Jungle Larry Article – July 1970

Jungle Larry, his wife Safari Jane, and one of their sons

Anyone who grew up in Northeast Ohio during the 1960s remembers Jungle Larry from his appearances on TV's Captain Penny show or his "Safari Island" attraction at Cedar Point amusement park. He was always a friendly presence on the TV show, bringing along some animal or exotic creature to show the Captain, and educate his young viewers.

But did you know that Larry Teztlaff (his real name) once managed a drug store in Lorain? Or that he was the real thing when it came to going on safaris and collecting animals, once working with Frank "Bring'em Back Alive" Buck? He wasn't just a guy who wore a safari hat.

Read all about him in this informative and entertaining article by Kathy White that ran in the Journal back on July 19, 1970. (Click on it for a readable view.)

Here's a great YouTube video of Jungle Larry on Captain Penny's show.

And here are a few more postcards of Jungle Larry, including one of the entrance to his winter compound down in Naples, Florida.

****

Jungle Larry has been a favorite topic on this blog. I wrote about his time as manager of the Muir Cut-Rate Drugs store back here.

My siblings and I thought it was pretty exciting to visit Safari Island at Cedar Point back in the days when we watched Jungle Larry on TV. The Jungle Larry website has a page devoted to Safari Island here.

Courtesy JungleLarry.com

Cedar Point Postcards Revisited

Last Friday’s post about Berardi’s and their famous French Fries brought up many memories of going to Cedar Point as a kid in the 60s and 70s.

Today I’m posting some Cedar Point postcards from that era, since that's the time frame for the park that I and many of the people who read this blog feel most nostalgic about. Most of the postcards are ones I haven’t seen or posted before.

It was an exciting time for the park, as it was on the comeback trail from a time in the 1950s when it appeared that it was going to close. Patterning itself after Disneyland, it added bigger and better rides until it evolved into the world-class amusement park it is today.

That’s the beauty of Cedar Point. Everyone has their own special memories of it, from going there with their families as a kid; with their friends in high school; with dates; or with the spouse and/or families and friends as an adult. The park is always changing; we may not always like the current version of the park the best, but someone else inevitably does.

But even though I’ve been there many times over the decades, the Cedar Point I like best is the one that my parents took us to, when it was the high point of the summer. I’m getting teary-eyed as I write this – so I’d better post those vintage postcards.

The great Card Cow website always has a nice selection of Cedar Point postcards for sale. Here are a few of them to start this shindig. There’s even one featuring Jungle Larry himself.

And here are some postcards, culled mainly from Ebay.

This “Greetings” postcard from 1962 caught my eye, because of the tiny piece of clip art of a gal on an inflatable beach toy. We have that same piece of Harry Volk clip art in our art files at work, from 1956.

****

I’ve written about Cedar Point many times in the last ten years. In fact, my 3-part series on “Visions of Cedar Point 1966” is one of the most visited on this blog. Click here to visit all the posts about Cedar Point, and when you scroll down to the bottom, be sure to click on the Older Posts link in the lower right hand corner to see the rest of them.

Muir Cut-Rate Drug Store Ad – October 19, 1949

October 19, 1949 ad from the Lorain Journal

Many of us fondly remember Lorain’s great family-owned drug stores, such as Whalen’s and National Pharmacy.

Detail from a July 4, 1949
Lorain Journal ad

But decades before Discount Drug Mart and Revco came to town, Lorain had an outlet for a large regional chain that is largely forgotten today: Muir’s Cut-Rate Drugs.

The chain was based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Its listing (as the Muir Co.) first appeared in the Lorain City Directory in the early 1920s, located at 552 Broadway. Some time in the late 1940s, it moved to 362 Broadway. By the 1950s it was located at 758 Broadway.

Its Lorain directory listing finally disappeared beginning with the 1965 edition.

One of Muir's Lorain store managers went on to be become famous. The manager listed in the 1947 Lorain City Directory was none other than Larry E. Tetzlaff. Of course, you know him as Jungle Larry.

1947 Lorain City Directory Listing

****

A nice capsule history of the Muir chain was provided in an ad that ran in the Sandusky Register on September 14, 1966.

Vintage Muir pill box

The ad copy read, "We opened our first Muir Drug Store in 1922 on the premise, that top quality famous-name brands, if offered at extra low prices, would sell in large enough volume to justify our operating at a lower-than-normal margin of profit. That premise has proven to be correct.

"Since that modest beginning over 40 years ago, Muir Drug Stores have grown and grown in number and size and spread throughout the Middle West until today Muir's is one of the largest, fastest- growing and most respected drug chains in America.”

