Gorilla

The Schoenhut Gorillas The gorilla was introduced with the Teddy Roosevelt in 1909. Three head construction designs are known with two distinctive paint schemes. It is one of three Humpty Dumpty circus regular size animals that only came with painted eyes. No decal eyes version has been seen. The first true gorilla to appear in an American circus was in the early 1920s. A gorilla may have been brought into America in the 1890s and another in 1911 but experts suspect that they may have been just big chimpanzees. Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Susan Turner Shown here clockwise from the upper left - two-part head with leather ears, two-part head with molded or carved ears, and, in the front, the molded composition head.
Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Susan Turner Molded ears, gray palms, yellow eyes, two-part head This may have been the first design produced based on its painting style. Its head is a two-part design. Its ears were likely applied to the turned head. It was hand painted with yellowish eyes, a pinkish mouth, and grayish palms. Its nostrils were not painted. Keller Style II - Very Scarce Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Susan Turner	The gorilla above as shown in the Teddy Roosevelt ads looks nothing like the production gorillas shown on this page. Notice the light-colored face and light breasts with nipples. Do examples of this gorilla exist?
Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Susan Turner Leather ears, flesh palms, white eyes, two-part head This design's leather ears are distinctive. The mouth is red and the eyes white. The back of the head is turned wood with leather ears inserted in holes. The face is molded from a composition material and glued to a flattened side of the turned wood back. This head construction is much like that of the two-part head clown, Chinaman, dude, and hobo. Keller Style I -Very Scarce Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Susan Turner The gorilla was introduced with the Teddy Roosevelt sets.	Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Susan Turner Molded head, flesh palms, white eyes, one-part head This style was painted much like the design with leather ears at the left leading one to suppose that this may have been the third style produced. It is probably the rarest gorilla. Its head appears to have been first rough molded out of composition material, then hand finished. Carving marks can be seen on the ears of this example. Rare Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Susan Turner
Photo by Judith Lile	Gargantua was exhibited in the late 1930s.
Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Andy Yaffee One-Part Head The one-part head shows no separation line between the face and the back of the head. This joint line is usually easily seen in the two-part head designs. The ears are made of heavy composition material whose shape can vary, whereas the leather of the two-part head gorilla is much thinner and somewhat flexible.	Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Andy Yaffee The one-part head gorilla on the left contrasts with the two-part-head on the right.
Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Susan Turner Gorilla Bodies Measurements of several examples of all three gorilla styles show no significant differences in the size of the body parts among the three styles. Head sizes, of course, do vary. The body color of the earliest gorilla is a lighter brown compared to the later two.