I did, but that was later. We opened the aquarium in ’54. Okay, about 19, one of my, I’ve made lists, of this is what I want to get for the zoo, this animal, that animal. And man, as I said, you know, I grew up in aquariums, and I… Read More
And there was a guy in Florida, some springs who had somehow brought one in. And it had lived and all that. But then the cold weather came, or a cold for Florida. And anyway, it died. Read More
And we have to, Hittson has to send the park crew in there, probably for six months to get that thing built. But we got it built. And he named it after his editor of 30 or 40 years, Mr. Record. And Mr. Record was there when we dedicated that… Read More
Now, in that building, did you bring in freshwater dolphin?… Read More
Did I bring in freshwater dolphins?… Read More
Who did these plans?” And I said, “I did.” “Well, who’s your architect?… Read More
Have you selected?” “Yeah, Charlie Freelove.” He was a brother-in-law or something of one of the park board members. He said, “He isn’t worth shit. He isn’t worth shit. Here, read this paper.” This man was, Mr. Carter was a great philanthropist. He said, “Read these. Everybody that I give… Read More
But I was impressed with it. Hell, I signed it right there. Then I thought, I’m not the park director. He needs to sign that. Well, I wasn’t gonna mention his name. So anyway, I sign the papers. He writes me out a check for $100,000. I take it to… Read More
He said, “Who’s working with you?… Read More
Are you gonna have any saltwater fish?” He was smart. “Well, how much do you really need?” We had a budget of 75,000 that our contractor friend had estimated. And it was probably 100% under. Well, I didn’t know that at the time. So I upped it 25,000. I said,… Read More
I’d drawn up what I’d call a shop drawing, but you could build it from it. And showed that to him. He was very impressed. Read More
Somehow Mr. Hittson and Mr. Carter had not hit it off at some point. And he said, “No, I’m not gonna go with you. You’re on your own. But don’t mention,” (laughs) it was a sea lion thing or something. Anyway, actually, I think it was a poker game. Mr. Read More
I mean, he wanted to know more about, “Well, here’s a tank, but what’s gonna be in it?… Read More
What should we do? What’s the major thing?” Well, I thought about that. And I really haven’t thought that I would be asked this question. But I said, “I love aquariums.” I said, “Fort Worth needs an aquarium. You know Dallas has an aquarium.” Fort Worth and Dallas are very… Read More
“Well, Lawrence, what do you think we need the most?… Read More
His newspaper was running daily things on raising money. And I think they’d raised just, you know, 10 cents here and a dollar there and all that. I think they had maybe $2,000. He calls me up and I’ve never met the man yet, but he was a fixture in… Read More
Plus a degree, masters and all. And I had a lot of publications, a lot of that I’d written, okay. Read More
So what to do with all of that?… Read More
Well, the… I’d been in Fort Worth maybe a week when Hittson brought the park board out to the zoo to meet me. I was very, I mean I was really… It was a 180 degree switch with what I was dealing with in Dallas, there I was as a… Read More
“Who’s he conning now?” As my friend Dolan said. Well, he said, “Suppose you that you can’t pay, it doesn’t work, then what happens?” And I said, “Well, we will give them the herpetarium back.” “But it’s on city property.” “Yeah, they know that, but they haven’t figured it out… Read More