"[55] A 1916 magazine feature on "Making Pictures in California" reported of the recently opened Universal zoo: "Here we find Joe, the chimpanzee, who sleeps in a regular brass bed, uses a toothpick after meals, etc.

"[58] In November 1918, as the Spanish flu pandemic reached the west coast and Universal and other studios shut down for a month to prevent further spread,[59] Joe Martin was infected with the virus but was "narrowly saved" from death by double pneumonia through the combined efforts of Dr. Richard Goodwin[g] and Curley Stecker.

"[62] Three years after the fact, a Boston paper reported that Joe Martin had "hovered between life and death" for nearly three weeks, but "all day, and frequently through the long nights of his illness, Stecker remained within the cage with him.

[66] The outcome of the case was not publicized, but in 1920 actor-director Al Santell told Photoplay, "There was a night watchman at the menagerie for a while who always carried a bottle with him on his rounds and now and then he'd give Joe a drink.

[17][68][69] An advertisement in a Canadian newspaper for Universal's two-reeler Jazz Monkey included a humorous essay about Joe Martin's diet which stated that Joe Martin consumed a vegetarian diet of carrots, turnips, onions, corn on the ears, alligator pears, "root beer, ice-cream soda, coco-cola, or malted milk, to any extent a friend is able to buy," and "tobacco in moderation, preferring the smokeless variety.

"[70] A later report said that Joe Martin's diet usually consisted of vegetables and a mixture of malted milk and warm water, sometimes supplemented with eggs "to give it more body and flavor."

The letter, signed by Universal's founding mogul, Carl Laemmle, called Joe Martin "the only guaranteed star on the screen" and stated:[72] We have made a real actor of him.

"[73]In June 1919, Joe Martin attended a screening of his own film, Monkey Stuff, put on by the Los Angeles Evening Herald as an employment perk for its newsboys.

"[77] In July 1919, Joe Martin escaped from the zoo and went on a multi-day rampage in which time he wrecked an assistant trainer's quarters, released approximately 15 wolves,[h] freed Charlie the Elephant, and created general havoc.

[28] Meanwhile, an Omaha, Nebraska newspaper entertainment columnist reported that Joe Martin escaped the arena, got to a main road and encountered an "honest-to-goodness evangelist preaching to his flock from a portable tabernacle on wheels."

"[40] According to one newspaper report, in his fall down two flights of stairs, Santell suffered "a badly wrenched arm, a cut on the cheek, a sprained leg and numerous bruises.

In a 1972 interview surfaced by film historian Steve Massa, Santell said, "When a chimpanzee [sic] bites you, he doesn't just give you one quick bite—he clamps his teeth in, gets set, and then puts on the pressure.

"[22][l] Stecker mentioned to a reporter that Joe Martin's "first rampage lasted a week, in which time he took a gun away from one of the policemen who was attempting to catch him and was about to kill the cop when the rest of us were able to seize him and truss him.

", Squier documented two additional assaults; she also witnessed Joe Martin defend a weaker animal from a bully, rescue an endangered human baby, and earn the respect of his sworn enemy.

[115] Emma-Lindsay Squier reported that he had worked all day and "far into the night" and that "the nature of the scene was a constant tantalization to him" as it involved Edward Connelly taking away "a string of pearls given him in play by the heroine".

[42] Cinematographer John F. Seitz used matte processing to finish the film's remaining scenes between Joe Martin's character Hatim-Tai and Connelly's Baron François de Maupin.

And that's most of the time lately, because his mind is fixed on getting married, and we have imported his bride at great expense [...] He's had his way too much, like some humans, and it's made him selfish and ornery; but with a spry young lady orang-outang in the cage it will be different.

[128] According to Camera!, Universal studio chief Carl Laemmle "reluctantly" consented to the sale "on the circus man's assurance that the big ape would always have a proper home and good treatment.

[130][131] The studio magazine, Universal Weekly, reported that the sale was necessary because Joe Martin had "developed temperament and temper...a sudden savage sullenness which made it dangerous for any human actor to work with him.

[133] Joe Martin also suffered electrical burns to his hands in 1919 after he escaped a film shoot, climbed a power pole, chewed on the rubber insulation of the copper wires, and then began swinging along the lines as if he were in a forest canopy.

[136] In June, in the presence of a group of reporters, Joe Martin dressed himself in a suit, struck a match, lit his own cigarette, and enjoyed a bottle of pop at the prompting of his trainer E.L. "Blacky" Lewis.

To the shock of the assembled crowd, he initially charged a group of stake drivers, but then, "in his ape-like slouching amble", changed direction and seized trapeze artist Babette Letourneau by the arms.

[146] The combination of the debt-financed purchase and the post-Great Crash collapse in ticket revenue was devastating for the circus business generally[148] and John T. Ringling's fortune specifically.

)[146] Joe Martin resurfaced briefly in 1931 in a Time magazine film column calling him "innocent, obedient, [and] clever" and that he was sold "when he became unmanageable, began to annoy other Universal monkeys".

[107] Time also reported that Joe Martin may have been bought to perform in The Murders in the Rue Morgue,[151] but the part ultimately went to two ape-costumed humans and, for close-ups, a chimpanzee from the Selig Zoo.

As he strolled about the circus tent, walking upright like a man, puffing a cigar and swinging a cane, he attracted a lot of attention and proved to be a great drawing card...His bed was built for a human being and Joe comported himself like a man, sleeping in pajamas in apparent enjoyment...His act of expectorating was especially comical and he chewed tobacco as if it had been a lifetime habit...Joe was several times used to advertise automobiles, and the spectacle he made, sitting in the cars as if he owned them, provided great publicity for the automobile companies.

[30] There is a surviving poster in the Tibbals Circus Collection of the Ringling Museum that reads "Giant Gorilla Man: The Largest Specimen of its Kind in All the World featuring 'Joe Martin (himself)'".

[69] Joe Martin and the other animals of the Universal City Zoo were used in tropical adventure movies, historical epics, circus pictures, or simply to add a gothic element to melodramas or horror films.

[34] Nonetheless, Campbell's assistant director Harry Burns carried on the Joe Martin franchise for two more years, generating six more titles, apparently in close cooperation with Curley Stecker.

[34][85] According to Steve Massa, "It seems likely that the creation of the 'missus' was a way for the studio to insure a regular release schedule of monkey comedies as big money maker Joe Martin was getting more difficult to work with.