Develop the trust. Oh, develop the trust. Okay. So the city cut our, they cut… Well cut, they cut everybody. But they cut about 10 positions out of the zoo, just like that. We had a city manager who was, I mean, I don’t blame him. He didn’t have any… Read More
How long has that been vacant?” “Oh, about three months.” “Cut it.” “Keeper, such-and-such keeper. What’s that?” “Well, that’s a swing keeper and they can work anywhere in the zoo.” “Is it filled right now?” “No, but we’ve interviewed applicants, and we’re recommending to the city who to hire.” “Cut… Read More
And so even though it was just ceremonial, so to speak, she was listed, she’d participate. And we used to, ne thing I used to do, Mark, and I found this to be very effective. Every Friday Kirkpatrick would come to the zoo. He was an ex-admiral. And apparently, there’s… Read More
Well, that was the best compromise that I could come up with. We were a city department. But the price of oil and the oil glut in the late ’70s. We were raising money for an aquarium, dolphin area, or porpoise-ry is the word I used to like. We had… Read More
Your question, why was it important to what?… Read More
Well, why was it important?… Read More
Both. Both. Hell, if we give them 50 acres, I want some of the action. Mm-hm. I want peace of the action. So anyway, they yeah, the racetrack was built, and then it just about went bankrupt a year or two ago. People shouldn’t gamble. I mean, if they want… Read More
And the Indians now have taken it over, and they’re making it work, of course, with white man’s money. Well now, as we talk about fundraising and so forth. Read More
Why was it important to develop the Oklahoma Zoological Trust?… Read More
I had a few other problems, but that was the biggie. That was the biggie. And I wasn’t gonna give that guy all that land. So they build the racetrack. Well, I left. Okay. When I found out the trustees were doing this, this was inside trading. I mean, they… Read More
And so I left, I left. Read More
When you were there, were they, were you trying to negotiate just a parking lot, or revenue from the racetrack?… Read More
Is that a snow egret?… Read More
Yeah, I think it was a American egret. it could have been a snow. It might even be a cattle egret. Anyway, so he wanted more property. And then finally, I just said, we didn’t buy that land. We didn’t acquire it for a racetrack. This is great, if we… Read More
You have those very often?… Read More
And we got that, we got our site was approved. There was a guy named DeBartolo, who was mafia, very mafia. I mean he, and it was well known. He later I think died, but his son went to jail. So says, “Here’s 25 acres for you,” you know. And… Read More
And it was, there was private property available. Well, they didn’t wanna do that. And so the next thing gave them 25 more acres, 50 acres. That’s a lot of land. And then some of my trustees I found out were speculating. They were buying property up. And they were… Read More
32 Acres. Oh god. 32 acres. Well, I think that zoos, to be successful, really over the long run need to be just huge. Chester Zoo is huge, and they’ve done a lot with it. Well, you know, Bronx Zoo is huge, but they don’t have access to a lot… Read More
It’s 650 square miles. So you have to have, people have, are gonna move around by a car, and you have to give them a place to park. All the evidence was that Oklahoma, the state, was gonna approve paramutual betting, which I don’t understand. But I knew that it… Read More
And although some of my trustees at the end said, “Well, you’ll never use that. Let’s use it for this racetrack.” I had a terrible, the worst idea I ever had at Oklahoma City was to build a race, to join… We needed a parking lot. Business was just, we… Read More