In October 1950, a pair of baby western lowland gorillas arrived in Milwaukee and became a star attraction at the Washington Park Zoo (the predecessor to today's Milwaukee County Zoo). Pabst Brewing Co. donated the money for the purchase and transportation of the gorillas from New York City, and Milwaukee became one of only nine zoos in the country to have gorillas at that time. The two gorillas were tentatively named Samson and Sambo, and a contest was held to suggest new names for the pair. The winning entry suggested retaining those names, and the gorillas were "rechristened" as Samson and Sambo on Dec. 9, 1950. After Sambo's death in 1959, Samson became the Zoo's "zooperstar" for generations of Milwaukeeans until his death in November 1981.
More: The history of Milwaukee's Samson the gorilla
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Samson the gorilla's appeal at Milwaukee zoo spanned decades