Vintage Marineland and Game Farm

The gentleman in the photo above from 1976 is Mr. Bill Roberts, who was Head Trainer at Marineland for a number of years, and one of the most skilled trainers, sea or land that I have had the pleasure to be around.

One of the biggest changes I have noted in the Sea Mammal training field, as well as in my field of Land Mammal training, is the number of people needed to present/train the animals, as well as what appears to be a majority of women in the Sea Mammal field today. The training staff was exclusively male all the years I was at Marineland. Before anybody suggests that I or my fellow trainers at Marineland were sexist, I want to go on record as stating that that is false and was not the case at all. We would have welcomed any tight as a second skin, neopreme wet suit, bikini bottom coming down the crack of their ass clad, long flowing wet hair plastered to their back, females to the training staff, and would have afforded them the same respect that we males had for each other. LOL There just weren't many around then, and that is why Marinelands training staff was male. You may note in the photos yesterday and the photos here there is only one person on stage. It was a rare, rare exception, and only with the killer whales , Kandu and Nootka, if "Nootka was doing one of her things" when there was an additional trainer need. Marineland used to utilize, before "wireless" mikes, an announcer/ringmaster/host who narrated the marine show and announced the land animal acts. You will note him in the blue blazer(I point that out so you don't mistakenly think it is Jim Alexander from St. Louis Zoo) The clip below with one trainer with each animal is from 2007



The trainer in these pictures from 1979, in the striped shirt, running across the stage working a number of animals alone is Tom with the narrator(not Jim Alexander, who also wore the "Pat Boone" costume at St. Louis Zoo). The cat props in the ring were the ones Dieter Wichert used. It will give you an idea again, of how close the ring was to the water, and the immense dynamics of putting on a show of this high caliber. The shadow on the back wall tells me this was the 4:00 show,(I did the 10:00, 12:00, 2:00 show) and Dieter had just finished. The arena is down, but the back sections are still up and the props haven't been removed yet. The dolphin show, with 6 animals immediately followed the tiger act so as to distract the audience from stuff being moved on the stage. As mentioned earlier getting as much of the saw dust off the floor as was possible was a priority, before the props were removed. By the time the dolphins were finished the floor was cleaned, the tiger props removed, and the sea lion props set. Following the dolphins were Pedro. the sea elephant and the sea lions. Immediately after the sea lion show, their props were removed and the bear props were set for the bears, followed by the elephants, and ending with the killer whales.