Monkey Man

St. Louis, Missouri

George Philip Vierheller was the first director of the St. Louis Zoo. When he retired in 1962 (at age 80) a bronze statue was unveiled in his honor, sculpted by Richard Frazier. Its plaque states that Vierheller "unselfishly gave of himself to the renown of his institution and his city."

The Zoo, however, would rather not go into too much detail about Vierheller, who brought in crowds with harmonica-playing elephants, beer-drinking bears, praying lions, and chimpanzees that rode bicycles or tiny horses, and banged on xylophones. Unfortunately for Vierheller's legacy (and fortunately for us), the statue has been dubbed "Curious George" because of the suggested action between chimp and Zoo director if viewed from certain angles.