STOTTKEN

Interview with Ken-helm W. Stott, Jr., 1983

 

1983-11-07

 

Interviewer: Colston, Stephen

Stott was born in San Diego in 1920. He began going to the San Diego Zoo when he was about three years old. His father used to drop him off at the zoo since he lived close by. He remembers getting to know a zookeeper there and learning the names of the animals. He recounts a story about Milton Wegeforth and John D. Spreckels and whitewashed elephants. Another voice tells another story about Spreckels, and Stott tells another story about Wegeforth and an alligator. He began working in the elephant enclosure to earn elephant rides, and when he was old enough he worked in concessions and enclosures in the summers. Belle Benchley encouraged him, and he started giving talks in front of the gorilla cage. Eventually Stott became a mammal keeper before he was drafted to serve during World War II, and a mammal curator after, working as well as editor of the ZOONOOZ magazine. He had written articles for the publication while in the Service, describing zoos he visited while on leave.

The interviewer was director of the Center for Regional History at San Diego State University. The interview is a part of a collaborative oral history project of the San Diego Zoological Society, and takes place at Stott's home in San Diego. The file has a loud hum and apparently is not registering its length properly.

Zookeeper; Harry "Doctor Harry" Wegeforth; San Diego Zoo; Ken-helm W. Stott, Jr.; Ken Stott, Jr.; Stephen Colston; John D. Spreckels; White elephants; Interviews; Oral histories; Elephant mesa; Elephant rides; Quarantine; Zoo animals; Wild Animal Park; San Diego Zoo Safari Park; Martin Johnson; Belle Benchley; Mountain gorillas

 

California - San Diego

Copyright © 1990 Zoological Society of San Diego, and San Diego State University Library

 

 

English

 

Audiotape

 

No

 

 

 

Audio

MP3

673.68 MB