It's 1856 and Benjamin Franklin is walking on his hind legs down busy market street in San Francisco.

As you might have guessed, this is not the famous scientist.

This particular Benjamin Franklin is a grizzly bear.

And in fact, Benjamin Franklin is one of a couple of grizzly bears that were being paraded through

San Francisco's downtown. There's also a 1500-pound behemoth named Sampson, one of the largest

grizzlies ever captured alive.

And a gentle older female grizzly named Lady Washington was there too.

At the front of this mobile menagerie is this guy wearing buck skins with a big overgrown beard.

His name is Grizzly Adams.

And for the next few years, Adam... is Grizzly Adams.

And for the next few years, Adams will make this his living, and he will make a name for himself doing it,

exhibiting these bears.

He runs a basement mountaineer museum and San Franciscans line up to see these bears up close

and personal to the tune of 25 cents per visit.

Grizzly Adams himself will become a kind of celebrity, like a 19th century wildlife influencer.

People are drawn in by this amazing and frankly

kind of hard to believe claim that a mere human man is able to tame these

thousand pound wild bears.

But was he actually?

Were these bears actually tame?

More like many influencers today,

was it all just an act for the clout?

...