Our friend Walter came through with a big one! Many of us have wanted to see Cheryl’s best film, “Mountain Man,” now retitled “Guardian of the Wilderness.” Denver Pyle plays Galen Clark whose efforts led to the creation of Yosemite National Park, the first protected land in the nation. Cheryl plays his daughter Kathleen, and Ken Berry her husband.
I really enjoyed this film about one man’s efforts in overcoming many obstacles to declare Yosemite as the first public grant. His love of nature created the National Park System. I hope you enjoy it too.
Our friend Walter found this awesome find on Ebay – Cheryl Miller’s resume! She did a lot more than we realized. That gives us more to look for. How fun! Thanks, Walter!
Daktari had a world wide following and there are still legions of fans around the world. One German fan, Matthias Schurig, took the time to write to Ralph Helfer to find out what happened to Africa USA after the series ended. As many of you know, a devastating flood destroyed Africa USA (see previous post) but thankfully, the story doesn’t end there.
Mr. Helfer told Matthias the following in a letter:
“I owned a three hundred acre ranch in an area called Solvang in Southern California. That is where we shot Daktari. I sold the ranch. The new owners took down the Daktari house and built their own. The flood came after we had finished shooting the series.”
The new owner is actress and animal activist Tippi Hendren and she has developed the Shambala Game Preserve. Here are the details:
“Shambala is maintained by the Roar Foundation, founded by actress Tippi Hedren in 1983 as a 501(C)(3) nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization . Shambala cares for endangered exotic big cats such as African lions, Siberian tigers and Bengal tigers, leopards, servals, mountain lions, bobcats, plus a lynx, and a Florida panther.
The site was originally that of Africa, U.S.A.
The first Africa U.S.A. in California was created in 1962 as a 600-acre affection training compound by Ralph and Toni Helfer. It was located in Soledad Canyon near Los Angeles.
Ivan Tors first discovered Clarence, the cross-eyed lion, at Africa, U.S.A. and it inspired him to create the film Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965) and the spin-off television series Daktari, which was partly shot on location there. Judy, the chimp and other star of the show, was also owned by Ralph Helfer.
A few other shows such as Cowboy in Africa, Gentle Ben, as well as an episode of Star Trek “Shore Leave” were also shot there. Helfer was providing both the location and the animals.
In January 1969, Africa U.S.A. was struck by a powerful storm over Soledad Canyon, which dropped large amounts of rainfall. The resulting severe flooding and mudslides in the canyons destroyed the compound, but only 9 of Helfer’s 1,500 animals had drowned.
In 1987 the property was purchased and restored by actress Tippi Hedren and is now called Shambala Preserve.”
Here is a nice piece on Marshall Thompson and how the animals were the stars of the show. His quiet and steady presence was too. His creative input into Season 2 made it by far the best season and I wish the higher-ups at CBS had followed his lead better. Thompson really cared about the content of the show and making the lives of animals better.
Recently while cleaning out the basement I found my Cheryl Miller scrapbook! I had been totally convinced that I had thrown it away because the cover had been covered with battery acid but thankfully I was wrong.
Now I am going to share it with you!
The book is quite disorganized as you will see — I was twelve when I assembled it and had no sense of order. 🙂 I plan however on restoring the book and organizing it better.
Giveaways coming!
I have many duplicates of some of the glossy photos and they are in good shape. Over the summer we’ll devise some contests so that you can enter for a chance to win a glossy photo of our girl! Stay tuned.
Our friend Walter came through with a big one! Many of us have wanted to see Cheryl’s best film, “Mountain Man,” now retitled “Guardian of the Wilderness.” Denver Pyle plays Galen Clark whose efforts led to the creation of Yosemite National Park, the first protected land in the nation. Cheryl plays his daughter Kathleen, and Ken Berry her husband.
I really enjoyed this film about one man’s efforts in overcoming many obstacles to declare Yosemite as the first public grant. His love of nature created the National Park System. I hope you enjoy it too.
Here’s a great find from our friend, Ken: Yale Summers’ first appearance since leaving Daktari as an astronaut going to the moon.
Daktari TV Show 