Bettie Page, Jayne Mansfield, Gary Cooper and Other Celebrities Posing With Chimps
Bettie Page with chimp. photo Bunny Yeager
Previously we showed some news photographs of chimpanzees. Because there were so many to choose from, we put these aside until now – publicity photographs of famous personalities with chimps.
Some of these posed photographs may have been related to whatever production the star was doing at the time. Others were just good photo opportunities.
The original news caption or a brief explanation for the photo is provided if we have one. Either way, here they are. Click on any photo to enlarge.
Herb Alpert April 16, 1968
“Herb Alpert teaches a friendly chimp at the Los Angeles zoo how to play a few notes at a stopover on a musical tour of America featuring the Tijuana Brass to be televised on Channel 7 at 7 p.m. on Monday. The program is called ‘The Beat of the Brass'”
Jayne Mansfield 1965
Jayne Mansfield holding Laconia 1965
Dom DeLuise 1966
Dom DeLuise appears with one of The Marquis Chimps (probably Candy) on the Dean Martin Show 1966.
Stymie (Matthew Beard) of the Little Rascals (Our Gang)
The Little Rascals Stymie (Matthew Beard) thinks Spanky has turned his brother Cotton into a chimpanzee through the power of a magic lamp in the 1932 Our Gang short ‘A Lad An’ A Lamp.‘
Gary Cooper 1932. photo: Acme
“Gary Cooper and baby chimpanzee as they arrived in Hollywood after an absence of more than a year.” Acme News Photo 4-27-1932
Jack Benny 1963
Jack Benny with one of the Marquis Chimps (either Charlie, Candy or Enoch) who appeared on his program in 1963.
Harry Morgan 1958 photo: UPI
Who’s Aping Who
Hollywood – Puckering up actor Harry Morgan and his friend Susie the Chimp make faces at each other in Hollywood. Morgan is applying make-up for Susie’s appearance for an upcoming episode of December Bride to be shown on CBS-TV October 30. photo UPI 10-6-1958
Matt LeBlanc 1996
Matt LeBlanc starred in “Ed” a 1996 movie LeBlanc would probably like to forget. The premise is that a trained chimpanzee plays minor league baseball. It has one of the lowest popularity ratings (2.5) on imdb.com.
