This was a major concern about Samson and Sambo, punctuated tragically by Sambo’s death from tuberculosis, shortly after moving to the new enclosure. This major change was done in hopes that it would be healthier for the apes, allowing them to avoid being exposed to all the potential airborne diseases of zoo visitors. Their new home was very different from the open-air cage they’d lived previously, as their new enclosure was a room almost entirely made of tiled surfaces, with one wall of thick glass windows. They would spend 9 years at the zoo’s Washington Park location, until they were moved to the newly opened Milwaukee County Zoo location in 1959. So quickly did Milwaukee take to the gorillas, that mere months later Schuster’s was selling Sambo and Samson toys for Christmas. They were put into an enclosure originally intended for chimpanzees, and cheered upon their arrival by a crowd of 32,000. They were a gift to the zoo from the Pabst Brewing Company, who had purchased them for $10,000 (today that would be about $97,395). Samson was brought to the Washington Park Zoo in 1950 as a baby, alongside another gorilla named Sambo. I’d hoped to bring somewhat of an upswing in tone after last week’s grisly case of Greely, but today we’ll look at the sad tale of Samson, the King of Milwaukee County Zoo. His name was Samson, probably the loneliest of the animals of Milwaukee. It is time to finally acknowledge the 652 pound gorilla for which many have been waiting patiently. Samson and his adoring fans, courtesy of our Historic Photo Collection Trostel Collection of German Theater Scripts.
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