Terence Winkless
You may have seen the news earlier this month that director Richard Donner—he of “Lethal Weapon” and “Superman” fame—passed away. What you may not know is that in the late 1960s, Donner directed the popular television series, “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour” and that yours truly played Bingo, the Gorilla—pictured here. Let me take you back to a particularly dramatic moment some 50-plus years ago.
I can hear the knock quite well, which is surprising because inside the big, thick orange Bingo costume it is never easy to hear anything at all, even the music pumped into the Hanna-Barbera sound stage to which we bop around in the videos. That extra volume should have been a hint that something was not quite right. I didn’t exactly have time to acknowledge hints; I had a cue to react to, that is, when that knock comes, I’m supposed to answer the door.
I galump my way toward it (Bingo didn’t exactly move like a gorilla, or like a human being. . . . he galumped from here to there, giving you the impression that he was some sort of beast.) Before I can get to the door, it flies open and slams against the wall of the set.
In stalks 90 pounds of angry, real, live chimpanzee. Judy the Chimp. She’s there to deliver a message that Daktari (1966) can be seen after our show on your local stations. In less than a second, she has crossed the ten feet separating us and now she’s jumping six feet into the air trying to determine how to rip me apart.
I turn and discover that Fleegle the Dog and Drooper the Lion (my brothers, inside the costumes) are both atop the podium that is part of the set. How they scaled the five-foot high podium I will never know, but there they are holding on to each other and shaking as Laurel and Hardy did when some bully threatened them.
By now, this screeching chimp has attached herself to my leg and no matter where I turn, there she is, snarling and making strange noises. (And, of course, apes are known to attack males in the testicles… all in all, it was very nervous-making.) The trainer had to come out and pry her off of me, and later— after the trainer had produced his pistol and shown it to Judy to calm her down—we are informed that Judy was infamous for having taken a big bite out of some actress, and that Judy has continued to work well past her five-year retirement date because she is so smart.
Smart indeed. She certainly knew how to get the upper hand with the guys in the costumes. The ire and those teeth bared at me is an image I will never forget as long as I live. It spooks me out even now, fifty years later.