Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/385222
photography by arthur pollock/boston herald A Boston museum's public relations stunt ended the 150 million- year drought since the last flying dinosaur roamed our skies. It's a bird, it's a pla ne, it's… a g ia nt dinosaur suspended by a helicopter against the Boston skyline? Award-winning freelance photographer Arthur Pollock captured this surreal scene some 30 years ago, when the Museum of Science staged a marketing event to promote a new dinosaur exhibit. The aerial star of the day: a 40 -foot-long animatronic brontosaurus, its massive bulk transported by chopper across the Charles R iver en route to its final resting place in front of the museum's planetarium. (These were the days before t he Muga r Omni Theater, of course.) "It was just one of t he best stunts I've seen in my career here," says Pollock. "You hardly ever see these PR stunts anymore. It's a throwback to yesteryear." Larry Ralph, the muse- um's director of education enterprises and temporary exhibits, recalls the day with a bit more restraint. "This was part of a long series of [events] dis- playing various animatronic dinos as temporary exhibits during the 1980s and early 1990s," he says. Fair enough. But time has only increased affection for the spectacle, and in particular for the faux beast that once f lew across t he skies of our fair burg. The shot was later included in the book Arthur Pollock (2011), a collection of the photog rapher's most acclaimed images, compiled by his son, Jesse. Among a career's worth of compelling works of photojournalism, the dinosaur snap is the one that seems to resonate most with the public. "People come back to it," says Pollock, who modestly down- plays the significance of the photo. "It's amusing, but it doesn't say too much. What you see is what you get." BC Look What the Cr ane Dr aggeD In ThirTy years ago, an airborne bronTosaurus broughT The MuseuM of science To life. by meaghan agnew 14 bostoncommon-magazine.com front runner