We had a lot, as I explained in some conversations earlier, we had a lot of events at the zoo that were non-zoo related. Or the earlier boards even before my time used to build attendance. And unfortunately, early on, often at the expense of the collection, because the collection… Read More
But we had a facility that I was very proud of. We had an affinity with Grand Opera for oh, I think it was probably back into the 30s. The only bad thing about the opera was it was in a big old building that dominated, it was right in… Read More
We had access to a- It was a serendipity, had access to 180 acre farm just outside of Cincinnati in another county. And it was the Mass family, Mr. and Mrs. Mass loved the zoo and their daughter Blanche was given- They gave their property to the zoo and their… Read More
And it worked very well. I don’t know, today I really am not familiar whether they’re utilizing- Oh, yes, they are, because they’re breeding cheetah out there on a regular basis right now. So it’s still in- Yes, it’s still working. We also had a larger property that was donated… Read More
We often talked about, you know, whether we should move the zoo. And we had a lot of discussions and my contention was unless you can come up with the hundreds of millions of dollars, you know, that this plant is probably valued at, it’d be senseless to move it. Read More
We couldn’t have afforded to do on a small budget. We had a relatively small, we got a lot of bang for our buck in Cincinnati, we had to. For a relatively small budget, we were able to do a lot of things, and it’s only because of the volunteer… Read More
I’m trying to think of other areas. Oh, we had them out in the park. They were liaisons between the collection and the visitors. We had docent training programs. They would take animals, they’d get outside of the border fence to the schools. In fact, we ended up hiring eventually… Read More
Was that something you initiated?… Read More
Well, OSHA came in and- But see, it was a really- We had a manual and our curator would read the manual to new keepers and it obviously had all the nuts and bolts and you don’t go near bears, cats, tigers, you know, you stay so many feet away… Read More
On another level, you developed, talking education, you developed a docent volunteer program, or was that in place before you came to the zoo?… Read More
No, that was, it was started by- I remember I had like 1200 volunteers involved in the zoo at one point. It was started in my administration and it was people that were always around. It was probably one of the early docent programs. And again, we had some interesting-… Read More
My bunny, you know, so. I says, well, you’re dragging it, Lauren. She said it won’t hurt him. But she was a cute kid. And eventually she begged me, and I eventually, I hired her at the zoo as a keeper. So she became a keeper in the bear area. Read More
And it became a very trying time for me, because a lot of mistruths. You know, when it becomes, it became sort of a legal battle when they were vying for money, and it was a bad time. It was not a time that I enjoyed picking up a newspaper,… Read More
Were there safety things that were initiated after that, that somehow enforced better things in your mind?… Read More
I was gonna say, what were your most frustrating times as director in Cincinnati, but also in Los Angeles?… Read More
Did you have frustrating times in Cincinnati?… Read More
Some areas of difficulty in Cincinnati, I had a terrible accident occur in the zoo. I had a young lady, she was my daughter’s best friend, Laurie Stober. They stood up at each other’s wedding. She was coming in my house probably for 20 some years, in and out of… Read More
What you got there?… Read More
At Cincinnati we’re very fortunate. We had no problem- No matter what problems we might’ve had in keeper force or unions, nobody could ever say we were cruel to our, and as I stated earlier, the collection was always paramount in my- We took care of our collection before and… Read More
Although, I must say in LA, there were a lot of concerned keepers. I had a marvelous keeper staff in LA. I really enjoyed working there. That was an entirely different experience in my lifetime. It was working for a public institution that had society support. The problem was the… Read More