Moving sure brings out long forgotten times….Read some of my notes from conversations with my Uncle Melvin Koontz, the MGM lion man. In a nutshell, he loved big cats, giraffes and elephants the best. His least favorites were bears and primates. He would travel all over looking for animals to fill his acts when he went on tour with circusess. He told me about a really odd attraction he once tried to obtain from a private collection in Florida. He had heard about it from a former circus clown, turned promoter. While having coffee in the owners kitchen, the ‘animal’ strolled into the room. It was a large, erect walking chimp. My Uncle told me at first glance he was ticked off for wasting his time on an ape. Then, it did something quite odd. ‘It’, pulled out a chair, hitched up the pants it was wearing, then, crossed his legs and started looking through a magazine that was laying on the kitchen table. My Uncle said it was no act…Not only did the mannerisms catch my Uncles attention, it was the way the ‘ape’ looked at you if you addressed it. My Uncle saw intelligence in its eyes. Even more then that. Contempt. It knew my Uncle was there to purchase him and had already classified my Uncle as a worthless soul….My Uncle couldn’t meet the man’s price, so, he went on his way. Mel told me that in all his years training, caring for and spending countless hours with animals of all sorts, this incident made him question not only his entire career, but also his own humanity….I asked him if it was just a smart chimp. He said no. He said he had the feeling it was a hybrid human/chimp. That’s what he told me anyways..

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