By JUDY SLOANE

Front Row Features

 

HOLLYWOOD-This year marks the 65th anniversary of Joy Adamson’s milestone book Born Free, which changed the way the public thought about wildlife.

The book told the true story of how George and Joy Adamson became surrogate parents of an orphaned lion cub named Elsa, and her eventual release back into the wild. It sold millions of copies and was made into a popular movie of the same name in 1966, starring the late Bill Travers and his wife Virginia McKenna, who portrayed the Adamsons.

Fifteen years ago, PBS did a “Nature” special spotlighting the book’s 50th anniversary, focusing on how conservation had changed in Africa. At the press conference, Virginia McKenna spoke of her memories of playing Joy Adamson in “Born Free,” her foundation that protects animals and of her late husband’s 1971 documentary, “Christian: The Lion at World’s End,” about a lion cub who was sold at Harrod’s store in London and returned to Africa by George Adamson.

The recent events surrounding Billy and Tina, the elephants at Los Angeles Zoo, who instead of being moved to a sanctuary were transported to the Tulsa Zoo, reminded me of the day I spoke with Virginia McKenna.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about your Born Free Foundation

Virginia McKenna: We started it in 1984 because of the death of an elephant at the London Zoo in ’83, an elephant we had worked with in a film at the end of the 60’s. (The movie was “An Elephant Called Slowly” starring elephant calf Pole Pole.) My husband Bill and I were so shattered by the death of this wonderful teenage elephant that we decided that her death should not be in vain. We started the organization in ’84, which was then known as the Zoo Check because in the beginning our focus was totally on the situations of wild animals in captivity, whether it was the circus or the zoo. But as it developed, thanks mainly to the work our son Will, we began to work with problems that they face in the wild too.

Q: Your husband’s documentary, “Christian: The Lion at World’s End,” was so moving. What are your memories of it?

I think the relationship between any animal and humans is enormously inspiring to watch. In America, 100 million people have seen an incredible clip of Christian the lion greeting the two Australian young men, Ace and John (who had him as a cub,) when they returned to Kona National Park following George Adamson’s rehabilitation of Christian to the wild. Christian came from London, where I live in Surrey.  For four months, he lived in a compound in our garden, and then he went to Africa and was returned to the wild by George Adamson. My husband’s wonderful documentary is part of the Born Free story, so people still have hope for the future.

We were talking about how difficult that would be today to take an animal from an urban environment and return it to the wild, because you’d have to have George Adamson (who was killed in 1989.)

Q: Looking back on making “Born Free,” what was it like portraying Joy Adamson?

Virginia McKenna: As an actress, you can only interpret what the script allows you to do. The script for the humans in “Born Free” was quite limited inasmuch as developing characters is concerned. Joy was a much more complex character than was in the script, because the heart of the film wasn’t about the Adamsons and their relationship with each other, it was about their relationship with Elsa. That was what mattered.

Q: What was Joy like?

Joy was hugely emotional, very passionate, enormously dedicated to trying to understand the individual animal, but not only that, the money that she got from her writings and from the film, she poured back into conservation. And I would say to anyone who criticizes her, as many people did because she was sometimes quite difficult to get along with, just look what she did. She contributed so much to conservation because of Elsa.

Q: At the end of filming, I heard Joy took you on a trip – can you talk a little about that?

At the end of the film in 1966, she invited me to go with her on my own up to Meru, which was the heart of The Born Free Story. We went to places where Elsa brought the cubs across the rivers, Elsa’s grave, the camp, Elsa’s rock, all the places that meant so much to Joy. It was a very emotional trip, and I felt very honored and touched that she would invite me to go there. I wish I had gone before we made the film.

Q: What kind of relationship did you have with the lions that played Elsa in the movie?

Virginia McKenna: We had two special lions, a boy and a girl, who came from the Scots Guard Regiment in Nairobi. They were orphaned and they had been looked after by Sergeant Ryves until they were nine months old. The producers heard about them, and they came to us with their sergeant. He stayed for about 12 days and introduced us to them, because the introduction was very important.

We started to develop our friendship with these two animals, and we went out a lot on our own with them on the plains; playing hide and seek and football. One day, I had a bit of an accident, and the boy jumped on me and broke my ankle. And the best thing in the whole world was when I came back to camp for the first time, and my leg was still in plaster, he greeted me when I called his name. I was in the car, and I wound the window down and he put half of his body through the window and gave me a hug. It was magic.

Note: The Born Free Foundation is still thriving under the leadership and care of Bill and Virginia’s son, Will. In 2022, Born Free designated it to be The Year of the Lion, in memory of its founder, Bill Travers. And this year, Virginia McKenna celebrated her 94^th birthday.