No animals can be seen in this photo, nevertheless, it's a zoo. I can remember a childhood visit to The Pittsburgh Zoo, with it's iron bared cages. Eventually, Pittsburgh updated things with "humane" enclosures like the one in this photo. Open air, concrete levels, and moats replacing bars to keep the animals confined. I've mixed feelings on zoos. I like to hike and backpack, and after seeing large animals in the wild, (Including a mountain lion in Griffith Park) it's hard to watch a bored grizzly bear pacing back and forth like some sort of deranged mental patient. On the other hand, I suspect that, eventually, most large animal species will go extinct in the wild and zoo stocks will be it.
According to the caption, these three people are "Verne, Ed, & Betty." I can't think of a woman's name that would be shortened to Verne. But, I went to high school with a girl we all called Charlie. I always assumed that it was short for Charlotte. I latter found out that her father wanted a son and when he didn't get one, he named his daughter Charles.
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