July 2014 The PlatyPress is a newsletter for members of the Platypus Circle. The Platypus Circle is composed of individuals, corporations and foundations who share our passion for supporting the Milwaukee County Zoo, conserving endangered animal species, and teaching the importance of preserving wildlife and its natural environment. Photo by Richard Brodzeller
newspapers, books and on TV. Winter’s second book, a 128-page, 211-photo pictorial history of our Zoo, debuts July 28. For this book she is a co-author with two other Zoo Pride volunteers: Zoo historian Elizabeth (Bess) Frank, a retired curator of large mammals, and Zoo librarian Mary Kazmierczak. Samson, perhaps the most popular animal in our Zoo’s history, was supposed to be a panda. “Pabst Brewing donated $10,000 in the early 1940s to import giant pandas from China. That was during World War II, but the Chinese border closed before we could get the pandas,” says Winter. “So the Zoological Society decided to purchase gorillas.” That effort took years. In 1950 two baby gorillas (Samson and Sambo) flew to Milwaukee on a commercial airline, covered in blankets so no one knew they were there. Samson long outlived Sambo and was a Zoo celebrity for 31 years.
Darlene Winter walks at the Zoo.
Platypus Member Profile:
She Writes Books on the Zoo arlene Winter loves celebrities: Samson the gorilla, Sultana the polar bear, Countess Heine the elephant. Now she’s making them more famous by writing books about them. And the Milwaukee County Zoo is the beneficiary. Winter is no stranger to donating her effort and time to the Zoological Society of Milwaukee (ZSM). Not only is she a donor in the ZSM’s Platypus Circle, but she also is a 14-year member of Zoo Pride, the ZSM’s volunteer auxiliary. Two years ago Winter came out with the 54-page book “I Remember Samson” (Mirror Publishing 2012), which she wrote with the help of Samson’s longtime keeper, now retired, Sam LaMalfa. Samson, believed to be the largest gorilla in captivity, was celebrated in
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Arcadia Publishing, which specializes in pictorial-history books and has published several zoo books, contacted Winter about doing a book on our Zoo. “I knew I could not do it alone,” she says. Zoo Director Chuck Wikenhauser wrote the foreword. Bess Frank wrote the introduction from her research on the history of the Zoo. Mary Kazmierczak helped edit and scanned the photos (she also helped with photos for “Samson”). Even though she was familiar with some Zoo history, Kazmierczak, whose German grandfather helped design Milwaukee’s infrastructure, was fascinated to discover that “the founding of the Zoo was very much the impetus of the German-American community.” Milwaukee’s German immigrants wanted open-air parks like ones in Germany, and community groups, along with German beer barons, helped develop the Zoo. In fact, the Zoo began with eight deer donated by Col. Gustave Pabst, son of Milwaukee brewer Frederick Pabst. Countess Heine, the Zoo’s first elephant, arrived via train to great fanfare in 1907. She was donated by German immigrant Henry (Heine) Bulder, a community leader who raised funds for her purchase. He was called the “father of the zoo” and helped found the Zoological Society, with Otto L. Kuehn, in 1910. In the Zoo’s first group of polar bears was Sultana, who gave birth to the first polar bear cub in captivity in North America. He was named Zero because it was 10 below zero when he was born on Dec. 2, 1919. Sultana was a Zoo celebrity for 35 years, outdistancing Samson, who died of a heart attack. Winter, who had a heart attack herself in 2005, is donating profits from the “Samson” book to the Zoo’s ape research project on heart disease. Profits from the “Milwaukee County Zoo” Continued on page 2