Strangely enough, it was about that time Muir had abandoned the Lorain market. But although the chain is largely forgotten in our area, it managed to survive until the mid-1980s.

The 24-unit Muir Drug Store chain was acquired by Rite Aid in June 1984.

****

One of the amusing aspects of Muir advertising is their mascot: the stereotypical Thrifty Scot.

Early appearances show him as a small silhouetted figure, such as seen on the vintage pill box above. But as time went on, he became more prominent in the ads until he became the smiling, friendly face of the company.

He was even featured on service pins given to company employees.

Today of course, using “Scottish thrift” in advertising is recognized as an unflattering and silly stereotype. 

Jungle Larry Comes to O’Neil - Sheffield Shopping Center – August 1957

Captain Penny and Jungle Larry (Courtesy www.junglelarry.com)

Most of us local Baby Boomers probably remember good ol’ Jungle Larry.

The gentleman whose real name was Lawrence Tetzlaff left a big impression on us from his appearances on the Captain Penny show on WEWS in Cleveland, and at his attraction on Safari Island at Cedar Point.

(Click here to visit the official Jungle Larry website and learn about his interesting background. Did you know that he worked for Frank “Bring ’Em Back Alive” Buck, and doubled for Johnny Weissmuller in a Tarzan film? The “History” page also reveals that Jungle Larry worked at a drugstore in Lorain after World War II.)

Anyway, here’s an ad for a personal appearance by Jungle Larry at the old O’Neil - Sheffield Shopping Center. It ran in the Lorain Journal on August 21, 1957 – 59 years ago this month.

The ad’s design is a little strange with its circus theme. (I guess the Journal’s art department didn’t have any clip art of just wild animals.) Hope the small fry didn’t go to the event expecting to see clowns!

Note the reference in the ad copy to a sidekick named Safari Jack. 

Safari Jack? I thought Jungle Larry’s sidekick was Safari Jane (his wife, Nancy Jane Tetzlaff).

It turns out that Safari Jane got her name thanks to Safari Jack. In a 2002 interview (here), she explained, “Before I met Larry, he had a man working for him called Safari Jack. Larry was scheduled to do a full day entertainment at a mall and the newspaper ads read Jungle Larry and Safari Jane. So the name was created before I came into the picture.”

****

UPDATE (December 24, 2017)

I found a mention of Larry Tetzlaff in the Log of Lorain column that ran in the September 22, 1953 Lorain Journal. It noted, “Larry Tetzlaff, owner of a snake farm near Vermilion, was speaker at assembly exercises at Lorain High School this morning, the first assembly of the 1953-54 school year, according to Principal J. F. Calta.

"He had with him a part of his collection of snakes and lizards and invited some of the students to the stage to demonstrate how to handle snakes."

Captain Penny visits Shoreway Shopping Center - June 1959

It was June 12, 1959 – 55 years ago today – when good ol' Captain Penny made a personal appearance at Shoreway Shopping Center in my current town of Sheffield Lake.

Thousands of local Baby Boomers (including my siblings and me) looked forward to watching Captain Penny – Ron Penfound in real life – daily on WEWS Channel 5 in Cleveland. According to this entry on the online Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, he hosted his daily show from 1955 until 1971. The various segments of his show, such as Pooch Parade (which featured animals that could be adopted) and visits from Jungle Larry still live on in our collective memories.

Then there was the Captain's great mixture of TV cartoons (such as Roger Ramjet) and old movie shorts (such as the Little Rascals, and the Three Stooges – Larry, Curly and Moe, as the Captain uniquely listed them).

Ron Penfound also did some announcing for the Cleveland Indians in the late 60s and early 70s. Once, we saw him at the Stadium before a game (we were there using our free tickets from the Cleveland Press for getting all A's). Even though he was wearing a sport coat and tie, we recognized him immediately, and were just as thrilled as if we had seen Hawk Harrelson.

It's funny thinking back how these hosts of local children's shows such as Captain Penny, Barnaby, Woodrow the Woodsman, etc. shaped a kid's view of grownups. They were, in effect, babysitters – people that were part of our lives almost daily that addressed us directly from their TV perch.

Captain Penny was probably the most normal. He was kind and gentle, never goofy, and careful to remind us not to imitate the Three Stooges. Memorably, he always signed off with his great closing line: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't... fool... Mom!" It's probably why Mom didn't mind us watching him all the time.

Kids sure don't have any equivalent influences on TV today, that's for sure.

