Hi, there, dino-philes, fossil fans and paleo-aficionados!
As I assume you do also, I love dinosaurs and all other things prehistoric (obviously)! And over the years I have amassed a huge collection of items related to them, which you are about to see on this similarly huge website (which you will not be able to visit in its entirety in just one session). The collection — which began when I was a little boy and has continued to grow to dinosaurian size — is displayed both inside my house, which is like a museum, and in the backyard which is my own “dinosaur park.”
And make sure you also check the B.C. option at the top of this page, where you’ll find other things I hope of interest, like the simple origins of my collection and what started my interest in things prehistoric.
As an introduction, I was hatched in Pecos, Texas, grew from hatchling to subadult (more or less) in Chicago, Illinois, and spent my adult life in various cities in Southern California, where I received a BA degree in Letters, Arts and Sciences for Cinema from the University of Southern California (1967). I am a director/writer of independent motion pictures, author of novels (e.g., The Empire Strikes Back), short stories, nonfiction books, comic books and magazines, motion pictures (Pecosborn Productions and Frontline Entertainment), TV shows (live-action and animation), music, articles, etc. Also, I am a musician, photographer, lecturer and actor (see my personal website). Much of what I have written, both as non-fiction and fiction, has involved dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, such as my Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia 8-volume series of books (see “Bibliography”).
Professionally, I’ve worked on feature-length dinosaur motion pictures like Roger Corman’s Carnosaur (“dinosaur consultant”) and, as writer, director and an executive producer, my own Dinosaur Valley Girls; 
worked on such TV shows as Dinosaur Revolution, Dinosaurs and its follow-up More Dinosaurs (both shot in part at my home), Nova, Paleo World, Discovery Kids and Prehistoric Super Stars, and appeared as a “talking head” on even more; worked on such video and CD ROM projects as Creatures Great and Small, Dinosaurs Next Exit, America’s Prehistoric Parks, Dinosaur Digs: A Fossil Finder’s Tour, Dinosaur Museum and my own Dinosaur Movies and Fossil Hunter; with the Chiodo Brothers for a series of prehistoric-themed Cup Noodles commercials for Japanese TV; worked on special projects and exhibits with museums including the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, The Field Museum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Witte Museum, the Indianapolis Children’s Museum and the Rochester Museum and Science Center.
I’ve done myriad slide shows about prehistorc life at public libraries and also lectured on such topics as dinosaur movies and artist Charles R. Knight at numerous museums, libraries, schools and other institutions; taught classes; and made countless personal guest appearances regarding dinosaurs at stores, signings, fairs, festivals, museum so-called “Dinosaur Days,” conventions and other events.
Also, I’ve been interviewed about dinosaurs, about both the science and their popularity, on countless radio and television news and talk shows. The most pleasurable of these for me personally was being interviewed by host Frazier Thomas on a Chicago local TV kids show of my youth, WGN’s Garfield Goose and Friends (photo below, left). We talked about dinosaurs in general and how King Gar, the show’s puppet star, could now be classified as a dinosaur!
And I’ve amassed an enormous collection of dinosaur- and other prehistoric-related items, just the tip of the Ice Age iceberg represented in the following snapshots.
For a number of years, I was a volunteer at The Field Museum in Chicago and, since 2001, have been a volunteer in Paleontology Department and then the Dino Lab at the “Dinosaur Institute” of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, where I get to work first-hand preparing real fossil dinosaur bones, like the Apatosaurus femur shown below, and also remains of other Mesozoic animals. like the phytosaur ilium in the next photo.
I first got interested in things prehistoric at about the age of six or seven, at which time I started collecting, albeit then on a very small scale, things pertaining to dinosaurs and other forms of ancient life (see B.C. ). Most of my “serious” collecting began during the early 1980s, however, when I had the opportunity of purchasing a resin skull cast (photo below, left, taken when recently acquired) of the gigantic carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex. From that point the collection seemed to take on a life of its own, growing to what it is today. And like those giant sauropod dinosaurs, the collection — comprising everything “prehistoric,” both inside and outside the house — continues to grow.
Why have I built this website?
The idea took root in the late 1970s. On a visit to my home town Chicago, I was walking home from Yesterday, a nearby shop, where I had just purchased (as I often did when on vacation) some prehistoric-related memorabilia, including items from the 1933 World’s Fair. Suddenly it struck me that I owned a huge collection of such items, plus I knew a lot about dinosaurs and other extinct creatures in popular culture. Also, Citadel Press (Lyle Stuart, Inc.) had already published my book The Dinosaur Dictionary (which was doing well and had won an American Library Association’s award for Best Reference Book of the Year) and were already committed to putting out a new revised and updated edition; so maybe they’d also be interested in a similar book, the contents page of which was already (not yet home from my walk) taking form in my mind.
I recalled books in my home library — like The Oz Scrapbook, the Sherlock Holmes Scrapbook and The Dracula Scrapbook — so why not a similar book but focusing on dinosaurs? And so, I wrote The Dinosaur Scrapbook, about things prehistoric as mainly seen in the media (i.e., movies, novels, comic books, World’s Fairs exhibits and so forth. The book, which was published by Citadel Press in 1980, featured a number of my own collectibles pertaining to dinosaurs and other things prehistoric, including extinct mammals and early man.
The book was very popular, has been out of print for almost half a century and has become in itself a collector’s item, especially the original hardcover edition. Producer and host Roy Leonard even showed it whenever he screened a dinosaur movie on his popular WGN television series Family Classics. Over the years, dinosaur aficionados have been asking me to write an updated edition. At the same time some collectors have suggested that I display the items in my personal collection online, where other collectors could view and enjoy them. Well, given the amount of “dinosauriana” that had flooded the market jump-started by the Jurassic Park movies, most of which I wasn’t much interested in (but some is covered on this website), I didn’t want to write another book which would have to include all those new toys, models, etc. either licensed by or capitalizing on the success of that franchise.
Thankfully, Mike Fredericks picked up the spear abandoned by my Dinosaur Scrapbook with his Prehistoric Times magazine (Prehistoric Times Magazine Home Page; see also), which to this day pretty much covers all the prehistoric-related items — and in much greater detail than my Dinosaur Scrapbook format allowed — that have come out since my book was published; and over the years I’ve contributed to Mike’s publication by way of interviews, articles and letters of comment.
Thinking it all over, I thought a website showcasing my vast collection would be the best, most practical and also most fun way to go. The website started out as a rather small project, attached to someone else’s much larger website that also featured other people’s various collections; when my section outgrew that online location, someone suggested that I do my own website — which I did. Needless to add, this website continues to grow and is now distinguished as one of the largest — if not the largest — in the world.
Don’t be shy about coming back. You may see something new! And please, if you find any errors, spelling mistakes, broken links. etc., let me know so I can fix them. Thanks!
“DINOSAUR” DONALD (DON) F. GLUT
President/Director/Collection Curator-Manager
To return to the home page, CLICK HERE.