Marlin Perkins became a nationally known (and much-parodied) animal expert thanks to this long-running Sunday afternoon NBC show.
Using a living room set, Zoo Parade showcased animals from Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, where Perkins had served as Director since 1944 (he began his career nearly 20 years earlier as a hedge trimmer at the St. Louis Zoo).
Perkins used this format as early as 1945 on local television in the Windy City, then turned it into a local series in 1949 called Lincoln Park Zoo, which went to NBC in 1950.
Perkins and his assistant Jim Hurlbut screened the animals to find the ones that would be the least camera-shy and most entertaining on air, such as Sinbad the gorilla and Fuad the small fox, but Hurlbut and Perkins were not infallible.
On April Fools’ Day in 1951, a rattlesnake bit Perkins during a dress rehearsal, requiring a 16-day hospital stay, and the on-air substitute that day faced an angry elephant which threw him onto a bale of hay.
In July and August 1955, Perkins and Hurlbut went on a South African safari and shot colour footage for the show which first aired on 18 December 1955. Also in the fall of 1955, the show aired from locations outside the studio (including New Orleans, Philadelphia, Dallas, Detroit, and Milwaukee.).
The series ended two years later, but Perkins returned in 1963 with the even more successful Wild Kingdom.
Jim Hurlbut died in 1967, aged 57. Marlin Perkins died on 14 June 1986 from lymphatic cancer. He was 81.
Perkins used this format as early as 1945 on local television in the Windy City, then turned it into a local series in 1949 called Lincoln Park Zoo, which went to NBC in 1950.
