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The Jungle, Anaheim CA, 1959
A flaming redhead poses in a sensible shirtwaist dress and royal silk satin curly-topped, bell hop hat. Her body language speaks of possession. That ‘58 Chrysler must be hers. The window is down, the vent-wing open and the door is ajar. Behind her the font on the OPEN sign is inspired and worthy today of being developed into a full alphabet. I wonder if she knows the shocking story of what happened at the Jungle just a couple of years before.
Several years ago at a yard sale I picked up an early ’50s map of Anaheim. Carefully unfolding it the tiki graphics in an ad for a place called the Jungle caught my eye. I had never heard of the place. The ad read: THE JUNGLE- Tropical Zoo, Exotic Gift Shop, Head Hunters Beauty Salon and “Home of Jerry, the World’s Most Human Chimpanzee”. Jack Dutton was listed as the owner.
Intrigued and at the time researching for my book, SOUTHERN CALIFONRIA IN THE 50s, immediately I called 411 and asked for Anaheim, California – Jack Dutton. Much to my surprise, fifty years later, there was a listing. I called. I said “Is this the Jack Dutton that owned the Jungle? “Yes it is.” I was even more surprised when he said that he was 90-somthing years old and the manager of a trailer park in Anaheim. To hear the story of the Jungle he invited me to come see him. The next morning at 11am I was standing at the doorstep of his double wide. He was welcoming, feisty and sincere as he told me the story of the Jungle. He got a tear in his eye and said it never fails when he thinks of the Jungle he thinks of Jerry, his beloved-but-ill-fated pet monkey.
He was a ragman. He tells me he made a fortune selling rags after the war. Around 1952 he and his wife Dorothy “adopted” a wild chimpanzee to add to their ever-expanding menagerie of birds and other unusual pets kept at their rural ranch home in nearby Fullerton. They named their “baby boy” chimp Jerry and raised him like they would a child. Within a few months Jerry was toilet trained, ate at the dinner table, dressed himself and even slept in the same bed with the Dutton’s. As Jerry became known around the neighborhood for entertaining at children’s birthday parties other nagging neighbors began to complain about the “wild pet monkey.”
In response Dutton bought a five-acre orange grove in nearby Anaheim. He leveled it built a small zoo. He planted a lush, tropical garden to showcase Jerry and all of his other pets where the public could enjoy them. Jerry shared his new home in the spotlight with snakes, alligators, elephants, bears, ostriches, deer, apes, a lion and hundreds of exotic birds. Crowds enjoyed Jerry’s adorable antics as he played with Sunny the bear or swam with the ducks in the pond. “Jerry amused the guests in the daytime and help me water the plants and feed the other animals a night,” Dutton remembered. He added a restaurant called the Palms, a luau garden, exotic gift shop and a beauty shop called the Head Hunters.
Just a couple of years later in, 1955 when Disneyland opened, things were beginning to get out of hand at the Jungle. Late-night pranksters taunted the animals and evil thieves stole the flamingos. A series of lawsuits forced Dutton to sell his “dangerous” animals. He told me his wife ran off with their lawyer. Even Jerry wasn’t safe. Having grown accustomed to his human-like freedom in the Jungle, the “humanized” chimp needed constant supervision. He went berserk every time he was put in his cage. When he could no longer find “baby-sitters” to care for Jerry around the clock Dutton reluctantly offered his beloved pet chimp to zoos. He said nobody would take him. When Jerry became more and more impossible, Dutton with a tear in his eye told me of the dark day he walked Jerry over to a nearby orange grove and gave him a shovel. “I had him dig a deep hole,” Dutton said, “when he was finished, I told him to jump inside. Then a policeman friend of mine shot him in the head.”
Jack Dutton, among other things, went on to become the mayor of Anaheim. Not long after I talked with him he passed away. He told me “Never humanize a chimp.”
Posted Thursday, August 10th, 2006 under Slide of the Week.
