A Star Is Born

A fire in the World Jungle Compound at Thousand Oaks, Calif, (which trains wild animals for the movies) last month destroyed a chimpanzee named Tamba and five others--the entire Hollywood supply of chimpanzee actors. To Columbia Producer Sam Katzman, the event was a catastrophe; Katzman's Jungle Jim series, a dependable moneymaker, requires as much animal talent as human. Until he could find a replacement, Katzman had to hold up the Jungle Jim series, in which Tamba, co-starring with Johnny Weissmuller, had played an intelligent and winsome chimpanzee.

Katzman promptly ordered a talent search for a new Tamba. Of dozens of simian applicants, he rejected all but six. With their sponsors, the finalists lumbered into the studio for screen tests, like prodigies led in by proud mothers. Two of the animal actors disqualified themselves at once--one by shying at the klieg lights, the other by "freezing," and "refusing to take direction." Then the remaining candidates went into the big test. Chief items: to retrieve bananas from chandeliers, walk through a maze of ash trays, drinking glasses, tables and boxes, hop into a pool (most chimps dread water), kiss several actors and actresses (Jungle Jim scripts call for frequent bussing of Weissmuller). The winner was an ape without any theatrical experience--a female chimp named Peggy who had led a quiet life in the San Fernando Valley as the family pet of a wealthy rancher.

The winner's rewards: $300 a week, stardom as Tamba, and tier own masseur (since chimps have sluggish blood circulation, the A.S.P.C.A. requires that chimp actors get a good rubdown after swimming scenes). Otherwise, the new star's life will be no tied of orchids. All her money will not even buy her a square meal--she must be kept hungry during the working day, so that the lure of a banana or candy can be used to help along her acting talents.

This week, as Peggy faced the cameras in her first part in a new Katzman epic, Jungle Safari, her discoverer declared himself more than satisfied. "She has a wonderfully expressive face," he reported proudly. "She will be a big star." Her human fellow actors were already, complaining that the "damned ape" was stealing all the scenes.

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