That name sounds vaguely familiar. Yeah, it does. “Attendance at the Brookfield Zoo this year has increased nearly 100% over last year. This brings joy to the elephants, monkeys, seals, lions, hippos, peacocks, and Robert Bean. Bean, the zoo director, is pleased because it is good business. Crowds are averaging… Read More
Now with crowds back, they show off and beg. The rattlesnakes rattle more when people are around. Mike the chimp, who is 22 years old, puts on shows all the time now. Read More
Little Baby Brookfield, the two-year-old elephant, got so lonesome without the kids around during the winter they had to give a pony, Dolly, as a companion.” (laughs) A pony?… Read More
Mm-hmm. I dunno, that woulda been something to see, if somebody just pulled a baby orangutan outta their coat and started giving it mouth-to-mouth. Janet, take a look at that. Maybe could read that article. It says some things. Mkay. Read More
This is from Tuesday, June 8th, 1948, from “The Chicago Daily News.” Do you know Jack Mably?… Read More
Yeah? It must still be, yeah?… Read More
But I suppose, if you invest a lot in something like that, it’s… The pair cost 4,500, which does not seem to be so much, really, but I guess, back then, it certainly was. But insuring animals was big business at that time. Read More
I don’t know if he had to buy a ticket or not for Tia, but close to the downtown train station, it started to have a heart attack or something. I don’t remember this. to give it mouth-to-mouth on the train. Musta been quite an ordeal, giving an orangutan, on… Read More
No. Uh-uh. I remember the story because… Yeah, Grandfather had gone to… I don’t know. Was it Sunny… Louis? It may say in this article here. But he went to go pick up these orangutans from another zoo, and he brought them back. I dunno if he brought them back… Read More
What was the other one? Tia?… Read More
You don’t remember any of this?… Read More
And then, it looks like they’re with your father. There was a fight to save an orangutan. Yeah, I remember this story more from, I think, my mother telling it to me. It was a pair. There were Tai-Pang and…… Read More
They were dealers in wild-animal wildlife of some consequence. They were big-time. They brought in anything and everything. Huh, I guess I’m sort of glad that don’t have that sort of thing going on so much anymore. It doesn’t seem right to just go over there and take that thing… Read More
There weren’t lots of ’em, but the big-time, like the Hunt brothers- Who were the Hunt brothers?… Read More
Yeah?… Read More
Probably. So he went over there and- No, he didn’t. I don’t know who. Well, he often went over there. He could have. Well, he could have, yeah, but I don’t think he did. Read More
Probably bought it from a dealer. “From a dealer.” Yeah, the dealers were originally…… Read More
So did your father go off to do that?… Read More
By hunters. So was… That wasn’t born here. Oh, so they had caught it. Yeah, somebody in the wild. Read More
Or did he buy- Did your father buy Babe in Africa?… Read More