24 on the Billboard Music Chart that year. And Oklahoma's own 10-year-old singer Gayla Peevey became a holiday sensation. With inspiration from the song and the zoo's desire for a hippo ...

When Gayla Peevey's catchy Christmas wish for a hippopotamus came true in 1953, she didn't need to test the lyrical theory that a two-car garage would have plenty of room to house her "hippo hero." ...