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Great piece of memorabilia! I had a memory as a young child, maybe 3-6 years old, of being taken to a tropical-themed restaurant having a live great ape caged outside. I recalled it as a gorilla, but was very young at the time. I remember my parents and grandparents standing in a line near the door of the restaurant, waiting to get in, and being let go alone to see the ape in a thick rope-sided cage. All of the adults seemed to be feigning complete indifference to the ape, which was the main attraction as far as I was concerned. As I got close to the cage, the ape went berserk, screaming, thumping, leaping onto the rope sides of the cage, and baring his big teeth. I loved animals, but this scared the daylights out of me, and created a indelible memory of the experience.
For some time I have tried to research where this may have occurred, mostly believeing it might have been in Los Angeles. Attached to the memory is a feeling that people were a little scandalized by the whole thing, like there was talk of animal cruelty associated with using an animal as a blatant advertising tool in this way. The cage was large enough to contain the ape, but certainly nothing big enough to be actually lived in happily.
Now I wonder if this was the Palms Restaurant and Jerry. My family had just moved to Anaheim before Disneyland was built, right next to orchards that became the theme park, so it seems likely.
As horrible as Jerry’s end was, it was quick, and that was one unhappy ape in the cage that I saw. Without a wildlife rescue place for Jerry to go, what else could Jack Dutton have done in face of the legal actions being brought against him? Jerry’s end was kind compared to that of thousands of animals euthanized every year at shelters, no loving owners around, and feedlot animals that certainly must have wind of their fate approaching the slaughterhouse. Dutton did not shirk his responsibility, and saw to it that Jerry was unaware of his end with a sharpshooter firing the single final shot. Jerry probably never knew what hit him.
I remember the Jungle very well. There was a 76 gas station on that corner and my folks always went there for gas and my folks would go and have drinks in the bar. My 2 sisters and I would go and check out the animals and listen to the Mynah birds say all the cuz words that people had taught them. It was really sad when it closed because it was free and fun to walk around on a hot summer evening.
i sure remember the Jungle….i have photos of my grandfather(WB “Danny” Danenhauer,proprieter of Dannys Texaco,across from the Fullerton Fox,in the fifties,) holding Jerry,like they were best friends….my ex wife and i spent our Honeymoon in the motel there,in 1982…..i didnt know the fate of Jerry,and im not too altogether sure im glad to have found out…..poor Jerry.
Well, that story is a topper! It’s sounds like a gangster type execution. Dig your own grave and blam! Sad, but also a lesson in human nature and our inhumanity to animals. Good story!
I remember the zoo very well! We went there a few times when I was small as we lived about 2 miles from it. It was on the corner of Orangethorpe & Raymond, next to the old Laura Scudders potato chip plant. The last time I was there I was about 16 (this was around 1970) and just before it closed forever. There was a little chimp there that the zookeeper let me hold (could it have been Jerry’s grandchild??) and a big, sad gorilla that had a head wound. He was so miserable and angry in his tiny cage. So depressing!!. This horrifying 50’s story of poor Jerry and his “dad” Jack Dutton shows everything was not exactly picture-perfect in suburbia! What a place, and what a story. The seedy underbelly of Jungle Palms!
Man,what a touching story,I’m a native Californian and this is the first I’d heard of the Jungle.Poor Jerry,god rest his little soul.Even sadder that Dutton was forced into a position,to even attempt something like that!I’ll have to ask my folks if this place rings a bell w/them.
I swear I am not a nut case, but I tend to have sense things when I am in certain places and I have always had a problem driving through the intersection there near where the Dutton Jungle was. I get a forboding, sad feeling and I usually tear up. I never knew why… Maybe I now I do.
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I grew up in Anaheim in the 60’s and 70’s and live in Fullerton now. My sister used to go to The Jungle with her friends in high school in the mid 60’s- it was the hip place to hang out. I was sad when they tore out the tall tropical trees to make way for the office building that is on the corner now. The hotel is still next door though. Thanks for bringing a fuzzy memory back into focus. R.I.P. Jerry…..
Wow did that bring back memories, I worked for the phone co in 1962 and we use to go to the Palms for Dinner when we had to work overtime. It was great food at a great price, and a lot of fun. Wish we could go back in time. A lot of names are hard for me to remember now wish I could see everyone again. Glen42744@comcast.net
I think there’s a lesson in here for Michael Jackson and Bubbles.
OMG … I should have been working instead of reading this, my afternoon is filled with sadness now. WOW