Getting rid of him. (chuckling) When I went back to the zoo that afternoon, he wasn’t there, and nobody could find him. Nobody could find him. And I went up to the office and he wasn’t there. And the little old lady that was a patron, her husband had been… Read More
So as you were building or doing things at the Evansville Zoo, what were some of your proudest accomplishments that you were able to get through?… Read More
I went down behind her. John, I’ll use it, use the name John, was behind me. I got pretty close to the elephant, and he gave me a shove between the shoulders with his hand. I went forward, but the elephant didn’t step on me. She moved forward a little… Read More
One day, the elephant at a fairly large outdoor area with a moat that she supposedly couldn’t get into, and she went into it regularly every day. My assistant in name was working that day, and he said, “Oh, damn her. She’s down there again.” And I said, “Well, let’s… Read More
When you talked about you said, “I learned at Fort Worth what not to do,” what were some of those things, those lessons that you learned not to do that you didn’t want to do in Evansville?… Read More
When you were making the changes, and you said you had to start with some people, and you were able to move some of those people out, what were some of the exhibit changes that you thought the zoo, you were gonna try and do?… Read More
I’d rather talk about Evansville. Okay. Read More
When you came to Mesker Park Zoo, and you told the mayor of some things you were thinking of, did you kind of have a plan that you were, as you walked around the zoo, that you were thinking you’d like to, a master plan that you’d like to try… Read More
Not a master plan. First I needed to get rid of some people that shouldn’t be there. Give me just a minute. No problem. I went to a meeting, a luncheon meeting, with the Parks Commission. I walked into the meeting, and I put down a stack of tape recordings. Read More
I’ll go get it if you wish.” And they said, “No, don’t get it.” And then somebody said, “What time do you think he ought to leave the zoo?” And I said, “In 30 minutes.” He called the zoo and fired the guy on the phone. Frank. Speak louder, dear. Read More
Did you live on the zoo property or did you have to find a home?… Read More
I had to find a home. I lived for the whole summer months in a tiny apartment downtown with a Murphy bed folding out of the wall. Read More
And we went back to his office and he hired me. Read More
To be honest, very few. I learned a lot I shouldn’t do. I learned a lot. Read More
And what skills did you learn or take away from Fort Worth that you think were helpful when you became the zoo director?… Read More
I’m gonna be the only director of the zoo. Read More
You, Mr. Mayor, are not gonna be involved in directing that zoo.” I just want to say that I think that the priest was at that time leading the society in Evansville, right?… Read More
Yes. were with him. Yes. Yup. Speak up, Frank. And I went out to the zoo with the mayor. And we looked around, and I pointed out stuff that I would change. This needs to go. This needs to go. This needs to be changed. Read More
A priest. A priest. Fort Worth with a priest. There’s some zoo people. I was asking Frank about leaving- Fort Worth. Read More
Right, yeah. Okay. You spoke really long. And I knew that Evansville had lost their zoo director or fired or whatever. Yeah, I’ll admit, I sort of got friendly with the priest and the others from Evansville. A week after, I got, a week after I wound up at the… Read More