The article also had this great photo of the Philadelphia Zoo’s gorilla Massa, who was only 10 years old at the time it was taken and still growing. (Once again, Richard Reynolds can probably give us Massa’s life story.) |
Sunday, April 26, 2009
GORILLA #5
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Herewith the Massa story - -
Like Miss Alyce Cunningham (of the two John Daniel gorillas), Gertrude Davies Lintz was another animal loving British-born lady who played a key role with gorillas in America.
She was a socialite, married to William Lintz, a physician. They maintained a large estate in Brooklyn. She specialized in breeding and showing St. Bernard dogs, winning honors at the famed Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden.
She and her husband had a sea captain friend, Arthur Phillips, who sailed in the African trade. Sometimes he brought back animals to sell in America.
In September 1931 Phillips contacted Mrs. Lintz offering six young chimpanzees and a sickly baby gorilla suffering from pneumonia. He arrived with them on his S.S. West Key Bar. Mrs. Lintz bought the animals and took the baby gorilla home and nursed it for five days.
As the baby could not chew solid food it was fed ground up fruit and vegetables. For a year it was fed cod liver oil and later meat and liver. The weak gorilla had contracted a form of infantile paralysis.
Mrs. Lintz began exercising the baby, which little by little regained the use of its legs and arms. In time she restored him to perfect health.
She named him Massa, a native word for ‘Big Boss,’ though she thought he was a female.
During 1935 Mrs. Lenz decided to sell Massa. She was afraid of him. It stemmed from an accident at her Brooklyn home. She was washing the floor of her kitchen. Massa was there too as he frequently was for such chores. She slipped and fell, knocking a full pail of water onto the big gorilla. Frightened, Massa attacked and bit her badly. She needed sixty-five stitches to close the wounds. Thereafter Mrs. Lentz kept her distance from him.
Finally, an arrangement was made with the Philadelphia Zoo. It wanted a female to go with its big male, named Bamboo, who had been at the zoo since 1927. As noted above, at the time Lintz thought Massa was a female and sold him as such for $6,000. She drove him to Philadelphia in her station wagon and delivered him to the zoo on December 30, 1935.
Only later did the zoo discover that they had bought another male. Both did very well there. Bamboo lived in the zoo until his death in 1961.
But, Massa outdid not only Bamboo but every other gorilla in the world before or since. He died on December 30, 1984, having lived with Lintz and at the zoo for 53 years and 3 months. That is the world record longevity for a captive gorilla.
Mrs. Lintz also had another male gorilla named Buddy that she bought in 1932. He and Massa were exhibited by Mrs. Lintz in a traveling ape show that booked into places like the Chicago World’s Fair, Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, Hialeah Race Track, and the North Miami zoo.
As is well known, Buddy was sold to RBBB where he became Gargantua.
During my internet peregrinations re: Massa, I found this nice set of 1940s Philly zoo photos for those interested.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulaltobelli/sets/72157600542483805/
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