Jungle Menace (1937) is the first serial released by Columbia Pictures.
Original lobby card
1937 lobby card
Promotional photo for Jungle Menace, showing Frank Buck (left) and Sasha Siemel (right)
Left to right: Charlotte Henry, Frank Buck, and Clarence Muse in Jungle Menace
Frank Buck (animal collector)
Frank Howard Buck was an American hunter, animal collector, and author, as well as a film actor, director, and producer. Beginning in the 1910s he made many expeditions into Asia for the purpose of hunting and collecting exotic animals, bringing over 100,000 live specimens back to the United States and elsewhere for zoos and circuses and earning a reputation as an adventurer. He co-authored seven books chronicling or based on his expeditions, beginning with 1930's Bring 'Em Back Alive, which became a bestseller.
Buck in a signed photograph from his souvenir booklet for the 1939 New York World's Fair
Frank Buck's passport photo, 1918
A plaque at the San Diego Zoo beneath a bronze statue of King Tut, the zoo's longtime greeter, indicates that the cockatoo was brought to the United States by Buck.
Buck's first book, Bring 'Em Back Alive (1930), became a bestseller.