By and large the Chicago Park District Commissioners during my time there were not necessarily animal people. I mentioned at one time, Colonel Arvey was a political entity in town. Joe Gill was also a political person, Mr. McFetridge was Mr. Labor in town, he was not an animal-related person… Read More
You talked about the Park District Commissioners, were they involved in the zoo operations?… Read More
Did they help it?… Read More
So whether it was Christmas, New Year’s two feet of snow after a storm, those volunteers in their Children’s Zoo nursery were there every time they were supposed to be there. And we also, of course, had an animal keeper involved to kind of oversee and work with the volunteers… Read More
So I had a problem to work through with the volunteers, and convinced the bureaucracy that this was important for the operation, and they just had to respect our wanting to move that ahead. And so over the years we developed a solid volunteer Corps of people. I may be,… Read More
And one of the most important people early, early on in that work was Marshall Field. Marshall came to my office one day, and we sat and visited a little bit. And he said, “Les, I wanna help the Old Zoo move ahead.” And I thought, well, you know, he’s… Read More
Zoo volunteers is an interesting part of my life. I think that in the nonprofit world and the zoo is part of that in the sense of the word, the Zoo Society, the various museums and cultural institutions around the country. You can’t get along with a volunteer and you… Read More
Yeah. Unfortunately what’s gonna happen is. Okay, stand by. Okay, we are all set. Read More
How did the concept of zoo volunteers develop and why?… Read More
Cut, Dinah can you hear him- Yes, can you hear him during that?… Read More
You could take blood from a Chimp and find out if it’s sick or healthy, but unless you knew what a healthy baseline was for the blood work, how could you know if it was sick?… Read More
So we decided to do all the conceivable testing that we could at that moment in time, we took blood, and urine specimens, X-rays got a whole medical background history of baselines that other people around the country or the zoo world for that matter, could have in the future. Read More
And Otto did stuff for Dugan in those first few times, and Dugan had just limited time to film him in the old facility that were kind of fun as it was filmed. And then, of course, it was anesthetized and taken over to the new building, and showed his… Read More
I originally asked a man named Warren Wirth to perhaps try to document this move, and he’d been with “Zoo Parade” for years, he was an NBC veteran. And he had conflict with time and schedule. And I think he may have been the one that recommended Dugan to us. Read More
One of the things that happened happily in the Old Monkey House, where I mentioned Bushman years ago, living at the corner, that would be the Southeast cage of the Old Monkey House. In that part of the building we had some larger cages where we housed our few big… Read More
And so I went to a lunch with Ray and came out with 100, not 100, a million dollar check. And that time I was, of course, walking on air and walking on water with that. And the money from Ray, not only built us the commissary hospital, but there… Read More
How did the documentary and the project “Otto Zoo Gorilla” come about?… Read More
Another thing that we didn’t touch on, but the first project for the Lincoln Park Zoo Society in fundraising was to develop the farm in the zoo. And at that time it was, I think, a pioneering effort in the city of Chicago, we built a five-acre miniature sort of… Read More
We have had people several times during my tenure at the zoo, visitors that had a heart attack or a serious medical issue, and were taken by ambulance to a hospital, some of which may have died, but from a safety standpoint that was to me, a real good feeling… Read More
Another thing that I felt good about in reflecting back on my time at the Old Zoo was the fact that I could tell Mayor Daley, the father, and I could tell Mayor Daley, the son that I thought and believed sincerely that Lincoln Park was probably the only happy… Read More