Hugo & Lolita Get Psychic Visit

Hugo & Lolita Get Psychic Visit

Boca Raton News – October 26th, 1972

If Hugo and Lolita, two 4,000-pound killer whales at the Miami Seaquarium, conceive an offspring during the week of next May 16th, Marlowe Gray can take a bow.

Gray is a 34-year-old psychic astrologer and numerologist who spends most of his time working with human beings to help them out of trouble or aid them in self-improvement.

On Wednesday, the seaquarium enlisted Gray’s powers to help determine if Lolita is pregnant.

Gray, dressed in a jeweled turban and a Hindu cloak called a kourta, descended a ladder to the edge of the tank where the two huge mammals are housed and quietly communed with Lolita. After the session, Gray announced that Lolitaa is not pregnant, but will become so during the week of next May 16.

Publicist Jane Wood had met Gray at a party and he told her he had previously been able to detect pregnancy in a woman by psychic vibrations. When asked which woman, Gray replied, “My first wife.”

Mrs. Wood asked Gray if he thought he could do the same with a killer whale and the seer said, “Yes,” although he had never seen a whale up close.

Since there is no known test for pregnancy in the killer whale, the seaquarium thought it had nothing to lose by letting Gray tune to Lolita’s psychic vibrations to find out if she was expecting.

Although Hugo and Lolita have lived together since last June, they have only recently begun to mate. Lolita was imported to complete the performing duo at the Miami tourist attraction.

“I cleared my mind before I went down the ladder and opened myself up to the vibrations of the whale,” Gray explained. He said he believes all living things have a soul and its vibrations can be felt and interpreted by those who are trained through study and meditation.

“I can see their soul paths and trace more or less their higher selves,” said Gray.

If his prediction is correct on Lolit’as pregnancy, the baby killer whale will be conceived five years from the date that Hugo was brought to the seaquarium.

In spite of the prediction, and in spite of Lolita and Hugo having mating on multiple occasions (prompting the park to cancel several days’ worth of shows in 1977, according to the Palm Beach Post), Lolita never produced any offspring.