Willie B.: 27 Years Indoors
The zoo's most famous resident spent twenty-seven years here indoors, with a tire swing.
Listen to this place’s story in Peplos.
How the story begins
Somebody stole the gorilla's television. That was in 1979, just before the football playoffs. He had been captured in Cameroon as an infant and sold to the city's zoo. He came here in 1961 and was named after Mayor William Hartsfield: Willie B. For the next twenty-seven years he lived alone indoors, with a tire swing and that television for company. In 1984 Parade magazine named this one of the ten worst zoos in America.
The rest is in the app. Peplos plays the full story when you reach the place. You can also listen ahead of time.
Visiting
Zoo Atlanta, 800 Cherokee Avenue SE, in Grant Park. The statue is inside the zoo, so you need a ticket to see it. The story works from the entrance. Check hours and tickets with the zoo before you go.
Sources
- New Georgia Encyclopedia: Zoo Atlanta
- Atlanta History Center: Willie B., Atlanta in 50 Objects
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution: How Willie came to Atlanta
- Rough Draft Atlanta: Remembering Willie B., 2021
- Wikipedia: Willie B.
- Zoo Atlanta
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