Mr. X comes in with a small basket which contains: “A live
cobra…I’m going to teach you to be a snake charmer”
Bill Haast
runs the Miami Serpentarium, which houses about 500 snakes. In addition to operating a tourist
attraction, Hast also extracts venom from poisonous snakes to be used as
antitoxins and in medical research.
While the segment is played for laughs and goes smoothly, over the
course of his long career, Haast would be bitten 172 times. After the tragic death of a young visitor to
his attraction in 1977 unnerved him, Haast would eventually close the
facility. Years later, he would open a
research-only facility called the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories, which still
operates today. A similar tourist
attraction called Reptile World Serpentarium in Central Florida is not directly related
to Haast’s efforts, though its founder considered Haast a mentor.
Marion Marshall from Detroit, Michigan: “I’m the only fighter who
ever defeated Sonny Liston”
Marion
“Marty” Marshall, known as The Michigan Bomber, was a journeyman fighter who
surprised Liston early in his career on September 7, 1954. Liston, an unsympathetic figure with multiple
arrests and links to organized crime, captured the heavyweight title from Floyd
Patterson on September 25. Liston would successfully defend his title in
a rematch with Patterson the following July but would lose to Muhammad Ali in
February 1964. Prophetically, Marshall
says here that Ali (at the time Cassius Clay) is one of the few fighters who
could beat Liston. Liston would lose a
rematch with Ali, and lose one more fight before retiring, for a career total
of four losses against fifty wins.
Special guest Janet Leigh shows photos
of some exotic hair styles, and challenges Bill and Henry to give similar
treatment to Betsy and Bess. The women
eventually turn the tables and outfit the men with feminine wigs. Leigh is about to appear in The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
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