The flood came after we had finished shooting the series.” The new owners took down the Daktari house and built their own. “I owned a three hundred acre ranch in an area called Solvang in Southern California. Helfer told Matthias the following in a letter: As many of you know, a devastating flood destroyed Africa USA ( see previous post) but thankfully, the story doesn’t end there. One German fan, Matthias Schurig, took the time to write to Ralph Helfer to find out what happened to Africa USA after the series ended.
Tags Bruno the Bear, floods that destroyed Africa U.S.A., Gentle Ben, location of Africa USAĭaktari had a world wide following and there are still legions of fans around the world.A-8.Ĭheck out this post for the exact location of Africa U.S.A: Just where was Africa U.S.A.? Now we know … Categories Africa U.S.A., Daktari, Ivan Tors, producer, Ralph Helfer, animal trainer ” ‘Africa’ Opening,” Long Beach Independent, Jan.
“HELP – They Don’t Quit,” San Bernarndino County Sun, Feb. “Tors Will Abandon Flood-Damaged Africa U.S.A.,” Fresno Bee, Apr. “6 More Victims of South State Storm,” San Mateo Times, Feb. “Three Dead Lions Reported Stolen From Africa, U.S.A.,” Redlands Daily Facts, Jan. “Wild Animals on Loose – Swept away by Los Angeles Floods,” Eureka Humboldt Standard, Jan. “All you need is a Coke and stout heart”, Redlands Daily Facts, Dec. There are lots more than this on – the local California papers covered all of this in pretty good detail. Here are some of the newspaper sources I used. “Gentle Ben” and “Gentle Giant” did not come out until 1967 which to me would mean that they were probably filmed during 1966 at the earliest (possibly even early 1967) so it seems unlikely that they were shooting “Gentle Ben” in 1965. It seems like in the “Beauty of the Beasts” account, Helfer (or some editor) conflated the two floods as the article talks about shooting “Gentle Ben” and then having Bruno wash away. Animal affection trainer Ralph Helfer in the 1960sĪfter this, Tors decided to concentrate on his planned “Torsland” park in Florida (which I understand from the documentary on him, never happened, although he did have a number of his animals at the Homosassa Springs Attraction in Florida through the 70s) and Helfer decided to abandon the Africa USA complex and move the operation to a new location near Fillmore in Ventura County. Shortly thereafter, there was a $50,000 fire also at the complex, although no animals were hurt. A spokesman for Africa USA was quoted as saying the animals were extremely dangerous and once the flood subsided, “big game hunters would attempt to destroy them from helicopters.” 25, 1969, there was apparently more flooding (the news article talks about there being two 100-year floods in 30 days) and two alligators and two hippos broke loose and were seen going down the flood-swollen Santa Clarita river. The animals that were shot included 3 lions, a jaguar, two tigers, and one or two bears (not Bruno as he went on to appear in 1970s films). However, when the flood occurred the water rose so quickly that apparently not all the animals could be rescued from their cages in time, and were shot to prevent them from drowning. Prior to this flood, Tors was planning to open the compound to the public for tours and had sought a zoning variance to do so. The second flood occurred in January 1969 and seems to have been much worse. Several other animals were also mentioned as missing but perhaps not drowned as the news articles mention that the chewed carcass of a cow was found, giving the impression that one of the big cats had eaten it. 1965 and is the one that caused Bruno the bear (later the main actor in “Gentle Ben”) to be swept away. The first one, which is the one discussed in the Cleveland Amory TV Guide article, happened in Dec. It seems like there were indeed two major floods. I found a little more information about the floods at Africa USA in doing my research for “Gentle Ben”, based on California newspapers from the 1960s I accessed through. My thanks to “squeapler” for this wonderful information!
I decided to create a blog post to highlight these comments as they give a full story as to what happened. and its proprietors, animal trainer Ralph Helfer and Daktari producer Ivan Tors) regarding the floods which destroyed the compound. Recently a reader known as “ squeapler” left a series of lengthy comments on the post about Africa U.S.A.