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ME, CHEETA THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Published by Harper Collins | October 2008

Back when I was a kid growing up in England, the BBC would always show the old black and white Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies, especially during the school holidays and always chief among the attractions of these classic movies are the antics of Tarzan's pet chimp Cheeta and whilst both Johnny and his Jane, Maureen O'Sullivan, have long since gone to the great Hollywood studio in the sky, Cheeta, who is 76 years old and officially the oldest Chimpanzee in the world, is still going strong. Spending his days doing more than eating bananas and cracking wise at the C.H.E.E.T.A. Primate Foundation in Palm Springs, he has found time to pen his autobiography.

Cheeta tells his story in fine style, in his own voice too, which is apparently a bit like the immortal Terry-Thomas or one of those old Panama behatted gentlemen you see propping up the bar in exotic drinking clubs. Warts and all too, he also not afraid of dropping the big Ramsay when he feels particularly strongly about something!

Cheeta, who also answers to the name Jiggs, was just a baby when he was taken, by animal importer Henry Trefflich, from the Liberian jungle back in 1932 and straight away was part of the Hollywood scene playing a key role in Tarzan the Ape Man, causing a stir by stealing the clothes from O'Sullivan's Jane when she goes for a skinny dip with Tarzan> he quickly became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and like any major player he tells all about his numerous addictions, from cigars to hamburgers and also his fondness for a drop of the old hard stuff. Retiring from the screen in the mid sixties with a final role in Dr Doolittle, Cheeta has spent his latter years devoting himself to painting and living a generally quiet life with his carer Dan Westfall.

Me Cheeta is a stunningly good, fun read. Packed full of salacious gossip about the golden age of Hollywood and with a real sense of the love that Cheeta felt for his co-star Weismuller. Definitely recommended.

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