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Ralph Helfer was born in Chicago. In 1942, his parents separated and his mother took Ralph and his sister, Sally Ann, to Hollywood, California, where they settled in the Green Apartments, one block off Hollywood Blvd. There he met future friend Carol Burnett.
Hollywood animal trainers of that time brought their animals in with steel-barred cages then used the fear and intimidation of whips, guns and chairs to beating their animals into control. Because of their cruel treatment Ralph was almost killed stunt doubling for an actor in a scene that involved an African lion called Rex. Prior to the scene his trainer enraged Rex so much he wanted revenge on any one so unfortunately he took it out on Ralph, which hospitalized him for a while due to the severe mauling he received from that lion. He was determined to completely change the way animals were treated in Hollywood by using his own training philosophy called "Affection Training".
In 1955, Ralph and his sister, Sally Ann, purchased a two-acre property in Van Nuys, California to train animals. He called the site "Nature's Haven: Wild Animal Rentals". There he slowly built his collection of animals including raccoons, various monkeys, deer, hawks and a variety of snakes. Finally Ralph's greatest wish came true, his lion was coming because two friends, on a three week Safari in Africa, found one. They named him Zamba after the river where they found the cub. Zamba grew into a magnificent animal with a good nature and gentle disposition. Ralph often worked on The Pet Set (1971) with his friend, Betty White. Whenever she needed an animal on the show, she would call him and Ralph would bring over whichever animal fit the circumstances, including Zamba.
In 1960, Ralph got a call from Twentieth Century-Fox studio because they were making a film that required a lion to work with a small child and they wondered if he could provide one. Samuel G. Engel, producer of The Lion (1962), put out a call for a full-grown lion to star in the film they were going to make in Africa. Actress Pamela Franklin got along so famously with Zamba that she even helped take care of him while they were in Africa. In 1962, Ralph returned to California from Africa a much wiser man. Some time later, he wed Toni Ringo (Toni Helfer), whom he had first met just before he left for Africa. In June 1963, their daughter, Tana Helfer, was born and named for a river in Kenya. Soon, however, the property was cut in half by the Antelope Valley Freeway so they had to relocate to Soledad Canyon where they bought 600 acres of land to build a new ranch and named it "Africa U.S.A." In a short time, the ranch had become the largest animal rental company in the world. In January 1969, Africa U.S.A. was devastated by a powerful storm that caused terrible mudslides, which resulted in the largest flood that had been recorded at that time in the Soledad Canyon region. The Helfers, as well as other trainers who worked for them, had to struggle through two days and nights of havoc, trying to salvage what they could of their ranch. These torrential flooding's killed 20 of the 1,500 exotic animals at Ralph's ranch. Luckily help came from everywhere, the highways were soon lined with cars and other people were walking three miles over the hills to bring supplies of hot food and drinks to them.
Ralph Helfer had to start all over again. He created another company and Animal training park called "Gentle Jungle". Based on 55-acre ranch in Colton, California, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles once the home of the old Gene Holter Movieland Animal Park. This ranch was home to for about 500 animals (both domestic and exotic) which appeared in movies and television series. The Gentle Jungle Affection Training School was a three-phase program that took 22 weeks to complete. In 1972, he bought out "Marine World" when it went bankrupt, a 66-acre theme park in Redwood City, California then added a wildlife park and "Jungle Theater", renaming the park as "Marine World/Africa U.S.A." Due to the increase in the value of the property it became too great a tax burden so eventually in 1986 they moved "Marine World/Africa U.S.A." to Vallejo, California. In 1998, the park officially became part of the Six Flags chain.
Helfer was also a partner and chairman in a small theme park called "Enchanted Village" in Buena Park, California. The village had the Lost Island Theater, Amazon Cliff Divers, Bridge of Enchantment, Gentle Jungle Theater, Wilderness Theater and Tiger Arena. It was also the home to a variety of fascinating animals, including giraffes and Oliver "The Human Chimp.") But this park went bankrupt in late 1977. In 1982, the school moved again to "Lion Country Safari", in Laguna Hills, California, which closed down in 1984 following an investigation by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), with an eventual lawsuit against Helfer for alleged Animal Welfare Act violations. Ralph was cleared of all the accusations except one, In the 1990s, he began a successful career as writer. Most of his books are non fiction life stories of famous animals. He now lives in Kenya.
