Frederick Fitzsimons might have been at the apex of his profession as a herpetologist with worldwide recognition but Johannes Molikoe, a mere snake handler, had even greater recognition. Whereas a trickle of visitors would visit FitzSimons, a flood of people demanded to attend a show with Johannes Molikoe as the star of the show

Main picture: Amongst those enthralled by Johannes’ show in 1947 was the Royal Family. Frederick William FitzSimons is on the right

Frederick William FitzSimons
For many South Africans, the name Fitzsimons will always be linked to snakes – to their diversity and the treatment of their venomous bites. Rightly so, as nobody has done more than the Fitzsimons family to inform the public about our serpentine fauna or to alleviate the dangerous effects of snakebite. Even though the father and two sons were all snake experts in their own right, it was the father F.W. who was the one most intimately connected with the PE Snake Park.

The saga began when Frederick W Fitzsimons, who had been born in Londonderry, Ireland on 6 August 1870 and died on 25 March 1951, emigrated with his parents as a seven-year-old boy to settle in Pietermaritzburg, where he attended the Boys’ Model School. He later went back to Ireland to study medicine but quickly realised that his real interest lay in natural history so returned to Pietermaritzburg in 1895 where he was appointed curator of the Natal Society Museum. Soon afterwards he married Patricia Henrietta Russell from Ireland, with whom he had two sons and who became an active supporter of women’s rights and of various charitable organisations in South Africa.

In 1903 FW FitzSimons transferred the various collections, all of which he had personally catalogued and organised, to the new Natal Government Museum, where he held the post of scientific assistant; three years later he was appointed as director of the Port Elizabeth Museum, a post he held until his retirement 31 years later.

Here FitzSimons organised the collections and displays, which included a variety of whale skeletons and other exhibits, in a new Marine Hall, built in 1930. But his main interest was in snakes, which had started in Natal and continued throughout his life. In the Bird Street Museum he set up live exhibits of snakes in glass-fronted cases that proved so popular that he was able to establish a Snake Park in 1918, which was the first in Africa and the second in the world. This was followed by the construction of a much larger park in 1925, with Johannes Molikoe as its talented park attendant and snake handler.

This park, with daily demonstrations of live snakes, became a major tourist attraction in Port Elizabeth and throughout South Africa. It was here that FitzSimons undertook research on snake venoms that brought him international recognition. He had already established himself as an authority on snakes with the publication in 1910 of a book, The Snakes of South Africa, followed by Snakes and the Treatment of Snake Bites (in English and Afrikaans) in 1929, Pythons and their Ways in 1930 and Snakes during 1932, which was also published in German two years later. But at the new Port Elizabeth Snake Park he could embark on a vigorous programme of “milking” the venom from captive snakes and preparing an anti-snakebite serum for human use by carefully monitored inoculation of other animals whose immune serum was then extracted, concentrated and purified.

In this work F.W. FitzSimons was greatly assisted by his younger son Desmond Charles Fitzsimons, who had been born in Pietermaritzburg in 1906 and whose lifelong interest was also in snakes. During the 1930s he did intensive research on snakebite serum at the Port Elizabeth Snake Park, up to the time of his father’s retirement, and then moved to Durban, where, assisted by his mother, he established the Durban Snake Park, which also proved to be an exceptional tourist attraction. Here he extracted the venom from thousands of snakes and became the leading distributor of serum in South Africa, particularly during the years of the Second World War, when there was a need for large quantities for the armed forces. At the time of his death in 1963 he owned several snakebite preparations and trademarks, such as Fitzsimons Snake-bite Serum, Fitzsimons Snake-bite Outfit and the Serosyringe Snake-bite

History of the establishment of the Snake Park
With Frederick William FitzSimons being an avid student of snakes as well as being curator of the Museum, William was always scheming of ways to incorporate a snake park into its offering. From the outset, the Feather Market Hall in which the original Museum was located, had a paucity of space for the museum let alone a snake demonstration area. Plans for a new museum located in St George’s Park were mooted but never eventuated due to the outbreak of the Great War.

Plans for a snake park resurrected
Adam White Guthrie purchased 28 Bird Street from O.R. Dunell in1896 as his home. Upon his death in London in October 1915, the legatees of his estate of the Late Adam Guthrie offered his home in Bird Street as a museum which was graciously accepted. At the end of 1918 the museum relocated to its new home. Given to the exigencies of war, only an unofficial opening was performed on the 9^th December 1918. F. W FitzSimons realised that his dream of a Snake Park could be attained in Bird Street too. FitzSimons dream would become Port Elizabeth’s premier tourist attraction for many years.

The facility for displaying and handling snakes was designed by Hendrik Siemerink who was also responsible for the alterations and improvements completed in 1926. The familiar red tiles and red glazed bricks from Grahamstown were also part of this change. Included were a heated python house, open-air aviary and a new café.   

As the property became too small to handle both the museum and the Snake Park, larger premises were sought. Ultimately these needs would only be me by a bespoke facility. After much discussion, its final home would be a specially constructed structure in Humewood which was opened on 4^th July 1961.

The Snake Handler
Johannes Molikoe, a Basuto man, known throughout South Africa as the man who for 35 years casually dangled a terrifying collection of poisonous snakes round his neck at the Port Elizabeth Snake Park, married again at the age of 74 after his retirement. Sana’, his trophy second wife, at 36 was half his age.

To eke out his pension of £5 a month he did odd jobs. He acted as a police escort to juvenile delinquents on their way to reformatories, as well as taking charge of lepers who had been committed to a sanatorium in the Transkei. Due to his worldwide fame, Molikoe was featured in the 13 December 1951 edition of Jet, a weekly negro news magazine in the US which disclosed his marriage to his trophy wife

Molikoe was appointed snake handler on the 1st August 1918 and retired in August 1947. He died aged 83 of natural causes. Like most men, he did not realise how troublesome such marriages were. To support her, he had to take part time jobs.

Johannes’ fame spread far and wide. An example that substantiates this fact is the visit by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII, to Port Elizabeth during 13th and 14th May 1925. Although a visit to the Snake Park had not been scheduled as part of his itinerary, the Prince insisted that he wanted to see the famous snake handler.

Despite the hordes who came to be entertained by Johannes, he was probably underpaid. Instead of a relaxed retirement, he was awarded a mere pittance as a  pension compelling him to work until his dying day.  

Sources
https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/vivian-fitzsimons
Wikipedia
Port Elizabeth: A Social Chronicle to the end of 1945 by Margaret Harradine (1996, E H Walton (Packaging (Pty) Ltd, Port Elizabeth, on behalf of the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth).