Return to the Wild

Forget for a moment that the Civic Arts Plaza looms like a concrete fortress over the city of Thousand Oaks. Imagine a jungle-like compound there, one with lions, elephants, gorillas and giraffes.

That’s the way it was in the 1950s when Larry Morris was a young boy living across the street from Jungleland, a tourist attraction that drew huge weekend crowds to what was then rural Conejo Valley.

His sleep was interrupted by the roar of lions and the screeching of peacocks. But nothing quite compares to the night the house swayed and the startled family waited out what felt like an earthquake--the big one.

“I looked out the window and there was Emma,” Morris recalled. The elephant had gotten loose and was leaning against the house to reach the leaves of an oak tree.

The Conejo Valley is rich with stories about the long-gone wild animal park that put tiny Thousand Oaks on the map in the 1920s. The Conejo Valley Historical Society has gathered some longtime residents for a “Jungleland Retrospective” Monday at the Stagecoach Inn Museum in Newbury Park. The free program begins at 7:30 p.m.

The society has rounded up old photos from the Jungleland days, such as shots of tiny Mabel Stark, then the world’s only female wild animal trainer. They’ll also sell reproductions of the original Jungleland coloring book for a $1.50 donation. Alex Fiore and Daryl Reynolds will read excerpts from Pat Allen’s history of the long-gone landmark.

Along with Morris, retired veterinarian Robert Miller will reminisce about Thousand Oaks in those early days and how he and his partners were called upon to treat the Jungleland animals--everything from declawing lions to castrating a 9,000-pound elephant.

“It was a strange town in the 1950s and 1960s,” Miller said, describing it as a hub for the wild animal industry, where circuses would winter. “Ventura Boulevard was two lanes, and every day you could see lions and tigers on chains tied to oak trees. There were elephants along the main street.”

It all started in 1926 when Louis Goebel bought five lots on Ventura Boulevard for $50 and opened Goebel’s Lion Farm. Starting with five lions, he thought he could make a bundle supplying animals to the movie studios. His wild family grew to include other exotic animals, and the quirky place eventually drew a couple of thousand people on weekends for its wild animal shows.

At one time the place was home to some 40 male lions alone.

“They’d start to roar at night--it was a thrilling sound,” said Miller, whose practice was just down the street.

But lavish plans to turn it into a huge animal amusement park in the late 1950s fizzled. And in the late ‘60s a lion mauled Jayne Mansfield’s son while the actress was posing for publicity shots.

“I declawed that lion just prior to the mauling,” Miller said. “If I hadn’t, he would have been killed.”

As it turned out, the mauling was the beginning of the end for the place that had become Jungleland. The place shut down in 1969, mostly due to the lawsuit Mansfield filed. Some 25,000 people showed up for Jungleland’s last show--an auction of its 1,800 exotic animals.

Jungleland had other owners over the years, but it always reverted back to Goebel, according to writer-historian Tina Carlson who has researched the family extensively.

In the early days, Jungleland was the center of town and one of the larger employers around. Even after World War II, the town was home to only 500 or so people.

During the program, Carlson will share Jungleland stories she has compiled from interviews with longtime residents who remember some colorful animal escapades.

Morris, a retired firefighter who still lives in the area, was just a kid when six mountain lions escaped from the compound near his house. Children were kept home from school while hunting dogs tracked down the escapees.

Another time, he was watching television when a chimpanzee named Old Joe leaped through the window.

“He was big, very strong, about 5 feet tall,” Morris said. “You didn’t mess with him.”

Fortunately, Old Joe sat down when ordered to do so and was glued to the tube when his caretakers arrived.

“What could go wrong, did,” Morris said.

BE THERE

Looking back--The Conejo Valley Historical Society will hold its “Jungleland Retrospective” Monday, 7:30 p.m., at the Stagecoach Inn Museum, 51 S. Ventu Park Road, Newbury Park. For information, call 498-9441.