Marlin Perkins Statue
Carthage, Missouri
Marlin Perkins, pioneering TV personality of wildlife documentaries, was born in Carthage in 1902 and died somewhere else in 1986. This bronze sculpture of him, larger than life, was dedicated in April 1988.
Perkins is depicted as squatting, binoculars in hand, a posture that he assumed frequently on "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom." Besides being the host of that TV series, he was also known for punching a reporter in the face when he was asked if wildlife shows staged their footage, and for accompanying Sir Edmund Hillary in a Himalayan expedition to find the Abominable Snowman.
The plaque under the statue quotes Shakespeare: "... Nature might stand up to him and say, this was a man."