How Joan Embery of the San Diego Zoo became famous
The epitaph on my tombstone may well read: Hired animal keeper Joan Embery as an ambassador for the San Diego Zoo and put her on the road to fame.
I spent 50 years in a colorful career in public relations and journalism. But my Joan name for the new zoo post and her placement on “The Tonight Show” seems to be what people remember the most.
And why not? Joan’s nearly 100 appearances with Johnny Carson made her a familiar face to millions of Americans. Curled up by snakes and loved by leopards, she was a natural success in bringing the fun, excitement and drama of the world of wild animals into viewers’ homes.
His rise to celebrity status began with his first appearance on “The Tonight Show” in 1970 with the young elephant who had taught him how to paint. When the artist, Carol, hesitated to perform, she then spun a brush on the trunk and slid it over Johnny’s crotch, convulsing the audience and Ed McMahon. Joan, 21, became a “regular” for the next four decades, providing millions of dollars in publicity to our then financially strapped park.
(Little Carol subsequently painted on her cardboard for all 12 million viewers that night, and gained notoriety as our artistic elephant for years, earning tons of publicity!)
As Joan’s fame spread, she appeared on other network shows with zoo residents and did hundreds of television and radio interviews. She subsequently traveled to Africa, England, Australia and other parts of the world, spreading messages of wildlife conservation, while promoting our world-famous tourist attraction.
To tell the truth, Joan became our second zoo ambassador. I was wrong to choose the first. And of course there was never any need for a third party. Joan made advertising and promotion for the San Diego Zoo a career for the next 35 years, until her recent retirement.
In the late ’60s, the zoo experienced a steady decline in attendance (due in part to competition from the new SeaWorld marine park). Our public relations department was tasked with coming up with ways to attract more visitors to our burgeoning collection of wildlife.
Consequently, as head of the zoo’s publicity department since ’65, I proposed selecting and training a young woman to serve as the zoo’s ambassador. After due consideration, the zoo’s board of directors and director approved a small budget for the year-long trial.
My idea actually came from a previous visit to our children’s zoo by a traveling Disneyland youth ambassador. If it was good enough for creative genius Walt, I remember thinking, why not someone similar for us?
Several hundred girls responded to our first call from a photogenic, well-spoken young woman with a love of wildlife. The chosen one would give talks, take VIPS on tours of the zoo and make appearances at events like the city’s upcoming 200th anniversary.
Long story short, the first time I managed to pick the wrong candidate, one who wasn’t good at handling animals, was nervous about public speaking, and didn’t know the city well.
At the end of his year, we went back to the drawing board. I went through our resume file and spread the word publicly again with a mild response. One day it was pointed out that a good candidate was working right under our noses at the Children’s Zoo: Joan Embery.
The zoo had hired 18-year-old college student Joan to work with the baby animals. So, with several years of experience under her belt in 1969, she had come to know and admire her devotion to our orphaned wildlife and her work.
I swore that Joan could talk to animals and vice versa. He knew that she could easily detect the pout of an insulted elephant. In fact, one of her elephant friends would stick out a foot to trip Joan as she ran by.
Several times the ever cheerful Miss Embery had invited me to go into an animal enclosure with her. She would offer some interesting information, like the reason most zoos only have female elephants is because the bulls are too dangerous when they’re in heat during mating season. She told me that her hormones rage to the extent that they can kick up concrete or even try to kill their guardians.
And I remember once watching in awe as our future “ambassador” reached into an elephant’s mouth to stroke a wavy pink tongue. “It’s a greeting to them, like a handshake,” she explained as I watched, mouth open. “Go ahead, try it!” she urged. But I was too cowardly, deciding I didn’t want to be so friendly.
For the second round, I named Joan the next zoo ambassador. And in the years that followed, I watched with pride the way she carried herself in public and in media appearances. Her true love and devotion to wildlife spilled over to the public, giving her a fame she was not seeking, while the zoo and her wildlife causes prospered.
And many Carson fans still remember the “Tonight Show” segment when Joan let Johnny hold a tiny marmoset, which climbed and relieved itself on top of the famous host’s head. Johnny’s expression is captured in reruns of “The Best of Carson”.
It even surpassed the night we brought “Dudley Duplex,” a baby two-headed king snake, to the NBC show. He slid down the sleeve of Johnny Carson’s dress shirt to hide and wouldn’t come out. Johnny kept yelling up his sleeve, “Get out, boys, get out now!”
Selecting the wildlife-loving teen as the Zoo’s Ambassador rightfully ranks, in hindsight, as the smartest (or luckiest) move I’ve ever made. Aside from marrying my wife of 60 years!