Jinx (chimpanzee)

Jinx (1953–19??) was a performing chimpanzee, and member of the ice skating duo "Darlene and Jinx", with his owner and trainer Darlene Sellek.[1]

Jinx and Darlene in 1959

Early life

Jinx – a member of the Pan Troglodyte species – was born in late 1953 in the Belgian Congo, Africa, near Kinshasa (then called Leopoldville). Jinx was purchased for $600 (f.o.b. Africa) from a Miami, Florida, pet shop when he was 2 months old. “We had no idea of going into show business. We just wanted a pet”, explained Darlene Sellek in an interview during one of the act's Ice Capades appearances in 1957.[2]

Performing career

Jinx and Darlene first appeared as an act at “The Homecoming” in Dekalb, Illinois, in August, 1954, when Jinx was 10 months old.[3] Jinx showed off his ability to walk a tightrope upside down and blindfolded. 4 months later, the act – billed as “Darlene and Jinx” – performed at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, where the pair began a significant relationship with the major American circus impresario and director Al Dobritch.

In late January, Darlene started to train Jinx to ice skate, with the help of Baptist Schreiber, who is better known for his training of elephants. A few other show-business chimpanzees in the world were known to roller skate, but Jinx was the first to skate on ice. He first appeared on ice skates in the “Hollywood Ice Review” at Chicago Stadium in February, 1955, with the World and Olympic Ice Skating Champion Gundi Busch.

The relationship with Al Dobritch provided a number of bookings at various Shriner Circuses around the USA over the next few years, the first of which was the Zuhrah Shriner Circus in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the end of February, 1955. The spring of 1955 found Darlene and Jinx in New Orleans at Pontchartrain Beach, working alongside Runyon and Edwards, and “Daddy Longlegs”, the man with the longest legs in the world.[4]

By June, 1955, Al Dobritch had negotiated a television contract for the act; Darlene and Jinx had signed a 3-year contract with “Super Circus” television show, produced in Chicago for station WBKB, “Chicago’s Family Station”.[5] While with Super Circus, Jinx worked with the children's television pioneer Claude Kirchner and the ever popular Mary Hartline. Darlene and Jinx were forced to leave the show after only 5 months when the production moved from Chicago to New York in November, 1955.

Jinx visited New York for the first time in late 1955 when Darlene appeared on the What’s My Line? television game show (Game 2, Season 7, Episode 282), hosted by John Daly. During that visit, Jinx was inducted into the American Airlines “Sky Cradle Club” for the flight from New York to Chicago in November, 1955.[6]

In November, 1955, Jinx began regular appearances with Ned Locke on the “Captain Hartz and His Pets” television show produced in Chicago for television station WMAQ, sponsored by the Hartz Mountain pet care company. (Jinx first appeared with Ned Locke as his WMAQ radio disc jockey assistant – the world's first chimpanzee radio personality.)

From the end on 1955 through mid-1956, Darlene and Jinx appeared at a number of Shriners Circuses across the US, including

  • the Rizpah Shrine Circus in Madisonville, Kentucky,
  • the Al Chymia Shrine Circus in Memphis, Tennessee
  • the Arabia Temple Shrine Circus in Houston, Texas,
  • the Shrine Circus in Topeka, Kansas, and
  • the Hamid Morton Shrine Circus at Hunt Armory in Bloomsbury, Pennsylvania.[7]

In July, 1956, Darlene and Jinx appeared at Belmont Park in Montreal, Quebec. This was followed in August at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) where they appeared with the television cowboy star Gene Autry, and then in September at the 4th annual Sudbury Rotary Exhibition in Sudbury, Ontario.[8]

New Year, 1957, found Darlene and Jinx at Jack Valentine's Supper Club Restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, for a 3-month engagement with Jack Valentine's Ice Show. Here he performed with the great figure skater Jack Paul, who is quoted saying “Jinx outdoes me in figure work”.[9]

In March 1957, the duo appeared on the Jackie Gleason Show “Cavalcade of Circuses”. In April, Darlene and Jinx made their first appearance in the Ice Capades at Chicago Stadium.[10] In July, they appeared in Las Vegas at The Sands Cirque Room and the Hotel El Cortez “Rhythm On Ice Revue”.

Back in Chicago in January, 1958, Darlene and Jinx filled in for “The Three Adaros” at the American Electroplaters Society 46th Educational Session and Banquet and performed an act called “Hi Jinx” in the Merriel Abbott Ice Revue at the Conrad Hilton Hotel.

