Tyrannosaurus Sue-- The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found

by Steve Fiffer

W h e n Daly told his colleague Cathy N e m e t h that he was going to

  see a m a n about a dinosaur, each laughed. "I basically thought it would

  be a courtesy call," remembers N e m e t h , the h o m e office's director of

  c o m m u n i c a t i o n s .

  Daly confesses that he was not terribly enthusiastic as he m a d e the

  h o u r long drive into the city. "I have an abiding interest in anthropolo-

  gy a n d paleontology, and I have three small kids," he says "I know what

  a significant cultural trend dinosaurs are. But I must say when I went

  d o w n there I didn't think we'd find a commonality. . . . We're not the

  kind of c o m p a n y interested in playing a passive role. We're not just

  interested in a plaque. At the level [of financial c o m m i t m e n t ] we were

  talking about here, getting involved makes sense for us only if we can

  engage o u r customers."

  E V E R Y T H I N G C H A N G E D T H A T D A Y 2 0 1

  McCarter knew this. As a result he was able to present Daly with

  several ways that McDonald's could engage the millions of Americans

  (and others a r o u n d the world) w h o m the c o m p a n y serves. Casts of the

  dinosaur could be m a d e and taken on tour, said the m u s e u m director.

  Knowing that McDonald's regularly created educational materials for

  schools, McCarter noted that Sue was a perfect subject for videos,

  books, and lesson plans.

  Daly began to see some possibilities. "I liked the idea that this was big,"

  he says. But many questions remained. How m u c h money did McCarter

  think it would take to win Sue? What other companies might be involved?

  McCarter told Daly that he wasn't sure h o w m u c h Sue would

  c o m m a n d at a u c t i o n — p e r h a p s $1 million or more. He also said that

  McDonald's was the first corporation he had called.

  "What about Disney?" Daly asked. He reminded McCarter that

  McDonald's and Disney had just entered into a ten-year marketing

  alliance. McCarter knew this, but he was not aware of one fortuitous

  element of that union: McDonald's was to be the sponsor of DinoLand

  USA, an integral part of Disney's Animal Kingdom, an adventure park

  scheduled to open in Orlando, Florida, in the fall. "John was intrigued

  by this," remembers Daly.

  Daly had another question: What was the time frame for the prepa-

  ration of Sue?

  McCarter said that the unveiling might not take place until the year

  2000. Daly saw this as bad news and good news. Two and half years was

  a lot of time to wait for a payoff on an investment. On the other hand,

  a millennium unveiling presented its o w n opportunities.

  Daly had already spent a couple of years thinking about what

  McDonald's could do for the millennium. "It's kind of a hard thing to

  consider," he admits. "When you are a b r a n d as ubiquitous and o m n i p o -

  tent as we are, you pretty m u c h k n o w there's going to be an expecta-

  tion—that people are going to be asking: 'What is McDonald's going to

  be doing?' We were thinking, What could we do that would be impact-

  ful, be global, make the system proud?"

  Building a children's hospital or the wing of a hospital was a possi-

  bility. And McDonald's and Disney had plans to bring 2000 children

  together to "celebrate what's good about the world a n d what could be

  2 0 2 TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  better," says Daly. But he had been unable to come up with the "impact-

  ful" millennium project he desired. Could Sue be that project?

  Says N e m e t h : "Jack c a m e back saying it may work. W h e n he gets

  excited it's, well, he's the boss. It's contagious. We're a creative group

  by nature; n o t h i n g is u n t h i n k a b l e or unacceptable. Sometimes I think

  the m o r e over the top it appears, the m o r e we get excited by it. O u r

  charge here is doing s o m e t h i n g different a n d u n i q u e a n d exciting. We

  have a saying here: 'Only McDonald's can do.' That may be overused

  and a bit cliche-ish, b u t it's certainly a b e n c h m a r k of what you're look-

  ing for."

  The m o r e Daly thought about the project, the more it seemed like

  something McDonald's could do. "If John [McCarter] had said it might

  take ten years or even five, it might have been different, because my initial

  thinking was m o r e as a millennium gift than anything else and everything

  flowed from there," he says. "I had been struck by something Bill Clinton

  had said about the millennium: 'If you are interested in celebrating the

  future, try to h o n o r the past.' I liked the idea that Sue was this timeless,

  priceless thing and that if the m u s e u m could get it, it would last forever."

