Zoo Founder with Tarzan's Johnny Weissmuller

Lawrence "Jungle Larry" Tetzlaff on the Set of the Tarzan Films with Johnny Weissmuller and a Baby Elephant

Zoo Founder Larry "Jungle Larry" Tetzlaff (at left) performed stuntwork in the movies for Johnny Weissmuller, the Olympic gold medalist swimmer that gained fame playing Tarzan in the popular movies. You can read more history about the Tetzlaff family as well as that of the earlier stewards of the botanical garden -- from Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Edison's associations with the garden's founder to the Fleischmann Yeast family heir that restored the garden and set the vision that created Naples' historic downtown shopping district.