Media Menagerie

Cathryn (Gruber) Long '84 constantly prowls for new talent—be they bumblebees or elephants. Long is a partner, with mom Ruth Manecke, of a professional animal talent agency called All Creatures Great & Small, based in New York and Connecticut. Her stars have included the bullfrog for a Lysol commercial, the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig for a Hansen music video, the lion for a Dreyfus ad, and the sea lion for an M&Ms spot.

In the 1950s Long's mother, a zoologist at the Bronx Zoo, started one of the first animal talent agencies in the country, supplying all the animals for "Captain Kangaroo" Bob Keeshan '42 A's 30-year run on national television. At Dartmouth the girl who grew up with llamas, cheetahs, and orangutans opted for a hamster. "I would have had more, but the dorms were too small," she says. Now she gets all the animal fixes she wants. Between animal shoots and running her Long Range Consulting firm, Long introduces children and seniors to animal-assisted therapy in hospitals and convalescent homes.