But the Bronx community has been highly transitional and the, community that was there when I came was transitioning very rapidly, it was moving out entirely. It was a largely a big old, very zoo oriented Jewish community. And that has been largely replaced by immigrants coming in. On the… Read More
When I started paid advertising Laurance Rockefeller, who was chairman of the board at that time said, “What? We have to pay advertising to get people to the zoo?… Read More
That’s no good.” It took me a while to convince him, it had never been necessary before. But what had happened is that there were so many competing opportunities for people, it had become necessary. Read More
Were you as involved in the marketing?… Read More
Yes, I was. And I’ll tell you an interesting story in that regard, I started the marketing at the Bronx Zoo. There was no advertising program at all when I came. Read More
Is there a really super-duper imaginative program?… Read More
Probably know more than anybody else’s. People are running pretty close to the bone. It costs money to advertise, this is the time of little money I suspect they would be very receptive to new ideas. When you were director, you talked about, you had day to day involvement, you… Read More
Did you have a marketing strategy where you just hoping by word of mouth that they would come. Shortly after the Bronx Zoo was founded, William White Niles, who was secretary of the Zoological Society, came up with the idea of a parkway, that parkway became the Bronx River Parkway. Read More
It advertises vigorously on television, on the radio, puts out ads, goes to organizations and so on. And I think it probably does as much as any of the institutions in the New York area do with a constant program of publicity. For example, just a few days ago, the… Read More
How did you think about getting people other than those in the neighborhood to get to the Bronx?… Read More
Maybe we could make it available.” And I did. And that was about 1973. And we initiated a program there, which was still developing. It was a remarkable program. It bred a great many cranes, radiated tortoises from Madagascar over 300, many antelope, including several species that are now gone,… Read More
I mean, the lemurs, the ring-tailed lemurs, and they are being made available for, observational research, it’s not laboratory research and a lot of it is happening there and the foundation is not only paying for the care of the lemurs, but also for all the research. And some other… Read More
The St Catherine’s Island off the coast of Georgia near Savannah is owned by the, Edward John Noble Foundation and, Mr. Frank Larkin and his wife, June, Frank Larkin, who died recently was a long-term trustee of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the society was looking vigorously for an offsite… Read More
And we had never heard of this island, the St Catherine’s and Mr. Larkin said, “Well, why not come and take a look at this island?… Read More
I’m not sure who at all contributed to the Arabian oryx program, but Arabian oryx have been sent from San Diego and Phoenix and elsewhere and I remember that a number of donors made those programs possible. Some of the programs in Madagascar with ring-tailed lemur reintroductions have originated in… Read More
You mentioned the ring-tailed lemurs, there was a developments of the society’s offsite breeding facility at St Catherine’s Island, how did the use of St Catherine’s come about and why there?… Read More
If I’m a donor and I wanna donate money and I’m talking about conservation, could you hold up one successful captive breeding program and reintroduction?… Read More
Would it be the condors or something else internationally?… Read More
They must begin to emphasize the species that need help. So they have larger collections and can interact with parks in a helpful fashion. If they don’t have the species of concern in the park, they can’t help. Should that interaction be going through some global initiative, clearing house, as… Read More
It will take a lengthy discussion and a lot of meetings between a lot of people in a lot of countries. I must say I have a whole series of ideas, but I don’t think we want to spend the next few days here. You wanna give me one. You’ve… Read More