TRAVEL

Did Gentle Ben live in Arizona part of the year?

A reader thinks the TV-star bruin might have spent time in a tiny Mogollon Rim zoo

Clay Thompson
The Republic | azcentral.com
Did Gentle Ben spend his off season in Arizona?

With the recent death of Dan Haggerty, I seem to remember a zoo on the Mogollon Rim that would keep Gentle Ben during the off-season of “Grizzly Adams,” but I can't find any info. Will you help me out?

Do we all know what this guy is talking about? “Gentle Ben” was a children’s novel published in 1964. It was about a lonely boy’s friendship with a bear.

It was the basis of a movie — “Gentle Giant” — which in turn spawned a TV series — “Gentle Ben” — that ran on CBS from 1967 to 1969 and starred Dan Haggerty.

There used to be a small roadside zoo just outside of Star Valley, which in turn is just outside of Payson. It had a bear named Burt.

OK, that’s the background. Now on to the heart of the matter.

Why do Phoenix weather forecasts cite Wrigley Mansion?

The Gentle Ben in the TV series was actually a series of black bears, some of which had to be spray painted for uniformity. The bear most frequently used was named Bruno.

The series was shot at a studio in Florida. That makes it highly unlikely that one or more of the bears was shipped to a roadside zoo in Arizona for the off-season.

In other words, your memory has done you wrong.

Reach Clay at clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com.