Instead, the Oklahoma City Zoo and a local newspaper, picking up on the popularity of the song and Peevey's local roots, launched the Gayla Peevey hippo fund so Peevey could be presented with an actual hippopotamus on Christmas. Ī popular legend holds that this 1953 hit had been recorded as a fundraiser to bring the city zoo a hippo, but in a 2007 radio interview with Detroit-based WNIC radio station, Peevey clarified that the song was not originally recorded as a fundraiser. A video of this performance is available on her website. In October 1953, Peevey performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show in an episode that would air on November 15, 1953. When released nationally by Columbia Records the song shot to the top of the charts, and the Oklahoma City Zoo acquired a baby hippo named Matilda. Her family moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma, when she was five. Peevey was a child star who was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
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