{{short description|Animal collection in Los Angeles (~1911–~1940)}} {{use American English|date=February 2023}} {{use mdy dates|date=February 2023|cs1-dates=ly}} {{Infobox zoo | name = Selig Zoo | logo = | logo_width = | logo_caption = | image = Know Your City No.15 Lionesses on archway of entrance to the Selig Zoo.jpg | image_width = | image_caption = Selig Zoo archway, 1955 | slogan = | date_opened = 1915 | date_opening = | date_closed = {{circa|1940}} | location = 3800 Mission Road, Lincoln Park, Los Angeles, California | coordinates = {{coord|34.0676|-118.2009|type:landmark_region:US-CA|display=inline,title}} | area = | floorspace = | num_animals = | num_species = | largest_tank_vol = | total_tank_vol = | annual_visitors = | members = | exhibits = | owner = | director = | management = | publictransit = | website = <!-- {{URL|www.example.com}} --> }}
The '''Selig Zoo''' in Los Angeles, California was an early 20th century animal collection managed by Col. W.N. Selig for use in Selig Polyscope Company films and as a tourist attraction. Over the years the zoo was also known as the '''Luna Park Zoo''', '''California Zoological Gardens''', '''Zoopark''', and, eventually, '''Lincoln Amusement Park'''. After Westerns, "animal pictures" were Selig's second-most popular genre of film product.<ref name=":1" />
== History == According to Haenni, "Selig became the owner of Big Otto Breitkreutz's circus after the latter was unable to repay a debt, and a Selig troupe spent the winter of 1910–11 making films in Florida..."<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last=Haenni |first=Sabine |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-53561-0 |title=The Zoo and Screen Media |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |isbn=978-1-137-54342-4 |editor-last=Lawrence |editor-first=Michael |place=New York |pages=87–110 |language=en |chapter=Animal Empire: Thrill and Legitimation at William Selig's Zoo and Jungle Pictures |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-53561-0_5 |access-date=2023-02-15 |editor2-last=Lury |editor2-first=Karen |chapter-url=http://link.springer.com/10.1057/978-1-137-53561-0_5 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> By December 1911,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Slide |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gABqNFQkjR4C&dq=%22Selig+Zoo%22&pg=PA27 |title=Early American Cinema |date=1994 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-2722-6 |page=27 |language=en}}</ref> Selig had gathered a large collection of animals for his films so he bought {{Cvt|300|acre|mi2 km2}} somewhere in Santa Monica near the Los Angeles Pacific Interurban Railroad line for Selig's Wild Animal Farm.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Motography (Apr-Dec 1911) - Lantern |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motography56elec_0481 |access-date=2023-02-16 |website=lantern.mediahist.org}}</ref> Big Otto managed Selig's Wild Animal Farm from 1912 to 1914.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Maintaining a Wild Animal Jungle for Pictures, The Diamond S Farm, Motography (Jan-Dec 1912) - Lantern |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motography78elec_0709 |access-date=2023-02-16 |website=lantern.mediahist.org}}</ref> In the mid-teens, Selig spent substantial funds acquiring and developing {{convert|32|acre|mi2 km2}} of land in Lincoln Heights northeast of downtown Los Angeles, where he built a large elaborate zoo. The famous entrance gates, bearing statues of lions and elephants, were designed by an Italian sculptor named Carlo Romanelli.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1915) - Lantern |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/movingpicturewor25newy_0247 |access-date=2023-02-16 |website=lantern.mediahist.org}}</ref><ref name="Rice"/>
The public opening day of the zoo was June 20, 1915.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHRJAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Selig+Zoo%22&pg=RA4-PA24 |title=The Movie Magazine: A National Motion Picture Magazine ... |date=1915 |publisher=Movie Magazine Publishing Company, Incorporated |pages=24 |language=en}}</ref> As of September 1915, the Selig Zoo housed over 700 animals including two giraffes (named Fritz and Leni<ref name=":1" />), nine lions, sacred cows from India, llamas from Peru, and an unidentified species of "temple monkey."<ref name=":0" /> Elephant performer Toddles came to Selig from Big Otto by way of Ringling.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Altoona Times 05 Jun 1913, page 12 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/275392509/ |access-date=2023-02-16 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> The head zookeeper was John Robinson.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=Libyan Desert| newspaper=The Los Angeles Times | date=1915-09-05 | page=13 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380357798/ |access-date=2023-02-15 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> The Selig Zoo held a five-year-old orangutan called Prince Chang.