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Cindy Lange-Kubick: Lincoln's beloved Leo is back

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Tuesday, Apr 29, 2008 - 11:10:36 pm CDT

When the Lincoln Children’s Zoo opened this spring without Leo the Paper Eating Lion, rumors began to flow, like beer at Barry’s after Nebraska’s big Spring Game victory.

Some speculated our beloved Leo, with his goofy smile and peerless suction, had been part of behind-the-scenes maneuvering in the Nebraska State Fair move.

We’ll give you the lion if you’ll just take the damn racing pigs out of town. Deal?

Story Photo
Michael Bader, 6, feeds a freshly-painted Leo last week. (Robert Becker)

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Others believed the 2015 Vision group, eager to leave behind all traces of old Lincoln, had deemed Leo “too small town” and had turned him into an avant garde sculpture for its arts and humanities pillar.

Fortunately for the citizenry, they were wrong.

Six days after the zoo opened for the 2008 season, Leo was back, tucked around the corner from the Safari Cafe and the new Dromedary Docking Station, talking to himself, same as always.

Hi, boys and girls! I’m Leo the Paper Eating Lion. Paper! Paper! Paper! I just loooove paper!

He sounded as happy as a lion trapped for 43 years in a wooden circus wagon could sound.

And he looked, well, more fabulous than ever.

It seems Leo had simply been off having a little work done.

A nip. A few tucks. Some Bondo holding up the lips.

Think Joan Rivers, but with a better plastic surgeon.

Donna Necas, owner of Sign Post, had Leo under wraps for six weeks, performing his makeover.

“How has he aged?” Donna asked. “Like we all do.”

“The only thing that’s original is the fiberglass face, and it was pretty bad this time around.”

When the zoo opened in 1965, Leo was there, a taut young lion, gobbling litter from the tiny hands of children.

He didn’t do much talking then (although he did have a mechanical roar).

His lips were puffy and cartoonish, like Britney after a collagen overdose.

And his name was less peppy —  an archived postcard referring to him as the slightly more Joe Friday-like: “Leo the Lion Paper Eater.”

Discreetly updated, he’s been at our service ever since.

Sucking up all the zoo’s litter, without ever sucking up an entire child.

“Everybody loves Leo,” director John Chapo said.

Leo was a document shredder before identity theft had a name.

He’s “eaten” his share of Kleenex, gorged on cash register receipts, devoured deposit slips torn into a dozen pieces by paper-harangued mothers.

Inside Leo, a green nylon net — emptied three times daily — collects the zoo’s paper, along with the occasional dirty diaper and half-eaten hot dog.

Necas has worked over the zoo’s icon behind closed doors before.

This time, the makeover was top to bottom.

The lines in Leo’s fiberglass face filled. A new, candy-colored paint job to mirror the old one, applied by Mural Mural graphics.

His wagon, with its four faux wheels, fortified.

“We took some steps to make him hold up longer this time, hopefully,” Donna said.

Before Leo was delivered to the shop, the zoo director wondered if maybe they should modernize him.

Was he kidding?

“My staff thought I was committing heresy.

And so Leo changed, but only enough to make people pause, wondering: Had Leo had his eyebrows plucked? Maybe his mane colored?

And a good thing it was, because in Leo’s absence, it became clear how much people love Leo.

Just the way Leo is.

It’s almost May, and all day long, Leo is at the zoo, pleading for his paper.

Doug Ault, the zoo’s facility manager, hears Leo as he works keeping the zoo running.

I’m Leo the Paper Eating Lion. Roooarrrr! Oh, don’t be scared, all I eat is paper.

After eight years, he’s almost got Leo’s spiel memorized.

“Pretty soon, you’re talking to it. Paper. Paper. Paper. Over and over and over.”

That Leo.

So dependable. So Lincoln.

Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com.


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Zoo school graduate wrote on April 29, 2008 11:42 pm:
" A chance for a makeover. A chance for education. For a kingly creature whose legacy teaches children that animals are to be caged in circus cars. And fed trash.
So dependable. So Lincoln. "

 Lincoln born and raised.. wrote on April 30, 2008 8:24 am:
" Clearly you didn't go to the zoo as a child. As i am now close to 30 years old i remember when i use to go to the zoo as a child. I never once thought of it the way you did. Leo was one of the first things that I always wanted to see. I love taking my child there now because he is just fascinated by Leo. We are not teaching them to feed trash to animals. "

 still a kid wrote on April 30, 2008 8:33 am:
" I loved feeding Leo when I was little! It's been a while since I have been to the lincoln zoo, but I will be finding Leo and feeding him some trash! BTW-Zoo school graduate: I think kids can be taught (and probably know) the differance between Leo and a real animal didn't they teach you that before you graduated? "

 Just me wrote on April 30, 2008 9:16 am:
" Oh for goodnes sakes...Leo IS teaching good things...he's teaching kids not to litter...think green, Zoo School Graduate. It's a fun feature at the Children's Zoo. The Children's Zoo is a fun thing about Lincoln. It's OK to have fun and learn something on a small scale because you're a small person (as in: child). Children are thinking about litter reduction, not feeding real lions. Give it a rest already! "

 Good grief wrote on April 30, 2008 9:20 am:
" Maybe they didn't tell you this at zoo school but the lion is plastic and fiberglass, not a real lion in a circus cage. I am almost 50 years old and grew up with Leo. I don't believe for a minute that animals should be caged. The single lesson I learned from Leo is that the zoo is always completely free of trash because kids scoop it all up to feed the lion. When I was a kid, my Grandma always made sure we brought a little paper or something with us to feed him because we couldn't find any trash there. I don't think that is such a bad lesson. Maybe my generation was just a little smarter. :-) "

 Mark wrote on April 30, 2008 10:35 am:
" Nice to see something is still the same in Lincoln, too bad the fascists are moving the State Fair (sic). "

 JB wrote on April 30, 2008 2:35 pm:
" Great to hear. Don't feed him grass, he loves paper. "

 Nina wrote on April 30, 2008 5:23 pm:
" Leo truly IS beloved! It was sweet nostalgia to take my little grandkids to the zoo, and have them ask for snacks so they could get napkins for Leo to "eat." That's because their parents used to do the same thing when I took them, years ago. Another oldie but goodie is hollering to each other through the speaker pipes. This primitive communication is more fun than a walkie-talkie or cell phone for the little tykes! "

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