[Music]
[Lion Roar]
if that roar sounds familiar well listen to this next story about a very famous
lion who made a sudden appearance in the Arizona wilderness as told by Jack San
Felice well the story goes like this the story is that in 1927 MGM consolidated
into metro-goldwyn-mayer in Louis Mayer louis B Mayer pulled off a
publicity stunt they were talking about Lindbergh all these Flyers are now they
got these planes that go long distances so there were big publicity stories
about airplanes and whatnot so Louis B Mayer comes up with this idea why don't
he send his pet lion leo which name was really Jackie but for why
not name him after himself in the story after all it is the movies leo
okay yeah so it sounds like it could be anyhow so he gets this pilot who was by
the way at the time in competition to be the first pilot to fly a non-stop to
from to Europe from America and but he lost out to Lindberg the same plane was
purchased to fly this lion now wait a minute we're in Arizona here this is not
a mountain lion a hundred and fifty pound mountain lion this is a 400 pound
full-grown African lion okay with a roar you know that can shake a building down
almost okay so they're going to send Leo on a cost cross-country trip as a
publicity stunt for new movies for MGM so here's the story they get the plane
they build a cage to hold Leo in it and it's the cage is at the time a bank
robberies and things they were making of a glass like bulletproof glass
so they got glass to me but a metal and a glass cage tall with a door to hold
leo in it and they fit thick they get mechanics and they get engineers to
figure out how we're going to put the lion in the cage on a plane okay and
keep them there and keep them alive for this trip they figured they could have
flown in one day or one day or two days at the most to get gas well we're ready
to go the pilot waves goodbye to his friends
Louie Mayer waves goodbye to Leo who's dubbed leo the lion because
that L L so they start on their journey well they're heaven
he's coming out and they wouldn't let him they wouldn't let him fly out of
where he wanted to fly out of and this is an interesting story caused the....
the animal rights group did not want an animal flying cross-country thought
it would be torture for him to do that and so they argued and finally he flew
off of a military base and he come to Arizona and he gassed up again gassed up
the airplane look-alike was taking a lot of gas so he has a full tank and it's I
think around Tucson it could be or even Yuma and as he's flying he's having
trouble getting altitude and when he's coming towards the Superstition
Mountains the downdrafts apparently are pushed not allowed here with the
altitude to go over the mountains he sees the four peaks at 7,000 some feet
to his left he sees the Superstition Mountains at 5,000 some feet
and he sees the gap in between the mountains and what he says that well he
says there's no place that I can go to land out here this is all wilderness and
desert so he flies between the four peaks and the Superstition Mountains
he'd hoped to fly over the superstitions and then cut a bead left where he could
then go over New Mexico and whatnot toward the east coast
well he's losing altitude and he losing more and more altitude he can't loosen
it can't let the gas out without perhaps getting gas on the lion they're getting
the winds terrible so he just leaves the Mount of gas because he tries his best
and he can't do it it can't get to altitude he can't do it he's gonna have
to set it down it's going at the land he can't find it's all wooded area so he
says I'm gonna lay it down to his he was a stunt pilot and he was long-distance
pilot so he knew really how to fly and so he's over this wooded area and tall
trees and big trees and he decides he's gonna set it down into trees and he lets
it go until we just about always shut it the gas off just about going and
sputtering and he sees that these trees and he just sets it down the airplane is
wrecked he's alive Leo's alive he said now I just got to find a road walk to a
place and we'll get Leo out of here he said well there's cows
I saw cows coming in here cows always go home afterwards after they're out
feeding they're go home it's there's a saying when the cows come home well
anyhow the cows in the mountains don't go home cows out in the desert they go
to the water holes so previous to this he had given Leo some water and some
food and he sets out he wanders around falling them cows for three days
in the mountains for three days and finally he sees some he can tell the
difference between a cow print now and a horse print so now he finds some horse
prints and he follows these up over a hill and he sees an old shack up there
and when he gets there there are some Cowboys there and he says to the Cowboys
he said I've been following these cows they never want to go home and so the
Cowboys know he's up just a city slicker so to speak you know and don't know
anything about mountain cattle and say they're laughing and when he finally get
done laughing at him he says look I need to get to a phone I got a lion back
there it's in the airplane want to get him off and he said well they get him on
a horse and he has to go 25 miles by horse back I believe this is the story
could be by an old farm truck but I don't believe it there's no roads from there
anyhow he goes down and he finds a place where there's a telephone and that's the
next day so they've been missing for five days now he calls operator give me
long-distance Hollywood California Louis be mayor finally gets hooked up at
10,000 secretaries after trying to go through them and he talks to Louis B
Mayer, Mr. Mayer he said I'm sorry we had an accident in the meantime the
papers all over the country are looking for Leo where's Leo where's Leo where's
Leo the Lion where's Leo no leo he hasn't been found
yet you know papers go in the morning edition night edition on and on so
