‘Hippo’ song was a wild hit for Oklahoma City Zoo, city
Gayla Peevey had never seen a real hippo until she got one as a present.
Her song, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas,” debuted in 1953 and is still a novelty classic. The director of the Oklahoma City Zoo at the time started a campaign to give Gayla a hippo, said Amy Stephens , an author and historian at the Oklahoma City Zoo.
Gayla, 10 years old when she recorded the song, made the first donat...
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