I don’t know, but he came through for us. (George chuckles) So some of my experiences in this regard were quite quite fortunate, but others, you were disappointed in terms of the, not just the depth of support, but the continuance of support, because then you have to keep doing… Read More
Were there any surprise donations in your career?… Read More
Well, (George chuckling) let’s say it didn’t preoccupy me. (George chuckles) But with some substantial continuing support from people who’d been, whose families had been associated with the zoo from the very start, like the Hamills. And Corwith Hamill was chair when I became director. But with ongoing contributions from… Read More
How did I adjust to fundraising?… Read More
Well, as I indicated earlier, in terms of funding for the zoo, the basic operational funding came through the Forest Preserve District of Cook County that is from the county taxpayers. And the rest was raised through admissions at the time that I came aboard and it was later that… Read More
How did you adjust to fundraising?… Read More
How did Brookfield zoo get its money in the beginning when you were first starting?… Read More
(George chuckles) Well, as you know, in terms of the child falling in the gorilla exhibit at Tropic World, the kid recovered. We spirited him away to Loyola Hospital, a couple of miles up the road. And in terms of the media coverage, they were absolutely entranced by the story,… Read More
He’d apparently lunged at a keeper and was in the boat and coaxing him out was quite a job but (George chuckles) Crowcroft had allowed the press to be in the building. There were about 500 people in the building. And if Ziggy had turned the wrong way, then it… Read More
In 1996, what were the circumstances around the incident when the child unfortunately fell into the gorilla exhibit and how did the press treat it?… Read More
But in terms of what we should’ve aimed for, much more regular communication. But, I’ll tell you, to get people out from the press bureaus and TV studios downtown out to Brookfield was quite a job. So we had to have unusual circumstances to attract their attention. And probably the,… Read More
But despite as I say, even presence on our board of one of McCutcheon’s sons, that didn’t make a bloody bit of difference in those relations, but you should know, again, that we reached out to, indeed we brought aboard our board of trustees Bill Curtis. That required a board… Read More
It was certainly more than what we did have. We did a sponsor early on, in the Robert Bean days in an educational series before Marlon Perkins that, I think it was a 12 or 13-part series on early television here in Chicagoland. But quite frankly, it was conducted by… Read More
What kind of presence did you want Brookfield to have in the media?… Read More
(George chuckles) In terms of what kind of presence I would like to have had for Brookfield in the media?… Read More
Well, we actually sponsored a young woman Melody Serena on the platypus studies and she worked with the Zoological Board of Victoria and with the governmental agencies and, so to speak, assuring us that the platypus was okay in terms of the river systems and all of that in that… Read More
So the Australia program, I think, is a signal accomplishment of the society. And at the time, there were very few outside interest. New York sort of deferred to us in terms of our efforts there, which are not large, were not on continent-wide scale, but set examples. And as… Read More
So with your presence in Australia, did you consider, from the zoological point of view, bringing koalas or even potentially a platypus to Brookfield Zoo?… Read More
Animals that couldn’t survive because of dogs and cats and whatnot on the mainland itself. So in that case, an auto mechanic became the expert on rehabilitating a natural little island in the Murray River sufficient to support these small marsupial mammals. I mean, he was the expert. And so… Read More
You could not keep these papers in the library. (George chuckles) They were snatched away as soon as you put something in the slot. And these people included the town drunkard guy who was illegally cutting mallee and several others of that sort. They became absolutely marvelous stewards of the… Read More