Because you felt that it would be- It was done at night simply because we didn’t want traffic on the road, (chuckles) plain and simply. Even though we had a police escort, we just didn’t wanna get caught on the San Diego Freeway in the middle of the afternoon. And… Read More
Do you think the sale to SeaWorld, as you mentioned was a little controversial, but do you think if it hadn’t occurred, would Marineland have survived or?… Read More
I think if that particular transition hadn’t have happened with HBJ coming in and buying the park and then ultimately closing it, I don’t think that was their choice in the very beginning. I think they just reached that business decision as it went on, Marineland would’ve closed. It would’ve… Read More
“Why are we doing that? Why are we doing that?” But I was integral in terms of the coordinating everybody, the players, who’s in the water, who’s on the stretcher, who’s doing what, who knows Corky the best, who knows Orky the best?… Read More
You know, we basically just trained them and they walked them right in the stretchers in semi-deep water. And plenty of water for the animals, but we just got the stretchers under them and had them swim through them and stop, target, reinforce them, lift them up. And they craned… Read More
And you just do the opposite, take them out, put the stretcher in the water, unfold the sides, and they swim out. And from that point, I met people like Jim Antrim and Don Goldsberry and Lanny Cornell and people like that and learned a lot about that. And from… Read More
And so there was a big uproar that the whales were stolen in the middle of the night, and they were absconded and off they went down to San Diego. And everybody got upset and people wanted to protest. And, of course, my staff was just, you know, they knew… Read More
And, at that time, I was gonna go off and do something different in my life because I thought, “Well, that’s it.” And the head person down San Diego asked me if I wanted to come and work for him in San Diego for SeaWorld. And I said, “Well, I’d… Read More
That was just part of the deal.” And he goes, “No, I don’t wanna do that.” About two days later, he called me and he says, “I’ve changed my mind.” And I said, “Well, why’d you change your mind?” And he says, “Because I knew you wouldn’t come If they… Read More
So my transitioned after 15 years to San Diego and then off to Orlando. And another 25 years slipped by and, bingo. Well, we have a couple more questions. (Brad laughs) moving Orky and Corky, you were in charge of this move. Moving Orky and Corky, I had moved dolphins… Read More
Now you were talking about that (indistinct). And you talked about different owners. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, they were the owner of SeaWorld ocean park family, they purchased Marineland in 1986. Read More
How did that affect anybody?… Read More
No big deal, or just another owner?… Read More
In the very beginning, the HBJ folks came in and were very nice and everything worked out out well. And the different curators came up from SeaWorld in San Diego and talked with us. And the first thing they said, “Well, we think we should move these two killer whales… Read More
So you had to make a compelling, not a story, but a compelling idea of why I was so important to do these different things and make it palatable so they could really get it and understand it. Because, to them, it cost money and they wanted to know why. Read More
Were you, during this time, you kind of talked a little about it, able to develop your professional growth, and how did you do it?… Read More
Was it just mainly through meeting colleagues?… Read More
It was, it was just mainly through meeting colleagues. The management style that I adopted, I didn’t go back to a management school or a management class. And they didn’t have those then. Or if they did, we certainly didn’t send anybody again. Again, I fashioned it a little bit… Read More
So there really was no change at the animal management level?… Read More
There was never really much animal management level changes. It was always fascinating, though, for me to look at the new management and find out who they were and how would I educate them on what we did. And I spent a lot of energy and time doing that, because… Read More