The new film from Disney, “The One and Only Ivan,” tells the true story, with heavy alterations, of a gorilla who is put on display in a mall for the entertainment of people.
The film, to be released Aug. 21, stars Bryan Cranston as Ivan’s keeper and features the voice talents of Sam Rockwell as Ivan.
For those from Tacoma, the story behind the film is a complicated one. The true story of Ivan not only hits close to home but is a much darker tale than portrayed in the film.
This 1988 file photo shows Ivan the gorilla at the B & I Shopping Center in Tacoma making finger paintings. He spent 30 minutes a day making paintings that sold for $40, with proceeds going to improve his living conditions. Carrie Robertson The News Tribune
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
The story starts in 1962 when Ivan was born in what is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two years later, he was captured and brought to Washington state. He was then put on display at the B&I Circus Store on South Tacoma Way, where he would spend the better part of the next 27 years.
Not all of which was in an enclosure inside the B&I. For several years, Ivan lived with young Larry Johnston and his family. As a teenager, Larry grew up with Ivan as the two became fast friends. They rode motorcycles, played games and slept in the same bed. Eventually, Ivan grew too big and was put in the enclosure at the store.
It was there that Karrie Zylstra Myton saw Ivan. Myton was 9 years old at the time and wrote about her experience in 2015 as a reader columnist, crediting the moment with inspiring her to get involved with animal rights.
“I didn’t like seeing him there,” Myton told The News Tribune earlier this month. “He just looked so sad and his face looked sad.”
A reluctant cat posed with Ivan the gorilla for a family photo in the home of Ruben and Helen Johnston. Ivan lived with the family for three years before being moved to the B & I. The Johnston Family
BASIS FOR AN AWARD-WINNING NOVEL
The news that a movie was being made was a surprise to Myton. Calling the story a “Tacoma story,” she hoped it could be done justice in line with the book written by Katherine Applegate.
Applegate won the Newbery Medal for her children’s novel, “The One and Only Ivan,” from which the film is adapted. She also wrote the acclaimed “Animorphs” series.
“That was during a time while Ivan’s fate was still being determined. Eventually, I decided to write the story. I tried to do it sort of journalistically and quickly realized I needed to fictionalize it,” Applegate told The News Tribune this month. “I was able to go to Tacoma. I saw the area where Ivan lived. I spent a wonderful afternoon at the Tacoma Public Library, and the workers and the archive department were so helpful. They brought up this giant box of clippings about Ivan, and I got so much useful information that way.”
FLASHPOINT FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
Applegate found a rich history of protest and community activism around Ivan’s plight.
In the early 1990s, animal rights groups and other concerned people began to question whether Ivan’s living in captivity at the B&I was the best place for him. In March 1991, protests were put on outside the shopping center pushing for Ivan to be put in a better home. It caught the attention of pop singer Michael Jackson, who offered his home for Ivan.
“Our message is that it’s bananas to keep Ivan here, ‘‘ Cindy Chapman of the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) said at the time. Thousands of Tacoma schoolchildren signed “Free Ivan” petitions.
For Myton it was good to see “the community was able to come together for Ivan and get him moved to a better place.”
In 1992, B&I filed for bankruptcy reorganization. Two years later, Ivan was transferred via an Emory Worldwide jet to Zoo Atlanta where he spent the rest of his days. It was there that he saw other gorillas for the first time in 30 years.
In writing her novel, it was important to Applegate that she honor the history of protest which brought Ivan national attention and his eventual transfer.
“It’s hugely important to recognize organizations like PAWS and so many individuals who helped Ivan along the way. So many of them were from the Tacoma area,” Applegate said. “So many people loved him. Everybody along the way, including his early family life. We didn’t know how to treat captive wild animals in the early 60s. We were just figuring all that out. I think he was really loved by everyone. It was really nice that he got to end up being the ambassador for gorillas at large.”
The crowd applauds as Ron Irwin, second from left, and Larry Johnston unveil the 600-pound bronze sculpture of Ivan, a lowland gorilla who captured Tacoma’s heart during his lifetime, during a ceremony at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium on Wednesday. Dean J. Koepfler dkoepfler@thenewstribune.com
IVAN’S KEEPER REFLECTS ON PAST
Ron Irwin has known about the movie coming out for the last year and a half, awaiting it’s release with a degree of trepidation. Irwin oversaw Ivan’s care and owned the B&I after his late father, Earl, purchased the gorilla. So when protests were going on, Irwin was the intended recipient of the complaints. With news of a movie, he was uncertain what his role would be in the story.
