From Richard Reynolds #4

!cid_X_MA1_1306178828@aol, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Richard Reynolds says - - This is Olga Celeste, the leopard lady, at the old Los Angles Zoopark in 1938. It is best known by its original name, Selig Zoo. She was there until it finally closed in 1940 The following closing announcement appeared in WHITE TOPS, Feb-Mar, 1940, in the column “Notes From the Zoos”, p.8, to wit: “Historic Zoopark in Los Angeles, California is closed. Gone are all its animals, its many birds. And with its passing goes one of the city’s most famous landmarks. Olga Celeste, the animal trainer, who has been with the zoo since it was founded three decades ago remained until the end. Inability to meet its debts forced the closing. The zoo management made a valiant fight before giving in . . " Celeste is one who needs a good biography. Bob Taber did a short one for the WHITE TOPS (July-August 1962). She was still living at that time in Southern California. She had her leopards in a lot of Hollywood movies. I recall a leopard one from about 1941 - do not know the title. The setting was a South Seas tropical island ruled over by a native panjandrum of some sort. Western guys happed to land there and became his "guests." What I recall most were the leopards. They were all over his throne room. I later figured they must have been Celeste's animals. No one in the theater seemed to question how leopards came to be on a South Seas Island. Again we are indebted to Chang Reynolds for this photo. He knew her well.