A music video by Patty Mooney
Ken Allen
“Hairy Houdini”
The clever, charismatic San Diego Zoo orangutan who kept outsmarting his keepers and slipping out of his enclosure, and the whimsical day of freedom this film imagines for him.
Free to watch. A music video by Patty Mooney.
A San Diego legend
Ken Allen became famous for repeatedly outsmarting his keepers and escaping from his enclosure. San Diegans nicknamed him “Hairy Houdini,” and visitors from around the world came to know his name.
Intelligent, curious and seemingly blessed with a mischievous sense of humor, he became one of the most beloved animals in San Diego Zoo history.
On one memorable occasion, he sat quietly on a bench, and visitors reportedly mistook him for a statue.
Ken Allen’s day out
The film imagines the freedom he always seemed to crave.
- Grooming his magnificent red hairA little vanity for the zoo’s best-coiffed resident.
- Roller-skating through Balboa ParkOut past the gates and rolling free.
- Stopping to smell the rosesNo escape is so urgent that it skips the roses.
- Sipping teaA civilized pause between adventures.
- Exploring the ZooSeeing his old neighborhood from the other side of the bars.
- And other playful adventuresWatch the film for the rest.
About the film
- Subject
- Ken Allen, the San Diego Zoo orangutan known as “Hairy Houdini”
- Made with
- San Diego history, humor, affection and a little AI-assisted imagination
- Music video by
- Patty Mooney, award-winning filmmaker
- From
- New & Unique Videos®
- Watch
- Free, on this page
More short films
- Smokey in the Basket
- Sally Ride’s Astral Dream
- Dear Athena
- Pommes de rêve
- Teeth of a Fox
- The Sinking of the Yukon
See every title on the Music Films page. More from Patty Mooney at Nectarball on Substack.