“We weren’t sure which direction it’s going to go,” Irwin told The News Tribune this week. “There are so many ways you can take this story.”
Irwin said he soon found himself part of history as national attitudes shifted around animal captivity.
“At the time, that was really acceptable. It was even more than acceptable. It was encouraged,” Irwin said. “Then over the years, times changed. The thought of animals in cages really changed. We were really caught in the middle of that. I got rid of all the animals, and I couldn’t get rid of Ivan. Ivan was the last one to go, last animal we had.”
“I was the person that had to take care of them for 20 years,” Irwin said. “There is nothing I would’ve done differently, nothing I could’ve done differently. Cards just had to play out the way they did.”
Irwin insists he treated his animals well but said the isolation Ivan experienced was unfortunate.
“That’s the sad part about it,” Irwin said.
Irwin hasn’t seen the movie but has been reading reviews in anticipation of its release. He considers the keeper Mack, played by Cranston, to be an amalgamation of his father, Larry Johnston and himself. He took on the role of keeper after his father passed away.
“For the next 20 years, I was Mack,” Irwin said. “Cranston looks like he did a real good job.”
In the movie, Cranston’s character is struggling to get people to come to his shows. That is, until he discovers that Ivan can draw, which he decides to capitalize on.
One of Ivan’s artworks. The giant lowland gorilla had a style all his own: abstract, but following a definite pattern he alone seemed to know. David Montesino dmontesino@thenewstribune.com
AN EYE FOR ART
The drawing part is true, as Ivan’s art was partially what drew attention to his story. Joyce Barr, one of Ivan’s final keepers in Tacoma, spoke to The News Tribune in 2016 about the experience of witnessing him making art.
“If he wanted to paint, he would paint, and if not, he’d shove it back. Or rip it up,” Barr said.
Barr was also in charge of feeding and cleaning his enclosure. In 2016, she put on an art show at the Key Center Library during which pieces both of and by Ivan were on display.
The pieces he made were defined by multicolored splattering of paint which seemed to follow a design only Ivan knew.
As time went on and the difficult decision over what to do with Ivan intensified, Barr realized it was best for him to move.
“Yeah, we wanted him out of the store,” she said, adding she would have preferred to see him housed at Point Defiance Zoo and was heartbroken when he went to Atlanta.
“It was traumatic for all of us,” Barr said.
Ivan the western lowland gorilla picked a magnolia blossom on his first day in his new natural enclosure at Zoo Atlanta. The photo is the basis for the life-sized bronze statue now located near the entrance of the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Dean J. Koepfler The News Tribune file
FINAL YEARS IN ATLANTA
Ivan would form a family with the other gorillas he met there. He mated for the first time with a female gorilla, Kinyani, though he had no offspring.
It was with his new family where he spent his final years.
“Ivan can usually be seen in his habitat on nice sunny days sitting at the top of the hill looking out over the zoo,” said zoo spokeswoman Keisha Hines at the time. “He still enjoys painting and his artwork has many admirers.”
Ivan died during a diagnostic exam in 2012. He was 50 years old, making him one of the oldest gorillas held in captivity.
Now the film will become a part of that legacy. For those watching from Tacoma, they may not see much of their city’s direct role on screen, though there is an end-credits sequence which acknowledges the real-life history.
For her part, Applegate is happy with how the movie came out, changes and all.
“I loved it. I saw an early cut before they put in the music,” Applegate said. “By the end we were all crying, happily crying.
“It was really beautifully done.”
She expressed the possibility of coming to Tacoma for a screening of the movie someday as she has done previous appearances in the past.
“I would absolutely love that. I had really hoped that that would be part of the experience, being able to go back to the area,” Applegate said. “I think people are going to be very pleased when they see the movie. It’s got a good heart.”
For Myton, who hasn’t yet seen the movie, she hopes for an honest look at the gorilla who was known as Tacoma’s son.
“What I think the movie could do is look at humans with how flawed we are and yet find a way to get some sort of redemption for ourselves and for the animals that we haven’t always done right by.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
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Chase Hutchinson was a reporter and film critic at The News Tribune. He covered arts, culture, sports, and news from 2016 to 2021.You can find his most recent writing and work at www.hutchreviewsstuff.com
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