livelymorgue:

Sept. 3, 1977: Patty Cake, a superstar of the Central Park Zoo when she was feted her first in 1973, was yesterday’s news by the time she turned five. “Patty Cake, 5, Finds Fame Fades,” was the headline, and the article described Patty’s unfortunate upstaging by her cage-mate, Pansy, a chimpanzee. “It was Pansy, not Patty Cake, who first snatched up the yellow and white cake. When Patty did one of her favorite bits, perching comically on a beach ball, Pansy leaped out and stole show by plopping full-bottomed into a soggy watermelon shell.” Photo: John Sotomayor/The New York Times