ML139396
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Jane Goodall. Timecode In: 00:00:04. Timecode out: 00:29:08. Notes: Jane Goodall's life; Chimpanzee research. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Dual-Channel Mono. Jane Goodall Radio Expeditions/ Geographic Century February 17, 1999 AC 00:00:44 When you were a young child you always had a love for animals. Your mother was an important influence in you life. Could you talk about her influence? 00:01:09 JG 00:01:10 She was a really very strong and meaningful influence all through my childhood and she¿s still alive she still is today but when I was 1 and a half years old and she found that I had taken a whole handful of earthworms to bed with me she didn¿t get all upset, ¿Uk, throw them out of the window!¿ she said ¿Jane they need the earth.¿ And I ran back with them into the garden. And there were so many incidents like that in my early life where she supported and helped me find the books I wanted to read which were books about animals and eventually introduced me to Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle with whom I fell madly in love with, when I was 11 years old. AC 00:01:49 Did you go see Tarzan movies? 00:01:50 JG 00:01:51 I hat.., the first time she took me to a Tarzan movie, she had to save up, it was in the war and we didn¿t have much money. And I burst into tears and she had to take me out. She said ¿ Whatever is the matter?¿ I said that¿s not Tarzan.¿ Because in those days, there weren¿t that many movies around I suppose. There was no television and so we used our imagination and the Tarzan I had imagined wasn¿t at all like Johnny Wismaller (?). AC 00:02:17 Tell me when you imagined your life as a child, you thought that you would be involved with animals in some way?¿ 00:02:29 JG 00:02:30 Yes, when I fell in love with Tarzan, that was when I made this absolute determined.. Can I start that again?.. When I was 11 and fell in love with Tarzan, I determined that when I grew up, what I would do is go to Africa, live with animals, and write books about them and everyone laughed and they said ¿How will you get to Africa?¿ They thought it was the dark continent. We¿re going back 50 years to a very different kind of a world and as I say we didn¿t have any money let alone a car so how could I get to this dark continent where there were poisoned arrows and strange drumbeats sending out sinister messages at night and cannibals? But also those amazing animals. But my mother never laughed. She used to say ¿Jane, if you really want to do that then if you work hard enough and you take advantage of opportunity and you never give up, I¿m sure you¿ll find a way.¿ AC 00:03:33 Did you imagine yourself in the field or at a university teaching somewhere? 00:03:44 JG 00:03:45 I never, ever thought about a university I just wanted to be out in the, preferably forest and learn about the things that I saw and write about them. So, from a very small child I used to go out on nature walks, by myself, with my dog and find some birds nest then I would go back, day after day and draw little pictures and write little descriptions of the behavior. So I suppose I saw myself as one of those 18th century naturalists. AC 00:04:17 How was it that you prepared yourself to be an explorer? You went to university? 00:04:25 JG 00:04:25 No, no I didn¿t. I just left high school and we didn¿t, we couldn¿t afford university. In those days to get a scholarship you had to be very good in a foreign language and I was always hopeless. So my mother said well if you learn how to be a secretary you can get a job anywhere in the world that you like, so why don¿t you do that? So, I did that and then the opportunity came when I had a job in London with documentary films as a matter of fact not even being a secretary. But then I got an invitation from a school friend whose parents had moved to Kenya... (Notes truncated)
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- 13 Aug 2009 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 13 Aug 2009 - Ben Brotman
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- 13 Aug 2009 - Ben Brotman