  Daly called together Nemeth and about a half dozen others who

  m a d e up his brain trust. "We started to break it into its c o m p o n e n t

  parts," he remembers. "We were thinking, Okay, so there's gonna be this

  big period of t i m e — t w o years—when nothing happens. What can

  McDonald's do during that period?" The answer: Produce educational

  materials for schools and sponsor the McDonald's Fossil Preparation

  Laboratory on the m u s e u m floor where visitors could watch bone

  cleaning and preparation.

  O n e imagines plans for H a p p y Meals and Sue action figures as well,

  b u t Daly a n d N e m e t h insist that those options weren't seriously consid-

  ered. Such commercialization of a scientific specimen would, of course,

  need the museum's approval. But m o r e than that, this wasn't primarily

  about marketing, says Daly, it was about brand. "The headline is: Give

  back to the communities you serve. It gets to the whole question of

  what's the full spectrum of a brand. The marketing piece is there, obvi-

  ously, because that's part of what a b r a n d is, but there are a lot of other

  colors in the spectrum that add to it. Clearly, working in a socially

  responsible way with organizations like the Field M u s e u m is an impor-

  tant part of the spectrum."

  E V E R Y T H I N G C H A N G E D T H A T D A Y 2 0 3

  What kind of projects enhance the brand? "A perfect program for us

  is one with potential global impact in terms of news, in terms of goodwill,

  and then clearly one that has implications in the United States—one that

  can be worked right down into the grassroots of our organization—every

  town, every community," says Daly. Sue came close to fitting the profile.

  O n e additional element could make saying yes to the m u s e u m even

  m o r e appealing. Soon after meeting with McCarter, Daly traveled with

  Nemeth to Orlando for a previously scheduled meeting with their part-

  ners at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Sue was not on the agenda, b u t dur-

  ing a break Daly and N e m e t h cornered Bob Lamb, the Disney vice pres-

  ident in charge of the new park. "Want to buy a dinosaur?" Daly asked.

  Lamb, it turned out, was not only familiar with Sue, he had con-

  templated trying to acquire her. A few m o n t h s earlier, a Disney design-

  er had sent h i m a clipping about the T. rex. "I thought, This is a cool

  thing," remembers Lamb, whose experience with dinosaurs dates back

  to the opening of Epcot Center in 1982. As projec
t coordinator for an

  energy exhibit that featured a dinosaur diorama, he had helped sculpt

  some of the creatures—"the side the audience couldn't see," he laughs.

  Pursuing Sue was discussed at the highest levels, says Lamb.

  Eventually, however, Disney decided against bidding for her. "We didn't

  have the Field M u s e u m connection or a connection with any other sci-

  entific institution," he explains. "And without that connection, this was

  not a good thing for Disney." Outbidding a m u s e u m for Sue and mere-

  ly displaying her in DinoLand USA or any other venue would have been

  a public relations nightmare.

  Now McDonald's was offering a scientific connection. Says Daly,

  "I'd like to say the process is totally systematic and strategic. I don't

  think it is. I think there's serendipity, and I think in this particular

  instance there was a lot of serendipity."

  Within a few weeks, Lamb called to say that Disney would partici-

  pate. They would feature a cast of Sue in DinoLand. And before the cast

  was ready, they would open a "branch office" of the McDonald's Fossil

  Preparation Lab in the park where m u s e u m preparators could work on

  Sue in front of visitors.

  W h e n Lamb called, McDonald's was still considering whether or

  not to get involved in the project. "The next thing you k n o w they're call-

  ing to say, 'We're in,' which was like, U h - o h , they're in, I guess it means

  2 0 4 TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  we're in," remembers Daly. "It had a strange m o m e n t u m . Any one of the

  players could have spun out, and that might have spun out the whole

  thing. But everybody sort of spun in."

  Before spinning in, Daly did need, in Nemeth's words, "the buy-in

  of several key people in the company." Key a m o n g these were, she says,

  "our partners in the marketing department, w h o were very m u c h

  involved with the Disney alliance."

