Arthur chortled that people used to call him crazy but once he made millions he was eccentric. He was even a guest on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and buddies with Hollywood’s John and Bo Derek. He built a two-mile-long runway next to his ranch and jetted everywhere, once owning three 727's.
“I don’t know many people who have three jets in their yard,” I told him upon our initial meeting in 1985. His retort: “Well, where do you keep yours?”
All this form a man who ended his formal education before high school then spent a lifetime learning – incessantly. In his dying days, he was still reading several books per week.
I’m sure Arthur became a pilot in the military and I don’t know if it’s true, but I once heard him claim to have been at Pearl Harbor. He also bragged of being a mercenary fighter pilot and emphasized that it wasn’t for the cause . . . “I just liked flyin’ and killin’.”
Before Nautilus, Arthur was the patriarch of Wild Cargo, which aired on TV back when we were relegated to black-and-white broadcasts and offered but three channels.
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Arthur Jones presented animal shows around 1963 when he had a name from the Wild Cargo and other TV apperances. His show was booked into the Cincinnati Music Hall. He made arrangements to keep a few animals at the Zoo before the show came to town. They included a young orang, some cockatoos and lorys, and some reptiles. He also appeared on the Zoo's TV show with Director Bill Hoff. I work off camera with Ed Maruska passing animals to Bill. Jones was accompanied by his crew including a well-known Texas herp guy, Frank Weed. Before the taping Jones was doing some publicity shots and his animals where all over. Weed hands me two sacks of rattlesnakes to hold and I'm thinking I must be official. After they took the snakes back Ed quietly told me to stay away from those people before I got hurt. (Good advice.)
Jones did the king cobra thing in the TV studio, opening the box and free handling the snake. Most everyone took off for high ground. Arthur said he got the snake out so Bill could put him back in the box (probably part of his act). Hoff said if he put he snake in the box it was his cobra. Arthur quickly loaded the snake.
The day the show was to open radio news reported a plane full of allgators was circling Lufken Field, Cincinnati's smaller airport. The plane reported trouble with its landing gear. Of course now all the press had time to get to the field to report the story. Fortunately the plane made a successful belly landing and the press got photos of some of the alligators that would appear at the Music Hall over the weekend. The next week it was reported that the pilot was a well-known stunt pilot who's specialty was belly landings. Think Arthur knew that?
Jim,
Great story, thank you for sharing. I loved Bill Hoff's retort to Jones about the snake. LOL I'll bet you 20.00 Jones staged the whole airport deal. He was the master of the con. It is something how some mortals who are so wealthy actually think they are Gods, regardless of of Haile Selassie said.
Wade
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