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!
Cheryl Miller’s resume (with head shot)
Cheryl Miller featured on Barnaby Jones episode; plus a rare Marshall Thompson film
Our intrepid contributors, Ken and Walter, have shared with me some new links to programs featuring our favorite Daktari stars.
From Ken is a link to a TV movie starring Marshall Thompson called “The Fall of the House of Usher,: filmed in 1956:
https://archive.org/details/Fall_of_House_of_Usher_1956
And from Walter is an episode of Barnaby Jones, Season 3, Episode 03, “The Challenge.” Her part is small, but done well. There is a scene at the beginning and at the 21-minute mark:
Cheryl Miller with Ben Gazzara at the Golden Globes
Here’s a couple of cute photos – my thanks to Walter.
What happened to Africa USA after the end of Daktari?
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.”
https://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/shambala-game-preserve/view/bing/
Here are some videos of the preserve:
What an appropriate and wonderful ending to the story of Daktari and Africa USA! Thank you Matthias for this information.
Misc. photos and videos featuring Cheryl Miller
Thanks to Walter and Ken for these finds!
Photo montage on YouTube:
Finally, here is an episode from the early 1990s of Beverly Hills 90210, Season 5, episode four: “Life After Death” – Check Cheryl out at 36m29s:
“New” old photos of Yale Summers
This is for you Yale Summers fans – Enjoy!
Daktari Annuals – Annual #1
English fans of Daktari were lucky! In Great Britain there were annuals published with pictures and stories about Daktari. Our friend Ken has these annuals and he is sharing them with us.
Here are pictures from the first annual. Click on the picture to see an enlargement.
Two Daktari books available online
In the last post I mentioned a site called archive.org. It houses the Donna Reed episode featuring Cheryl.
It also houses two books based upon Daktari.
One is a Big Little Book called Night of Terror:
Here are some scenes:
I copied all pages of the book assembled it into a PDF that you can download.
A second book is a paperback called Daktari: A Mystery at Wameru:
This book is loosely based on a Season One episode titled “Predator of Wameru” (First aired 18 Jan 1966). The book has some pictures:
I also copied this book and made a PDF out of it that you can download.
I love that we can still find these things!
Cheryl Miller’s appearance on “The Donna Reed Show”
Our friend Ken found this gem on archive.org (more about this site in a moment). He writes, “Cheryl makes a short appearance starting at 4min 24sec in a different sort of role that what we are used to!” The episode is called “The Mysterious Smile” and is from Season 7 in 1965:
Here are some scenes:
Cheryl appeared briefly in another episode, “Boys and Girls” in 1963. This Season 5 episode can be seen in that season’s DVD release. Yale Summers also guest starred in two other episodes in that same season.
There are more Daktari surprises on archive.org; more on that in tomorrow’s post!
Cheryl Miller’s appearance on “Run Joe, Run,” 1974
Thanks to Ken for this find. This guest appearance on “Run Joe, Run” has not been documented anywhere else (as far as we know). Cheryl plays Jill, a young mother of a little boy who is saved by Joe, the German Shepard (the little boy is Robbie Rist – he appeared on the last season of “The Brady Bunch” and looked like a John Denver mini-me). She first appears at 9 minutes, 40 seconds, and sporadically throughout.
Here are some of her scenes:
Daktari TV Show 