From the Archives: Monkey business starring two chimpanzees

Two chimpanzees, owned by John A. Haeseler, played with a typewriter for a 10-picture layout in the Feb. 2, 1936, Los Angeles Times Sunday Rotogravure photography section. Most of the images were taken with a special high-speed camera.

The first image in the layout, reproduced above, had the following caption:

“NOBODY’S LOOKING, so let’s start a column of our own,” says Shorty, about 3 1/2 years of age, to Ditto, 1 1/2. Both are owned by John A. Haeseler, a Harvard man who has made many scientific films of apes. Now follow the figures in this chimpanzee adventure.

The first three images in this post appeared in the 1936 layout. The last three images are outtakes not published in 1936. All six images were scanned by the Los Angeles Times Photography Archive at UCLA.

Jan. 18, 1936: Chimpanzees Ditto, left, and Shorty play with a typewriter.

(J.H. McCrory / Los Angeles Times Archives/UCLA)

Jan. 18, 1936: A chimpanzee named Shorty plays with a typewriter.

(J.H. McCrory / Los Angeles Times Archives/UCLA)

In 1936, the children’s book “Shorty, the Story of the Little Chimpanzee” by Ruth and John Haeseler was published by Rand McNally of Chicago. John did the photography for the book.

There is a short 1990 obituary of John Haeseler in the New York Times.

Jan. 18, 1936: A chimpanzee named Shorty plays with a typewriter. This is an unpublished frame from a photo series that appeared in the Feb. 2, 1936, Los Angeles Times.

(J.H. McCrory / Los Angeles Times Archives/UCLA)

Jan. 18, 1936: Chimpanzees Ditto, left, and Shorty play with a typewriter. Other photos from this shoot were published Feb. 2, 1936, in the Los Angeles Times.

(J.H. McCrory / Los Angeles Times Archives/UCLA)

Jan. 18, 1936: A chimpanzee named Shorty holds a copy of the Jan. 18, 1936, Los Angeles Times.

(J.H. McCrory / Los Angeles Times Archives/UCLA)

See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here