Well quite honestly, when I started working at the zoo, a surprise I did have is that most of the zookeepers were not interested in animals. They got the job because they were politically connected. Most of ’em had a six or eighth-grade education. They weren’t well-educated. And they were… Read More
When it was warm enough, the cage to the lion house. At that time, we had animals behind bars. They were inside durin’ the day on cold days and they had outdoor sections they went on nice days. Moody told ’em when to let ’em out and when to let… Read More
So you were the curator or we’ll say you were the education coordinator, but then you were promoted or was the title changed to assistant curator and how did that come about?… Read More
Well I was acting as education coordinator doing our teachers workshop. And Marlin came to me one day and said, “Now we’re goin’ to call you assistant curator and that does give you a little raise.” And so that was later of course because now I had a title. I… Read More
‘Cause recommendations had to be made to Marlin and then he would determine if the recommendations were good and he would in turn turn those back over to Moody Lentz to follow through across the zoo. But that gave the curators another opportunity to self-educate. It was like getting advanced… Read More
You work at the zoo. This is a job. Obviously you said, “I want this job.” It helped you out a great deal with the family. Read More
Were there things that surprised you about working at the zoo that you didn’t expect?… Read More
I can’t think of anything that I would necessarily call as a surprise. It was all a lot of eye-opening. I learned a lotta new things. There was in the very beginning we were under the city of St. Louis. And so some of the people that were hired was… Read More
Were you learnin’ anything about the media that would stand you in good stead later from either Marlin or his experiences or maybe Hattie?… Read More
Well for one thing, Marlin always said. First of all, he loved animals and he wanted everybody else to love and appreciate animals as much as he did. And he felt that the best way he could do that was to make them very familiar. So he encouraged all of… Read More
Were there things at the zoo?… Read More
Now Marlin was a pretty famous figure in St. Louis with his TV shows. Read More
Did that impact him moving around the zoo?… Read More
Well because he was out of town a lot, it was his intention to train a larger cadre of staff. That’s where he was training Bob Fru and Jerry Lentz and Mike Fleig and I to help Moody Lentz and Henry Sanders manage the zoo so that he could be… Read More
There was some animosity between the governing body that kinda resented Marlin being gone quite a bit. But if he would’ve allowed the developing staff as we gradually got more authority and were able to operate the zoo, it would’ve been a smooth operation. But that was his intention to… Read More
So we would get the letters that were written to Marlin Perkins. That’s how I learned how to type. We had to type out the answer. A lotta times we had to go to library and learn because we didn’t know the answers so we had to research it. And… Read More
And if they’re okay, they went out in the mail. If they weren’t, he’d call us up and yell at us and tell us what we did wrong and what we should do right. And we had to go back and rewrite the letter. So it was a training program. Read More
Were you part of this?… Read More
It impacted us in a lotta ways. First of all, Marlin Perkins loved to inspire young keepers. And if he recognized ambition in a keeper, he encouraged to read all he could, learn all he could and invited us to write signed copy, invite us the right information bulletins. There… Read More
Yes, I can tell you one. Well we were not allowed ever to open a venomous snake box. When it came in, we had to call Marlin and he had to come over and open it up. And he came over one time and we had this crate sittin’ on… Read More