Jack Hanna
APPEARING MARCH 1
By KEVIN CORVO
Dispatch Media Group
A generation of central Ohio residents watched Jack Hanna on local television in the 1980’s as he introduced a cadre of critters from the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium. The programs were the beginning of a new chapter in a career that has focused on showcasing some of the world’s most exotic animals. Central Ohioans will have the opportunity to revisit those memories and welcome Hanna home at The Columbus Dispatch Home & Garden Show presented by Ohio Mulch, which runs Feb. 22 through March 1 (except Feb. 25) at the Ohio Expo Center, 717 E. 17th Ave. Hanna will perform at 2 and 4 p.m. March 1 on the Simple Bath Simple Kitchen Home Stage. In between the shows, “Jungle Jack” will greet fans. Hanna also will participate in a private VIP meet-and-greet event earlier in the day, said Stephen Zonars, who handles live events and promotions for the Dispatch Media Group.
“A limited number of tickets will be sold through our website, and I’m sure they’ll go very fast,” Zonars said. The home and garden show will be a homecoming for Hanna, who actually lives at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, 4850 Powell Road, where he is director emeritus. “Columbus, Ohio, means more to my family than I can say. I owe a great deal to Columbus (and) I’m living my dream here,” Hanna, 72, said. Hanna lives at the zoo with Suzi, his wife of 52 years, at a residence the zoo purchased and absorbed inside the zoo’s property. Hanna pays rent to live at the residence. The unique address has provided moments of levity for Hanna. In 1988, after a beaver bit him during an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, Hanna required treatment at a New York City hospital. “They asked for my address and I said, ‘the Columbus Zoo.’ Then they said, ‘no, not where you work -- where do you live?’ and I said ‘the zoo.’ They probably thought I’d lost my mind,” Hanna recalled. Hanna said the incident is the only time an animal has ever bitten him — and it happened, he said, because a sudden off-stage drumbeat startled the beaver. Hanna credits his father with encouraging him to pursue a dream that has led him to all corners of the earth while hosting “Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild,” an Emmy Award-winning TV series now in its 13th season.
Hanna was raised on a farm near Knoxville, Tenn., and said he often helped a visiting veterinarian treat animals on the family farm. “I asked to help him on our farm (and) then at his clinic,” said Hanna. But a visit to the Knoxville Zoo opened up a new world for Hanna. “Zoos were just (animals behind) bars back then,” said Hanna, who recalled his father encouraging him to pursue his dream of being a zookeeper despite the ridicule he sometimes received. Hanna was director of a zoo in Sanford, Fla., when a turn led him to central Ohio. In 1978, the Hannas’ daughter had an illness — from which she recovered — and the staff at St. Jude’s Research Hospital in Memphis referred the family to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “It happened that the Columbus Zoo was looking for a director at the time,” Hanna said. Since then, Hanna has made the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium known around the world. The birth of twin gorillas at zoo, later shown on local TV, resulted in a call from the producers of “Good Morning America” and Hanna’s first of many appearances on national TV that put the zoo on the map. Hanna’s stage show at the Home & Garden Show will feature penguins, a sloth, a kangaroo, a variety of cats and other animals from the zoo.
