My Name Is Kokomo Jr. and I’m a NYC Citizen

This young chimpanzee is Kokomo, Jr., described as “the first talking chimp to come down the pike… to ski down a mountain… to open a checking account… [the only chimp] with a syndicated newspaper column,” and to live in a pretty nice New York City apartment. The apartment actually belonged to his owner, Nick Carrado, but Kokomo probably helped pay the bills…

Kokomo was mostly known for his nearly four decades of television work—from the 1950s through the early 1980s, he appeared on a number of shows, and performed with the likes of Buddy Hackett, Joey Bishop, Diahann Carroll, Phyllis Diller, Merv Griffin, Red Buttons, Tony Bennett, and Jack Benny.