Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D163776-3
Date(s)
- 1973-09-05 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Ivan, the shopping mall gorilla, looked out from his cage at the B&I on September 5, 1973. He had been a resident at the B&I since 1967. He was acquired by store owner E.L. Irwin in 1964 from the Congo and lived the first few years of his life as one of the family. As his size and strength grew, he was moved permanently to the store. For 30 years, he drew the young and old to the mall. As attitudes towards animals in captivity changed and as zoos gave up their cages for spacious naturalistic "habitats," a "Free the Gorilla" campaign developed. Ivan was the source of much publicity and discord until 1994, when the endangered Western Lowland gorilla was donated to the Woodland Park Zoo. He was on permanent loan to the Atlanta Zoo, where he died on Monday, August 20, 2012
Gorillas; B&I Circus Store (Tacoma);