d iff erent ? I w ent home and His experience has been augmented by much told my father I wanted to go into something that travel in Africa and South America. had to do with animals, probably w il d animals In 1960 he went on an expedition with Sir Ed­ rather than domestic. I knew I didn't want anything mund Hillary and other scientists to the H imalayas to do with stockyards and statistics or judging to track down the legendary Abominable Snowman . horses and I hadn't learned how to do anything e lse. T hey returned, of the opinion that it is a myth. I said I'd like some more t ime to fi nd myself. H is present televised show, Wild K ing dom, is "My father said that made good sense. What seen around the world. In 1964 it won the National did I want to do? I said I though t I'd go to St. Wildlife Federation's outstanding achievement Louis to see if I could get a job at the St. Louis award. Zoo." Since Perkins has been in charge of the St. Louis He had visited the St. Louis Zoo. It was the sec­ Zoo, many new programs and projects have been ond one he'd seen, the first being the Swope Park started. Zoo in Kansas City. He learned the St. Louis Zoo "Thi a s is wonderful zoo and we've got m any director was George Vierheller so he called on him. interesting things planned," he said. "We have On the basis of his interest and experience, Vier­ enough money now to start a sizeable and interest­ heller hired him-for the " bull gang," sweeping ing children's zoo." sidewalks and clipping hedges at $3.75 a day, s ix Perkins' first marriage ended in divorce in 1953. days a week. Two weeks later, he was promoted, t o He has a daughter, now Mrs. John Brentlinger, work with his first love, snakes. wife of a professor of philosophy in Amherst, Mass., He had been at the Zoo only a short time when and mother of two children, Christopher, 8 and he decided that this was the life's work he'd been Peter, 6. seeking and he set about to fill in the gaps in his His second marriage was to Mrs. Carol Morse education. He took classes in Latin and P sychology Cotsworth who has three children, Fred, Alice and at Washington University at night and set about Marguerite. Mrs. Perkins has accompanied her hus­ building a personal library which became the nu­ band on several of his trips, has written a book, cleus of the Zoo's sizeable library today. "The Shattered Skull," about primitive man, and Vierheller sent him to the Bronx Zoo to study collaborated with him on a book, "I Saw You From with Curator Raymond I. Ditmars and other au­ Afar," about the African bushmen. thorities. He came back and was put in charge of Perkins is understandably sympathetic to young reptiles. visitors and letter writers who tell him they'd like to be zoo directors. There are bulletins he sends PERKINS WAS STILL A NEWCOMER to the them and suggestions, depending on their special field when he made headlines. He and his assistant, interests, for higher education. Moody Lenz, were feeding an African Gaboon viper He stresses the importance of a college education when suddenly it turned on Perkins and bit him. even though he didn't complete his. Lenz risked his own life to come to Perkins' rescue. "It was easier in my day to develop a career Perkins was rushed to the hospital but it was touch­ without a degree," he said. " Now we require de­ and-go for many hours as he battled for his life. He grees from just about everyone. An education is is the only person known to have recovered from far more important today." the bite of the deadly reptile. The snake, inciden­ Glancing at the shelves and shelves of books in tally, died,..-not of the bite but from pneumonia his office, he added, "Most people start to really brought on by shock. learn when they get out of school. That's what Perkins still likes snakes but advocates a healthy happened to me when I began applying myself. respect for them. "The important thing they taught me at the Uni­ "You have to stay constantly alert," he said. "You versity of Missouri was how to acquire knowledge, must know a snake's habits, how far and how how to look up things in books. I feel my days fast it will strike. A rattlesnake, for instance, strikes there were very worthwhile because I learned how faster than a cobra. Trying to beat a rattlesnake to to study and how to acquire knowledge from books. the draw is like Russian roulette." "Besides that, it was a happy time." Perkins has worked at four zoos. From his first Perkins has never been back since the spring of job in St. Louis, he went to the Buffalo Zoo, then 1926. in 1944 to the in Chicago where "I've been to Jefferson City but not to Columbia," he became nationally known from his network tele­ he said. "I'd like to go back some day. vision program, Zoo Parade. In April 1962 Vier- "I understand it's changed."

5 / M ISSOUR I ALUMNUS / FEBR UA RY '66