Born Free of three cubs. The Adamsons made an agreement not to handle the cubs, in contrast to the way they did with Elsa. The film's credits list lions and lionesses Boy, Girl, Henrietta, Mara, Ugas, and "the Cubs". The film reunited the real life couple Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna as a couple first seen together in "The Smallest Show on Earth" in 1957. George Adamson served as chief technical advisor on the film and discusses his involvement in his first autobiography, "Bwana Game" (UK title, 1968), known in the US as "A Lifetime with Lions". According to Ben Mankiewicz, who
Bill Travers in the Indian Army on 9 July 1942 (from the rank of private). He served in the Long Range Penetration Brigade 4th Battalion 9th Gurkha Rifles in Burma, attached to Orde Wingate's staff, during which service he came to know John Masters, who was his brigade major (Travers was later to act in "Bhowani Junction", a tale written by Masters). While deep behind enemy lines, Major Travers was struck by malaria and volunteered to be left behind in a native Burmese village. To avoid capture, he disguised himself as a Chinese national and walked hundreds of miles through jungle territory