Hotham Park Zoo Postcards and Monty Python

Monty Python's Flying Circus

The Python team visited on 18th October 1971. They filmed in Hotham Park and also in what was then called 'Hotham Park Children's Zoo'. The sketch was to do with penguins taking over the BBC. The large penguins to the right were props, the small Black Footed ones (?) were real.

They also filmed part of the sketch 'The Struggle for Life and Death' in the park. This involved pantomime horses, 'a princess Anne' and a bow and arrow. Cleese walks around by the dove cot in his own hilarious way.

Postcards

There are quite a few postcards from the Pets' Corner era but not as many from later times. I will include here those of which I have copies. The three below are the most recent, I would suggest from the late 1950s or early 1960s but still on sale later than this. The top one, featuring a family and some squirrel monkeys was printed in the USA. If you look closely, you can just see the white doves in the background.

The Gander Mill

This one shows a floral display in Marine Park Gardens. The creature in the centre is a monkey

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