PECOSBORN PRODUCTIONS LLC
In 1989 my friend, artist David Peters phoned and told me that he had — sitting in his backyward — the head of one of the life-sized Tyrannosaurus models made by the Jonas Studios in Churchtown, New York — that had been a popular attraction at Oak Knoll Park in Dave’s home town of St. Louis, MO (see photo, below)…until, during a storm, a falling tree limb knocked off the head.
The original figure had been made — along with a number of other Jonas dinosaur models — for the Sinclair Dinoland exhibit at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
Dave told me I could have the head for free. There was just one catch — I had to get it from St, Louis to Southern California! But luckily I had another friend in Chicago, Doug Hoffman, who’d been planning a drive to my neck of the woods anyway. Better still, Doug had his own moving business complete with truck and rigs. He offered to “swing by” Ohio on his way to the West Coat, picking up the Tyrannosaurus head on my birthday of that year. What a birthday present that was — and what an adventure Doug had making stops along the way!
Too big to get through any entrance to my backyard, the head sat in my driveway in front of my garage for almost a year. Then, on what must have been the hottest day of the year, my friend Tom Scherman and I (straining and groaning) managed to lift the thing over my neighbor’s fence and rest it in its final destination.
For more about the Jonas Tyrannosaurus, CLICK HERE.