Darlene and Jinx appeared on America's then most popular television variety program The Ed Sullivan Show “John Harris’s Ice Capades Of 1958”, broadcast on CBS television from Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday, 7 September 1958.

Retirement

As Jinx aged, he began to become less controllable. At a Christmas Show in New York in 1960, he exhibited greater aggression toward his young audience.

Jinx's 1966 appearance in “Jamboree On Ice” at Indian Rocks Palm Garden Restaurant, St. Petersburg, Florida, marked the end of his performing career. He retired in 1967 to the St. Louis Zoo.

Co-stars

Performances

DateLocationVenueEvent
12 Aug 1954Dekalb, ILThe Homecoming
26 Dec 1954St LouisChase Hotel
01 Feb 1955ChicagoChicago StadiumHollywood Ice Revue
28 Feb 1955MinneapolisMinneapolis AuditoriumZuhrah Shrine Circus
01 Apr 1955New OrleansPontchartrain Beach
02 Jul 1955ChicagoSuper Circus TV Show
31 Jul 1955ChicagoSuper Circus TV Show
01 Oct 1955Madisonville, KYMunicipal Baseball ParkRizpah Temple Shrine Circus
30 Oct 1955Garry Moore Show "Zoo Parade"
11 Nov 1955HoustonSam Houston ColiseumArabia Temple Shrine Circus
21 Nov 1955ChicagoChicago Heart AssnHilton Hotel
13 Dec 1955Madisonville, KYMunicipal ParkRizpah Shrine Circus
12 Feb 1956MemphisAl Chymia Shrine Circus
01 Mar 1956Kansas CityMunicipal AuditoriumPolice Circus
02 Mar 1956Topeka, KSShrine Circus
16 Mar 1956Wichita, KSShrine Circus
17 Apr 1956Bloomsbury, PAHunt ArmoryHamid Morton Shrine Circus
07 Jul 1956MontrealBelmont Park
18 Jul 1956MinneapolisGolden StrandAqua Follies
18 Aug 1956TorontoCNE
12 Sep 1956TorontoCNE
14 Sep 1956Sudbury, Ontario4th annual Sudbury Rotary Exhibition
12 Jan 1957Ft. LauderdaleJack Valentine's Supper Club RestaurantValentine's Ice Show
08 Mar 1957Ft. LauderdaleJack Valentine's Supper Club RestaurantValentine's Ice Show
30 Mar 1957Buffalo, NYBuffalo Shrine CircusCavalcade Of Circuses
13 Apr 1957ChicagoChicago StadiumIce Capades
13 Jul 1957Las VegasThe Sands Cirque Room
20 Jul 1957Las VegasHotel El CortezRhythm On Ice Revue
02 Dec 1957Municipal Auditorium
04 Jan 1958ChicagoConrad Hilton HotelMerriel Abbott Ice Revue
25 Jan 1958ChicagoConrad Hilton HotelAmerican Electroplaters Society 46th Educational Session and Banquet
07 Oct 1958New YorkMadison Square GardenEd Sullivan Show
11 May 1959PhiladelphiaWillow Grove Park
24 Aug 1959TorontoCNE
25 Jul 1960Hagarstown MDHagarstown FairIce Skating Extravaganza
18 Dec 1960New YorkManhattan SavingsChristmas Show
12 Jan 1966St. PetersburgIndian RocksJamboree On Ice

References

  1. New Orleans Times-Picayune, "Chimp Heads Three-Act Program at Beach Today", 9 Apr 1955
  2. Chicago American, "World’s 1st Chimp on Ice Is Real Cool", 13 Apr 1957
  3. The Hinckley Review, "A Surprise Act", 12 Aug 1954
  4. New Orleans Times-Picayune, "Chimp Heads Three-Act Program at Beach Today", 9 Apr 1955
  5. Billboard, "‘Super Circus’ Adds Chimp to Regulars", 2 Jul 1955
  6. Houston Chronicle, "The Show Goes On", 11 Nov 1955
  7. Pittsburg Sun-Telegraph, "Chimp Writes Own Story", 17 Apr 1956
  8. Sudbury Daily Star, (untitled), 14 Sep 1956
  9. Miami Herald, "Night Life", George Bourke, 12 Jan 1957
  10. Chicago American, "World’s 1st Chimp on Ice Is Real Cool", 13 Apr 1957
  • The information contained in this entry was obtained from a scrap book of newspaper clippings collected by Darlene Nay (formerly Darlene Sellek) during Jinx's career as a performing artist.
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