Marty Stouffer

Martin Luther Stouffer Jr. (born September 5, 1948), is the narrator and producer of the animal documentary show Wild America. He was raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Life

At age 18, Marty traveled to Alaska on his own with an 8mm movie camera. He became trapped by snowfall in a remote valley, but survived by hunting and trapping local wildlife. He returned home and with the warm reception of his unsophisticated movie of his adventure in the north, decided to pursue a career in wildlife documentary making. In 1970, Marty graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in English.^[1] From there he traveled to Africa to film a new documentary. While in Africa, he was confronted with massive and wasteful killing of animals and returned to America with the intent to produce films that argued for nature conservation.

Wild America

By the mid-1970s, Marty had put together several full length documentaries, but had failed to hit upon a project that was an outstanding success. At this time, he approached the programming managers at Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) about a half hour long wildlife show. PBS signed for the rights to broadcast Marty Stouffer's show Wild America in 1982. The show went on to become one of the most popular aired by PBS, renowned for its unflinching portrayal of nature, as well as its extensive use of film techniques such as slow motion and close-ups.

In 1993, Stouffer was accused of cruelty to animals as part of the production of Wild America. People who had worked on the show said he staged kill scenes, including the attack of a tethered rabbit by a raccoon, and a fight-to-the-death between a cougar and a bobcat. Stouffer denied cruelty to animals, but admitted that he sometimes took tame animals into the wild, and filmed them. A PBS investigation found fault with 15 out of 110 shows.^{[2] [3]}

Stouffer earned $135,000 per show from PBS. The broadcaster dropped the show in 1996. ^[4]

The Movie

The lives of Marty Stouffer, and his brothers, Mark and Marshall, in the town of 50,000 people in Arkansas were captured in the 1997 movie, Wild America. Headlined by child actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas, the movie related how the boys became intrigued with the production of wildlife documentaries. The adventure movie has a wilder flavor to it than the Wild America PBS program. Both Mark and Marshall are filmmakers as well.

Post-Wild America

Presently, Marty Stouffer lives near Aspen, Colorado, with his wife and family. His daughter Hannah Stouffer is a notable Commercial Illustrator and fine artist working out of San Francisco.

References

1. ^ Bledsoe, G.. "Marty Stouffer". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4427. Retrieved 2009-04-14. 
2. ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1594/is_n3_v8/ai_19998020/
3. ^ http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4427
4. ^ Sink, Mindy (April 15, 1996). "The Call of the Wildlife Show". New York Times. The New York Times. pp. page 2. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/15/business/the-call-of-the-wildlife-show.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2. Retrieved 2009-04-14. 

External links

• IMDB page on Wild America the movie
• IMDB page on Marty Stouffer
• The Official Wild America website

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Name	Stouffer, Marty
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Date of birth	September 5, 1948
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