Yes, as ridiculous as it sounds, Bob and I took a special drive all the way to Palm Springs to meet up with a monkey on Monday, February 12. That morning we left Las Vegas after a hearty breakfast buffet at the hotel and headed back to his place in San Bernardino. On the way, we made a pit stop at Hadley’s, where he bought me my first date shake. It was much, much tastier than it sounds. After another brief stop at his house, and then running a red light and nearly getting creamed by a passing car, we headed to Palm Springs to see a monkey.
Okay, if I have piqued your curiosity and you have actually decided to ‘read more of this entry,’ I’ll let you in on the kicker. This particular monkey was a former-celebrity of sorts. He was one of the monkeys that actually portrayed “Cheeta” in handful of Tarzan movies from the 1930’s and 40’s. He also starred in the 1967 film Doctor Doolittle, his last role before retirement. Cheeta, whose original name was Jiggs, celebrated his 75th birthday on April 9 of this year, two months after we visited.
Ostensibly, the reason for our visit to the “Casa de Cheeta” habitat (and home of owner Dan Westfall) was to pick up a painting that Cheeta had hand-crafted for Bob. The monkey does this in his spare time to raise money for simian-related charities including his own Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatended Apes (CHEETA). Bob had paid a hefty fee and selected the colors of his choice and Cheeta had created the painting, ‘signing’ it with his thumbprint. Cheeta also ‘signs’ his name with a marker on his photos as shown below.
With the legendary Johnny Weissmuller. Cheeta’s signature is pretty consistent every time.
Bob and I became hopeful that this monkey was also the ape that appeared in several Hal Roach films including Laurel and Hardy’s Dirty Work, when we found out his original name was Jiggs. Then we learned that Dan’s uncle, who had owned this monkey and others, had provided several of his trained pets to the movie industry. Turns out he named four of them Jiggs. Jiggs 1 worked at the Roach Studios. This was Jiggs 4.
Because of Cheeta’s tendencies to latch onto things (ie. crotches and zippers), we had to stay on the outside of the cage – although it looks as if I’m the one on the inside!
There were several other monkeys living in the habitat as well, including Cheeta’s grandson Jeeter. Bob and I soon found that Jeeter was quite a character and derived a great deal of pleasure running toward the edge of his cage, slamming down his plastic seat, and spitting a mouthful of water at Bob. Jeeter could do Cheeta’s famous backflip, while Cheeta himself now took a shortcut by simply lowering his head and turning around. The pangs of age. Cheeta currently holds the Guinness world record as the oldest known living primate (not counting humans of course).
The trip will continue…
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