A fire in the World Jungle Compound at Thousand Oaks, Calif, (which trains wild animals for the movies) last month destroyed a chimpanzee named Tamba and five othersthe entire Hollywood supply of chimpanzee actors. To Columbia Producer Sam Katzman, the event was a catastrophe; Katzman's Jungle Jim series, a dependable moneymaker, requires as much animal talent as human. Until he could find a replacement, Katzman had to hold up the Jungle Jim series, in which Tamba, co-starring with Johnny Weissmuller, had played an intelligent and winsome chimpanzee.
Katzman promptly ordered a talent search for...