The lion stands mid-stride, mouth agape in a toothy roar, his tail curled into a giant arc. Visitors expect to see a giant cat at the Los Angeles Zoo, but unlike those that prowl their enclosures, this feline is mute, a concrete animal atop a stone plinth, snarling a greeting to visitors wandering down to the entrance.
The sculpture and several others tucked into the front part of the grounds may be new to the zoo, but they come from an era in Los Angeles when visits to ostrich farms and alligator farms were pastimes and zoos were wild, eccentric menageries.
None was wilder than the zoo cum studio that enterprising movie producer William Selig created in the early 20th century in what is now Lincoln Park.
A collection of 15 concrete lions and elephants graced the elaborate entrance to the zoo, which opened to the public in 1915. For Selig, the live animals were essentially contract players for his movies and he lent them out to other filmmakers as well.
The studio closed in 1918 and the zoo shut down in the '20s. But the statues -- the work of sixth-generation Italian sculptor Carlo Romanelli -- stood their ground at the entrance until they were ripped away in the 1950s and relegated to storage. Rediscovered in 2000, 10 of the sculpted animals have already been restored and seven -- all lions -- will be officially unveiled today at the Los Angeles Zoo.
"We've been trying to pepper them around the entrance," said zoo Director John Lewis. Visitors will see the roaring lion first. After walking through the International Marketplace, the zoo's collection of shops, they will find the rest. There is a lioness cuddling one cub and draped with another, nestled between giant bird of paradise plants. In the shade of a pink trumpet tree lies another lioness. Surrounded by a planting of fern palms are two lion cubs -- a female and a male with a mane improbable for his age. "Artistic license," observed Connie Morgan, president of the zoo's fundraising arm, the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., which raised $150,000 for the restoration of the statues.
"Zoos have been important to Los Angeles for a long time," Lewis said. "It was a chance to save some of the history."
Selig started his silent movie company in Chicago but opened a permanent production company, the Selig Polyscope Co., in 1909. He started work on the zoo as early as 1912, according to Randy Haberkamp, director of educational programs for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
