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Photos: Meet The Chimp That Lived In A NYC Apartment In 1955
By
Jen Carlson
Published Mar 5, 2013
Modified Mar 6, 2013
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Mar 5, 2013
Modified Mar 6, 2013
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This young chimpanzee is Kokomo, Jr., described by WFMU as "the first talking chimp to come down the pike... to ski down a mountain... to open a checking account... [the only chimp] with a syndicated newspaper column," and to live in a pretty nice New York City apartment. The apartment actually belonged to his owner, Nick Carrado, but Kokomo probably helped pay the bills...
Kokomo was mostly known for his nearly four decades of television work—from the 1950s through the early 1980s, he appeared on a number of shows, and performed with the likes of Buddy Hackett, Joey Bishop, Diahann Carroll, Phyllis Diller, Merv Griffin, Red Buttons, Tony Bennett, and Jack Benny.
Here, Carrado explains how he got Kokomo to talk:
"I took him to psychologists, speech therapists, they all told me, 'Chimps just don't talk.' I spent about four months getting him to make a sound with his vocal cords. Then another three months to make him shape his mouth, lips, and jaws. I found that he couldn't make the 'M' sound without overlapping his upper lip with his lower lip by about a half an inch. When he said' Mama' on the Today Show, it was all worth it. The Daily News gave us a full page, the Associated Press, you name it. One time a reporter challenged me on it, so I said, 'I'll come down there and I'll show ya,' which I did! I could've taught Koko to say more words. I have no doubt in my mind about that. I was busy trying to earn a living and I didn't have the time it would take to do that. It could get a little hectic."
In the above photos, Kokomo is seen going about his daily routine in his Manhattan digs, but he eventually moved out of the big city in favor of the country life. After his retirement in 1983, the family lived in North Carolina, where Kokomo enjoyed the simpler things: he "enjoyed painting, eating spaghetti, and drinking the occasional beer." In an interview given before Kokomo's death, Carrado admitted there were actually two Kokomos: "It's been seventeen years since we performed, so I guess we don't need to keep this a secret anymore. In the end, I'd rather that people know that I'm humane."
Want to read more about chimps living in Manhattan? Here's an entire book on one chimp who lived on the Upper West Side in the 1960s (Kokomo even makes a cameo).
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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