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1915-08-14 |title=Los Angeles Letter |volume=25 |page=1144 |newspaper=Moving Picture World |issue=7 |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/movingpicturewor25newy_1198 |access-date=2022-11-25 |via=Media History Digital Library}}</ref><ref name=":42">{{Cite news |date=1915-06-26 |title=Chang's Throne Totters |volume=97 |page=9 |work=The San Francisco Call |issue=154 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19150626.2.176&srpos=1&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Prince+chang%22+Selig------- |access-date=2022-11-25 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> He supposedly lived in a castle with a southern exposure and its own garden;<ref name=":42" /> his enclosure was said to be electrically heated.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Blaisdell |first1=George |date=1915-07-10 |title=Great Selig Enterprise |volume=25 |pages=227–229 |newspaper=Moving Picture World |issue=2 |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/movingpicturewor25newy_0248 |access-date=2022-11-25 |via=Media History Digital Library}}</ref> He appeared in a one-reel Selig film called ''The Orang-Outang''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1915-08-07 |title=Selig display ad |volume=25 |page=1095 |newspaper=Moving Picture World |issue=6 |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/movingpicturewor25newy_1149 |access-date=2022-11-25 |via=Media History Digital Library}}</ref> Described as "enormous," Chang did not immediately take to the rigors of film production. He reportedly chased costar George Larkin around the studio while brandishing a cane, and wrecked two sets. Eventually, furniture made of cast iron bolted to the floor allowed production to continue.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1915-08-12 |title=A Wild Animal Film |volume=xxviii |page=655 |work=The Bioscope |issue=461 |location=London |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002396/19150812/095/0025 |url-access=registration |access-date=2022-12-04 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref>
Two of the keepers at the Selig Zoo were brothers Clarence and Melvin Koontz, the latter of whom went on to a long career as an animal trainer.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Buck |first1=Frank |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102858157 |title=Animals are like that |last2=Weld |first2=Carol |date=1939 |publisher=R.M. McBride and Co. |location=New York}}</ref> A noted historian of American circuses and circus elephants, Chang Reynolds, worked at the Selig Zoo as a young man.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Chang |last=Reynolds |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1352405 |title=Pioneer circuses of the West. |date=1966 |publisher=Westernlore Press |oclc=1352405}}</ref>
In 1917 Selig sold the Edendale production facility to William Fox and moved Selig Polyscope to the zoo in East Los Angeles. Meanwhile, World War I cut severely into the substantial European revenues Selig Polyscope had been garnering, and the company shunned profitable movie industry trends, which had shifted towards dramatic (and more costly) full length feature films. Selig Polyscope became insolvent and ceased operations in 1918.
Movie studios rented animals and staged many shoots at the Selig zoo (sometimes later claiming they had been filmed in Africa). The first Tarzan movie (1918) was filmed there. In 1920 Louis B. Mayer rented his first studio space for Mayer Pictures at the site. Also in 1920 the Selig Zoo acquired a hyacinth macaw.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n7hEAQAAMAAJ&dq=selig+hyacinth&pg=RA5-PA9 |title=The Golden West |date=September 1920 |publisher=C.E. Stokes |page=9 |language=en}}</ref>
Selig planned to develop the property into a major tourist attraction, amusement park and popular resort named Selig Zoo Park with a Ferris wheel, carousels, mechanical rides, an enormous swimming pool with a sandy beach and a wave-making machine, hotel, theatre, cinema, restaurants and thousands of daily visitors (more than 30 years before Disneyland). Only a single carousel was built. Selig Polyscope's extensive collection of props and furnishings were auctioned off at the zoo in 1923. A young California condor captured in Ventura County was installed at the zoo in 1924.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Law |first1=J. Eugene |last2=Wyman |first2=L. E. |last3=Wright |first3=W. S. |last4=Bryant |first4=Harold C. |date=July 1924 |title=From Field and Study |url=https://academic.oup.com/condor/article/26/4/153/5262741 |journal=The Condor |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=153–155 |doi=10.2307/1363221 |jstor=1363221 |issn=1938-5129|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
In 1925 a guidebook outlined the attractions for tourists:<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rider |first1=Fremont |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001610731 |title=Rider's California; a guide-book for travelers, with 28 maps and plans |last2=Cooper |first2=Frederic Taber |date=1925 |publisher=The Macmillan company: London, G. Allen & Unwin, ltd. |location=New York}}</ref><blockquote>On entering, the visitor proceeds first to the Lion House, a low, quadrangular structure in Mission style, with the cages facing inward upon an arcade surrounding a central patio. There are 44 of these cages, containing lions, leopards and monkeys.
Proceeding S., we reach (on R.) a row of outdoor cages containing various birds and animals. Beyond are nine enclosures containing a large collection of pheasants, including some interesting hybrids. Oppo site are the Bear Dens, also a few smaller animals.
Further N. (on R.) are various birds. Opposite are the Ostrich pens. Behind the latter is the Elephant House.
