Buckles Blog: LOUIS RUHE animal importer '38

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Anonymous said...: The Ruhe Brothers, Heinz and Lutz, formed a partnership with Louis Goebel, in late 1959-early 1960, to operate Jungleland. This name was given the park through efforts by James Ruman and Sid Rogel, execs at 20th Century-Fox. They had come in after the 1946-1956 regime of Richards and Horn, in association with Jimmy Woods, when the place was World Jungle Compound. With the Ruhes now in charge, Louis Goebel, weary of changes of ownership, which had repeatedly reverted to him, took his family on a long vacation to Europe. Upon his return, Goebel was dismayed to learn that while the Rhue ancestors had been legendary for running zoos in Dusseldorf and Hanover for over a century of success, this gift had not translated to Heinz and Lutz. They had squandered the money, the Compound was broke, and the brothers departed in disgrace. Goebel took it back once again, but his grand dream of a great resurrection of the Goebel Lion Farm into the New Jungleland was not fulfilled. As I have recounted here from several angles, the last management team took what money they could and let the place dissolve into bankruptcy, closing forever in 1969. Louis Goebel was heartsick the last years of his life, and saw his vacant property fall into mis-use and ruin. Even though Jungleland was gone, no one in particular wanted the site for anything for which the City of Thousand Oaks would grant approval. Disconsolate to the end, Louis Goebel died in 1981.; 24 March, 2009 17:10

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