More Vacationland Postcards

Heading out to Vacationland is one of my favorite things to do, and vintage postcards from that area always make me smile. Here's a few more from the www.cardcow.com vintage postcard website, which I've come to rely on recently for vintage images. Click on each for a slightly larger image. (And remember, the postcards are for sale on the cardcow.com website!)

Here's one of the old Sandusky Bay Bridge. It's unusual because it shows the center section that could be raised if a ship was passing through. (Today that section is gone, and the abandoned bridge approaches are used for fishing. My wife and I use them for eating our Toft's ice cream!)

The old Sandusky Bay Bridge

Here's a few from the Cedar Point of my youth, showing the Space Spiral (still a favorite of mine) and the much-loved Jungle Larry's Safari Island.

Space Spiral

Jungle Larry's Safari Island

Here's a few more Cedar Point favorites: the Pirate Ride and the Games Building. (When it was almost time to go home, we would linger by the Games Building, getting one last snack and sitting for a while before the ride home, in which we sadly realized it would be another year before we got to Cedar Point again!)

Pirate Ride

Games Building

Tent camping at East Harbor State Park near Lakeside-Marblehead is one of my great childhood family memories – and here's a postcard showing just that. East Harbor was just far enough from Lorain, to be interesting without being a long drive, and the proximity to Lake Erie made it seem like you were in another state – truly on vacation! 

Lastly, 2010 was the last year for Prehistoric Forest near Marblehead (which I talked about back here) and here's a vintage postcard showing their triceratops. (This must be their original one, as the one I encountered during my farewell trip to the attraction didn't look like this.)

More Visions of Cedar Point 1966 Part 1

Summer always brings thoughts of Cedar Point, and last year almost about this time (starting here) I posted some images I scanned from a 1966 brochure of the park. Well, I went back and looked at the brochure and found a few more images that I hadn't included the first time. Here are a few of them. (Click on them for a larger view.)

Whenever my wife and I do make it to Cedar Point (which is not very often) I always try to hit the old favorites that symbolize the park of my youth. The sky ride is one of them and I hope they never get rid of it. Here's another view.

I still remember how creepy it was when the sky ride car noisily reached the top of each pole!

Jungle Larry's Safari Island was another high point of the day for my siblings and I, due to his appearances on local TV shows such as Captain Penny. (Over on Alan Hopewell's blog about growing up in Lorain called Pointing the Cannon, he also waxed nostalgic about seeing the mighty hunter on the congenial Captain's show at this post.)

Eating at Cedar Point used to always follow the same template when I was a kid. We usually brought a picnic lunch, which we stashed at a pavilion upon entering the park, and dinner would be at the Silver Dollar with its tinkly piano. I think I mentioned in last year's blog that the last time I was at Cedar Point, I noticed that the Silver Dollar had become a sports bar.

I'm pretty sure that we never ate at this place.

It kind of looks like a mini Red Barn restaurant!

Visions of Cedar Point 1966 Part 3

Here's a map of Cedar Point from the 1966 brochure. (Click on it for a larger image.) It's interesting to see the layout of the park back then, before things got so crowded and the older rides were dismantled.

Cedar Point used to be a high point of the year for my siblings and me, as big as Christmas or Halloween.

I remember back in the 1960s, my siblings and I used to annoy my parents by wanting to ride the Mill Race first, as it was near the entrance to the park. Of course, we would then spend the next few hours looking like drowned rats.

I was never a big lover of roller coasters; I like more peaceful rides like the Sky Ride. I think it's fun to do some people watching and peer down at the other park patrons while passing overhead.

Remember how another Sky Ride used to take you to Frontiertown?  A pretty good Wiki page for Cedar Point explains which rides were retired, such as the Frontier Lift as it was called.

Looking at this map brings back lots of memories. This map shows the first version of Jungle Larry's animal exhibit on Safari Island, which according to his website debuted in 1965. We loved going to see Jungle Larry, since he appeared regularly on Captain Penny's TV show. We were pretty disappointed when he wasn't there that day (out on safari, I suppose.)

1960s family dinner at Cedar Point was always at the Silver Dollar, with its sawdust-covered floor. (Don't look for it at the park now – the Silver Dollar Cafe became the Game Day Grille in 2004.)

The last ride was usually a night view from the Space Spiral. Then we hung around the Fascination area a bit (nursing our sunburns) and had a last treat, such as cotton candy or taffy. Then that was it for summer fun, until the next year.

Speaking of summer fun, I'll be on vacation beginning now and during all next week – so I'll see you in a week or so! Please feel free to post your favorite Cedar Point memories in the Comments area below!