dino-mite!
HERALD PHOTOG’S ICONIC ’84 SHOT TURNED INTO MURAL
It was the Fourth of July, 1984, a banner day in Boston, with the Pops concert, the fireworks and all the hoopla.
Just over the bridge in Cambridge, the Museum of Science was excited about its new exhibit. The museum was about to display some amazing new animatronic dinosaurs — life-like creatures that would probably seem fairly low-tech today, but back then were state-of-the-art.
The heyday of publicity stunts was long gone, but every once in a while someone would still come up with a beaut. The museum pulled off one of Boston’s best.
During the installation of the exhibit, the PR department decided to have one of the dinos “flying in.”
They arranged for a helicopter to transport a 34-foot-long brontosaurus replica — which must have weighed a thousand pounds — dangling from a cable, over the Charles River.
On a slow news day in midsummer, there was no question that we had to shoot it. It was a photo op that no photo editor could resist.
The media gathered at the edge of the water, which offered a good view of the Boston skyline. When the dinosaur came into view, floating above the river, I put on a wide angle lens and snapped the shutter.
It’s funny which photographs stick in people’s minds. Over the course of my career, I’ve taken shots that were much more challenging and meaningful to me, like the ill-fated launch of the Challenger space shuttle or the visits to Boston by Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa.
But this simple image of a dinosaur seeming to drift stately through the sky resonates with people. It took no great skill to capture the image. It was just one of those “be there at the right time and right place” type of moments.
Since then, it’s bounced around the internet and has taken on a life of its own.
I never expected that in 2017, I would be inside Wayfair’s world headquarters in Copley Place, staring up at the dangling dino again on a three-story-high mural.
Still, seeing the dinosaur looming over the skyline in all its glory once more was a sight to behold.
I like to think the brontosaurus would approve. And hey, if it brings a smile to someone’s face, that’s a pretty satisfying payoff.