Whether they’re kissing babies or shaking their 10,000th sweaty hand, politicians frequently do things beneath their presumed dignity. In Milwaukee Mayor Frank Zeidler’s case, that meant getting right down in the elephant dung.
The year was 1954, the place was the Washington Park Zoo, and the occasion was a welcoming party for Lota and Tamara, the zoo’s newest residents. Just in time for the Republican National Convention, we present the deliciously ironic image of a Socialist mayor consorting with the traditional symbol of the GOP.
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At the time, Frank Zeidler was at the midpoint of his 12-year tenure (1948-60) as Milwaukee’s chief executive. Although he was the sole elected Socialist in city government, Zeidler worked diligently to advance his party’s commitment to “public enterprise.”
He championed initiatives in public housing, education, libraries and television, but perhaps his administration’s greatest achievement was doubling the city’s land area through an aggressive annexation campaign. The effort made Milwaukee one of the few big cities in America that had working farms within its corporate limits.
Lota and Tamara presided over a much smaller piece of real estate. They were the third generation of featured pachyderms at the Washington Park Zoo. The first was Countess Heinie, who held court from 1907 until 1923, when she outgrew her quarters and was traded to a circus for a smaller model. Venice, her successor, lasted until 1953, when she died after a tumble into the moat that separated her from her fans.
When Lota and Tamara arrived from India as Venice’s replacements, a crowd of 5,000 joined their parade to Washington Park. Zeidler gamely extended the city’s official welcome. When he proffered a peanut, one of the newcomers took his hand instead. The Milwaukee Sentinel described Zeidler’s reaction: “It was a firm clasp, the mayor commented afterward, but somewhat damp.”
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK:
- Lota and Tamara cost $3,500 each – over $40,000 in today’s dollars. One half was donated by Pabst Brewing, the other half raised by Milwaukee schoolchildren.
- The homes on North 47th Street now overlook the Stadium Freeway (Highway 175) rather than the zoo. Clearance began in the mid-1950s.
- Although he might have preferred “most recent,” Frank Zeidler was the last in a line of Socialist mayors going back to 1910.
- Ankle chains kept the young elephants from wandering.
- The animals were expensive, but the fertilizer was free.
IN COLLABORATION WITH MILWAUKEE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