no Leo so he said and he finally connects with Louise B Mayer first
thing Mayer said was how's Leo not how's the plane how are you what what's
happening where are you he just says how's Leo
he don't know where he is he don't know he's in Kansas or whatever
finally he calmed Mayer down and he tells them
look we're in the mountains right outside of Phoenix on a way to we're on
our way to New Mexico he said I need help and he said I gotta get a truck and
to get Leo out of there still in a cage the cage is one piece he said Leo's okay
so he gets a truck he hires a truck he gets some Cowboys he gets some Cowboys
to go back to Hellsgate okay so why is it called Hellsgate well it's a hell
of a way to get into how we get out I guess and so they go to they go up there
with the truck you know farm truck and go through the
mountains there's got to be a truck go through the mountains on the trail and
so they get up there and they they are still about half a mile from Lion or
more well about a mile and a half from where the lion where Leo was still in
the trees in his cage the Mexican workers that he had brought with him
think they're going to get a mountain lion 150 pound pet mountain lion that's
they know it's a pet oh I bet those Cowboys were surprised when they came
across an African lion they didn't realize that it was a 400-pound African
lion huge huge main they had never seen one movies very few and far between at
that time so anyhow they go back and they get to where the lion is and they
get Cowboys now the guy that drove the truck was Boyd Hughes uncle his name was
Martin, Sam Martin drove the truck and Boyd used provided some of the
photographs to me they get up there and sure enough Leo is in the tree but they
can't take the cage down with Leo in it that's 400 pounds plus 400 pounds so
they get they get a block and tackle rigged up and then the cowboy said if
lives we can rope it and so let's get in there and they rope they opened the
gate and they put a rope on Leo and they get him to come down out of the tree
then they rope him from behind his legs they got him all trussed up okay and now
they had a they had a country doctor with them too and he brought some stuff
and he treated Leo was fine except he had blowflies where he got banged up and
he had scabs well it's a good thing the blowflies got to him because he got it
kept him from getting an infection so they put some turpentine and tar country
doctor turpentine and tar fix any wound doctor him up and now they they got how
we gonna get him down the mountain to the truck well they they they cut down a
tree and the trees about this big around and then it had some big forecourt went
to a fork and two big limbs they cut that and they made that a sled and so
what they did was they put rope around now they got Leo and he's all trussed up
how they gonna get him back in the cage well here's how they're gonna give it
here and how they got him back in the cage they opened the cage they hooked
Leo up by the front they pull when he dragged him over to the front of the
cage undo the ropes form and they have they kind of wait for the ropes to go
out the back which would be actually the front of the cage and they pull Leo
right in there and he's indicates they slam it there
Leo's good he's on the sled and they'd ride the sled on the truck all the way
down to the local place where they can get a better vehicle and they go on down
to drive down to Phoenix to the only Airport there in Phoenix Airport and
then they Louie B Mayer sent a plane special plane cargo plane to pick
up Leo and the pilot and the cage so they're gonna then do a movie clip about
this lets Leo the Lion of course they can't pass up some
publicity and it's sure enough as soon as they get Leo back to Hollywood their
story is found all the California papers Leo found safe in cage in mountains in
treacherous mountains of Arizona treacherous mysterious mountains. Cowboys
find him the whole story goes. he gets his cameraman up and then he
said look we are going to film him to be our mascot of the movies and MGM's
mascot today still Leo the Lion was the first one his Ridge name his real name
was Jackie and it was tame and then I and then he goes on all the products and
then for every TV show you ever see or movie this MGM you will see the lion
roar but there were several different Jackie's that they've had over the years
a loin not going to live up to 100 years all right so once they got him back to Hollywood
to LA there did they start the publicity tour all over again
Leo yeah it was famous now he mayor got all the publicity could have
ever wanted the crash was great because all the newspapers across the country
120 newspapers work major papers were carrying the story the mystery of what
happened to Leo where is Leo every day every hour talking about it but when he
gets him back in there they groom him up clean him up and they shoot the face at
the mascot and then he wants to shoot photos with some of the the the
actresses and actors in the movie and Leos trainer in a more human mode the
shows that Leo was a tame African lion and they got one of them that somebody
sticking their hand their head inside Leo's mouth and there's one girl that
and this really this really tells the story of fear there's this she must have
been somebody's girlfriend in the movie business cuz they have her all dolled up
she's a good-looking woman she's sitting she's sitting on a bench and right next
to the bench Leo the Lion and she's got that look of
fear on her face she is definitely afraid this ain't no mountain lion
this ain't no kitty cat that's a 400-pound African lion and that's a
story of Leo lion. wreckage of the plane was out there for many years and to
commemorate leo the lion crash landing in that area there is now a mountain
called Leo Mountain join us next time for another mystery of the Superstition
Mountains
[music]