"Lion Country Safari" theme park, Irvine CA, 1971, 1976

Original 8 mm film of the defunct Lion Country Safari theme park in Irvine, California. Some of the film is damaged in the middle section, but it improves.

[@gk10002000]

I remember the 1972 story of Frasier the sensuous lion so well. I was 15 in Rhode Island. Now here is how small a world it is. One of my best friends lives in Laguna Hills literally right on top of where the park used to be.

[@carolrichardson1514]

I worked at Lion Country Safari. One of my jobs was to dress up as Frasier and go to malls for publicity. I also rode the elephants and performed tricks on their backs. You had to be a Jack of all trades when you worked there. It was a blast!

[@lachesisatropos5139]

Thank you! I used to work there in 1978, 79 and 1980!

[@JS-im7pu]

I remember this like yesterday, my dad was had a chocolate covered frozen banana and an ostrich snatched it out of his hand (he was very mad). Then a giraffe put his head right in our 1968 Ford LTD and my mom freaked out. What cool memories!

[@loudkinglover2203]

It’s pretty strange how they have the elephants roam freely with the other animals, even though they could easily destroy the guests car.

[@fifthrider]

The 1971 footage may be rare. I've seen a lot of footage that claims to have Frasier in it but most of it doesn't. Since Frasier was only there for a couple of years before passing away in '72 ( and fathered 35 cubs in that time ) it stands to reason that you may actually have footage of him here. The only thing that makes me question that is Frasier was never aggressive and this male lion snapped at that lioness. Also, Frasier was always in terrible shape and occasionally needed help walking; sometimes the lionesses would prop him up on either side as he moved. This male lion seems to move pretty well. Still, i see cubs and that probably means Frasier since all male lions before him were rebuked by the females.

[@thepiedcrow]

Thanks for the information. I wondered if the walking lion could be Frasier as it seemed a bit arthritic the way it was walking. It didn't seem to have its tongue hanging out, though, as I have seen in Frasier photos.

[@crazymike8057]

I heard about it when I lived there. My friends found an old newspaper article about an elephant running on the freeway, but way before our time because we found out about it in 1998 when we were barely teenagers.

[@thepiedcrow]

You might find the sad story about "Bubbles" the Hippo interesting. Also Frasier the lion.

[@crazymike8057]

One of our neighbors worked there (event staff, nothing to do with the animals) and told us the park got really popular after they bought a lion from Mexico and it had baby lions. We also found parts of the park still intact just before they demolished the Irvine Meadows, or Verizon Wireless Amphitheater and the Wild Rivers water park. We found some cages, trails, benches, signs and wooden areas that appeared to be part of a petting zoo, but it's all gone now. We found them all back around 2002.