Nearby is a circular Training Cage, where the process of training young lions and tigers for use in e may often be seen in the morning, and where Animal Acts are given Saturdays and Sundays at 3 o'clock .
Returning to entrance by E. path, we pass a group of cages containing a numerous assortment of Storks and Cranes.</blockquote> center|thumb|550x550px The zoo was in operation until about 1935.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Locke |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bkSACQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Selig+Zoo%22&pg=PT55 |title=Silver Lake Chronicles: Exploring an Urban Oasis in Los Angeles |date=2014-11-11 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-62584-682-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dangcil |first1=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=733QQYBx1C8C&dq=%22Selig+Zoo%22&pg=PA115 |title=Hollywood, 1900-1950, in Vintage Postcards |last2=Dangcil |first2=Tommy |date=2002 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-2073-5 |language=en}}</ref> Selig finally sold out following a Los Angeles flood of 1938 during the Great Depression and what was then called Zoopark ceased to exist in 1940 after the cages and equipment were removed.<ref name=":12">Sutherland, Henry. "Services Set Monday for Olga Celeste: OLGA CELESTE." ''Los Angeles Times'', Sep 04, 1969, pp. 2-c1''. ProQuest'', magic number 156299655</ref> Some of the animals were donated to Los Angeles County, forming a substantial addition to Griffith Park Zoo. The property was used as a jalopy racetrack during the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1955 the site was described as "an inactive amusement park."<ref>{{cite web |title=Los Angeles Times: Lionesses on archway of entrance to the Selig Zoo |url=http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0002t4m5 |access-date=21 June 2018 |website=UCLA Digital Library}}</ref>
The former Selig Zoo's arched front gate with its lavish animal sculptures was a crumbling landmark in Lincoln Heights for many decades, but were ultimately demolished in the 1960s. The sculptures were considered lost for several decades, until being rediscovered in a wrecking yard in 2000.<ref name="Rice">{{cite web |last=Rice |first=Christina |date=2016-06-26 |title=When Elephants Ruled the Intersection: The Saga of the Selig Zoo Statues |website=HuffPost |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/selig-zoo-statues_b_1565154}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Waldie |first=D.J. |date=2023-03-16 |title=Lions and Tigers and Cameras! How the Movies Gave Los Angeles a Zoo |website=PBS SoCal |url=https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/lost-la/lions-and-tigers-and-cameras-how-the-movies-gave-los-angeles-a-zoo}}</ref> The carousel survived on the site until 1976 when it was destroyed by fire. In 2007, tennis courts were present on the Selig Zoo site.<ref name="Hall">{{cite news |last1=Hall |first1=Carla |title=Zoo to display lion statues from early L.A. menagerie |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-may-14-me-selig-zoo-lions14-story.html |access-date=21 June 2018 |newspaper=LA Times |date=May 14, 2009}}</ref> The lion sculptures were eventually restored and installed at the Los Angeles Zoo in 2009.<ref name="Hall"/><ref>{{cite web |last=Behrens |first=Zach |date=2009-05-13 |title=Lost Life Sized Statues from 1915 Revealed at LA Zoo |website=LAist |url=https://laist.com/news/entertainment/old-statutes-at-la-zoo-revealed}}</ref>
==Gallery== {{gallery | title = Selig Zoo | mode = packed | File:Selig's Wild Animal Farm 1911ish to 1914ish somewhere in Santa Monica near a streetcar line.jpg|Selig's Wild Animal Farm 1911ish to 1914ish somewhere in Santa Monica near a streetcar line | File:Scenes from the Selig Zoo, Los Angeles, Cal. 1915.jpg | Animal collection highlights, 1915 | File:Selig zoo park.jpg | Promotional drawing for the planned Selig Zoo Park in East LA, with light rail connections, cars speeding towards the entrance and long lines depicted at the gate. Only a single carousel was ever built and the site struggled as a lightly visited zoo for over a decade. | File:Asian elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo, ca.1920 (CHS-9746).jpg | Asian elephant at the Selig Zoo, c. 1920 | File:Baist's real estate atlas of surveys of Los Angeles, California, 1921 (31341).jpg | Selig Zoo and environs in Baist's Real Estate Atlas, 1921 }}
==See also== * {{anl|Cawston Ostrich Farm}} * {{anl|Gay's Lion Farm}} * {{anl|Catalina Bird Park}} * {{anl|Feather Hill Zoo}} * {{anl|Universal City Zoo}} * {{anl|Jungleland USA}}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Commons category|Selig Zoo}}
{{Zoos of California}}
Category:Former zoos Category:History of Los Angeles Category:Zoos in California Category:1910s establishments in California Category:1940 disestablishments in California