Cincinnati Zoo 6

PRIMATES

Mr. & Mrs. Rooney

Mr. & Mrs. Rooney seems to have been the only chimpanzees in the United States back when this photo was taken in 1888. They were named after a famous actor of the day who dressed extravagantly for his comedy parts. The renowned actor, Pat Rooney, once visited the zoo to see his namesake. While standing in front of the cage with his friends the male chimp thrust his face between the bars and pursed out his lips in a comical manner. The actor roared with laughter and said in his stage brogue, "Howly smoke, but isn't he loike me?" The two apes were often seen in suits, dresses, shoes and hats. They were very adept at using cups, spoons, forks, napkins, etc. A major attraction was when they sat down for their daily meal at 3.30 p.m. In 1894 both animals died of consumption.

Not a postcard-1974

The Monkey House built in 1875 at a cost of $14,000 and is now the oldest existing zoo building in America. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The same person who designed the Cincinnati Art Museum, James W. McLaughlin, also designed this structure. In 1951 the monkeys were moved out and snakes, lizards and other reptiles moved in and it became known as the Reptile House. In 2012 The structure was restored at a cost $817,772, including restoring the roof to its original red color as seen above. (It had been white for many years).

Ape House Tarzan/Queen ? Lowland Gorilla

Tarzan was another table trained chimpanzee who was raised in an apartment in New York whose owners taught him table manners. He died in 1921 from a very common ailment for apes back then, pneumonia. An ape named Julia arrived at the zoo in 1923 to replace Tarzan. Julia arrived in Cincinnati in her own Pullman car, on the Cincinnati Limited, in her own stateroom. She was renamed Queen.

Tarzan A slow Loris A Gibbon Orangutan

Professor Wormwoods Dog and Monkey act was a popular vaudeville act of the day. It consisted of 31 Monkeys and 24 dogs that rode bicycles, turned somersaults, juggled, fenced, acted as waiters, barbers, comedians. The monkeys were dressed as old men and women who would obey word commands. The dogs were harnessed to small sulkies and the monkeys would act as drivers.

King Tut

King Tut came to the Zoo in 1952 and began the first gorilla family (see below).

Sam and Samantha were born in January, 1970. Sam was born to "Mahari" and "Hatari" and Samantha was born eight days later to "Penelope" and "King Tut". These lowland gorillas parents had no experience at parenthood because they had been raised by people and the mothers refused to take care of them, the zoo requested help from Good Samaritan Hospital. They were kept in a special room at the hospital for several weeks and were then sent back to the zoo. Because they were the first gorillas born at the zoo, they were featured for weeks in the local news media as a twenty four hour watch was installed to await the births. and later at the hospital. You can probably figure out how they got their names.

Samantha is on the left

A little update on Samantha: This year (2010) she has been at the Cincinnati Zoo for 40 years and has given birth to seven healthy babies who have in return given birth to eleven grandchildren. She is considered the Alpha female of all the gorillas. Sam died in 2000 at the Knoxville Zoo from heart failure.

Not a postcard

Samantha today

Billy & Janie

The two real photo postcards above shows Carole Dressman, William Dressman's wife (see below) and her trained Chimpanzees at the Cincinnati zoo. Both Caroline and William Dressman trained all the apes at the Cincinnati Zoo from the time of Suzie's arrival until Williams death in 1954 around the time the zoo began to stop treating the apes at the zoo as humans. Billy and Janie were their most famous chimpanzees and were often seen walking the zoo grounds with the Dressmans. As can be seen in the center card they were very proficiant riding bicycles and tricycles and they could roller skate.

SUZIE THE GRAF ZEPPELIN GORILLA

Susie was, in her day, the first and only trained Gorilla in the world. Captured when only six months old off the west coast of South Africa in the Belgian Congo. Taken to the Riviera in France, where she remained until the Graf Zeppelin made its first trip to America, on which she was a passenger. Suzie occupied Cabin One, landing at Lakehurst, N. J., August 4, 1929. She was then taken on a tour of the United States and Canada. She was purchased by the Cincinnati Zoo in 1931. The person seen in a couple of these cards is Susie's trainer William Dressman with whom Susie would sit down with twice a day, every day, and eat a meal using a knife, fork and napkin. The Enquirer called her "the best educated and most highly trained gorilla that has ever lived". Paramount News spent 2 days filming "A Day in Susie's Life" for showing in movie houses throughout the world. Suzie's birthday was celebrated every August 7th with every child attending her party getting ice cream and cake (the 1936 party broke all attendance records at the zoo. Powel Crosley Jr. sent one of his Shelvador electric refrigerators to the zoo for Suzie in 1936.
Susie was given six weeks to live by animal experts when she first came to this country. She died 21 years later on October 29, 1947 of leptospirosis, a bacterial disease. Upon her death her body was donated to The University of Cincinnati. It was cleaned, mounted and displayed in UC's department of biology where it served as a souvenir and a "first class specimen" for teaching introductory biology. When the Brodie Science Complex opened, skeletons of primates were displayed in glass cases in the hallways. They were frequently rotated and when not on display they were stored. One Sunday in 1974, while being stored, a fire started in the laboratory's storeroom and completely destroyed Susie. Dr. William Dreyer, professor of zoology said the other things destroyed were replaceable, but that Susie was not.

Suzie's cage was located next to today's Reptile House