Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 122
Were you part of this?… 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
Got one on ya now?… Read More
No. (chuckles) Now Marlin was doing Wild Kingdom. He had come from zoo parade. He was doing Wild Kingdom at the zoo. Read More
Did that impact the zoo in any way or you?… Read More
Now since moody Lentz was also the general curator, also we raised all the baby animals that were born or orphaned like baby lions, baby wolves. And sometimes when Marlin would buy animals for the children’s zoo, they would be sent to the reptile house and we’d have to hand… Read More
Marlin Perkins and Carol would come out to the zoo at night and they’d see the light on in the kitchen of the reptile house. And they would come in. And when they’d see us takin’ care of these animals, they always had advice on how to clean the nipples… Read More
Any unique experiences with Marlin?… Read More
Lincoln Park and the National Zoo being the other two. Now Marlin loves snakes. He hired you. Moody loves snakes. You’re workin’ for him. Read More
Did Marlon show up at the reptile house on a regular basis and was he able to impart any life lessons to you?… Read More
Well Marlin was a frequent visitor to the reptile house. By now Marlin, not only was he director of the zoo, but he was very heavily involved in Wild Kingdom. So he traveled a lot. But when he was in town, he spent a lotta nighttime hours in his office. Read More
Well when I started the zoo in 1963, Marlin Perkins had just been at the zoo about six months and he followed George Vierheller who had been at the zoo for about 40 years. The St. Louis Zoo was in Forest Park. The Forest Park was established about 1875. And… Read More
St. Louis was founded by fur trappers, early fur trappers and hunters. And so there were a lotta baby animals who were brought in from the trappers and kept. Baby bears. There were bears. There were wolves, there were coyotes, foxes, skunks in many of the city parks including Forest… Read More
For the fair, there were 1,000 birds that belonged to the National Zoo that were in that cage. After the fair closed, they did ship those birds to National Zoo and St. Louis had to catch a whole new collection of birds. But at that time, the flight cage was… Read More
And then can you gimme just a little capsule history of the zoo?… Read More
Because Marlin was director, but you had met the director before Marlin Perkins. Read More
So what was the zoo like when you started?… Read More
And you were working for Moody Lentz who was the curator of reptiles?… Read More
Moody Lentz was the curator of reptiles and general curator. And he reported to Marlin Perkins who was the director. And then our assistant director was Henry Sanders who also was curator of birds. So then as a result of all our exercises, Mike, Jerry Lentz and Bob Fru had… Read More