  Daly and N e m e t h also had to persuade themselves that local opera-

  tors would "buy in" and support the tour of Sue. These operators would

  end up footing the bill for Sue's visit to their respective regions of the

  country. " O u r biggest concern was the receptivity of operators [who

  would ask]: 'How's this gonna sell hamburgers for us?'" says Nemeth, an

  attractive, energetic w o m a n in her mid-forties. "We fight that all the

  time w h e n we present a program that might have a cost to it that is real-

  ly m u c h m o r e in the area of what we want to do for o u r customers in

  the c o m m u n i t y — b r a n d building."

  She adds: "This was not a program to sell hamburgers What we

  do for a living is make sure that we do help sell hamburgers or we prob-

  ably won't have spots in the c o m p a n y rosters. But we also make sure we

  have a nice balance of p r o g r a m s that are m e a n t simply to be effective to

  o u r customers in o u r communities and p r o g r a m s that are meant to

  drive traffic into o u r restaurants, and the t r u t h is you need to do both

  and build credibility with customers."

  Having secured the support of all necessary departments, Daly and

  N e m e t h arranged a meeting with the person w h o would have final say

  on the matter, Jack Greenberg, the president of McDonald's U.S.A. (who

  has since become the corporation's chief executive officer). "We had a

  whole presentation ready," says Nemeth.

  "You're here to talk about the dinosaur, right?" said Greenberg.

  "Yes," said Daly.

  "Is it a good idea, Jack?"

  "Yes.

  "Then okay, we'll do it," said Greenberg.

  McDonald's and Disney were aboard, each with ambitious plans

  that would, in McCarter's words, give Sue "legs and reach." Now all the

  m u s e u m director had to do was get the dinosaur.

  E V E R Y T H I N G C H A N G E D T H A T D A Y 2 0 5

  Despite significant financial c o m m i t m e n t s from both corporations,

  McCarter still wasn't certain if he had enough m o n e y to win Sue.

  Indeed, he still had no idea what she might bring at Sotheby's. He had

  been to only two auctions in his life—for cattle, not fossils. In each

  instance he had been a spectator, not a bidder.

  Unwilling to be caught with his paddle down, McCarter picked up

  the phone and called an old friend from the W T T W board—Chicago

  art dealer Richard Gray. "Are you busy?" he asked.

  Gray, a peripatetic c o m m u n i t y booster, wasn't surprised to hear

  from the m u s e u m director. "John's the kind of guy whose ideas won't

  stay still," he says.

  Within the h o u r McCarter was at Gray's gallery, briefing the art

  dealer about Sue. "John needed some h a n d holding. He didn't want to

  get in over his head," remembers Gray, an old pro at the auction busi-

  ness, w h o once m a d e a winning bid of m o r e than $20 million for a

  painting on behalf of a client.

  Gray quickly offered a strategy that would prevent McCarter from

  getting in over his head. "Try and buy up front," he said. "See if you can

  avoid the risk of auction. Talk to Williams. Talk to Sotheby's. Find out if

  you can buy directly."

  McCarter's eyes lit up. "Can you do that? C a n you p r e e m p t an

  auction?"

  "It's not c o m m o n , but sometimes it can be done. I've d o n e it.

  Everything is negotiable," Gray told him.

  McCarter was willing to try. Uncertain that the gambit would work,

  however, he enlisted his friend as an unpaid consultant. He gave Gray

  material about Sue and asked h i m to try to figure out h o w m u c h she

  would bring if she did go to auction. "John's people had d o n e a finan-

  cial analysis," Gray says. "They had tried to rationalize what kind of

  value you can get, even d o w n to souvenir sales."

  Williams and Sotheby's must also have rationalized Sue's value.

  They turned down McCarter's preemptive offer, which was in the neigh-

  b o r h o o d of $1.5 million. Having read m o r e about the dinosaur by this

  time, Gray understood why. "I got a growing sense of her iconic value

  and how various parties a r o u n d the globe might react," he says. He rea-

  soned that if McDonald's and Disney were on board, "there would be

  2 0 6 TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  serious competition and not just from the United States. There were all

  kinds of possibilities of parties w h o might want this as a trophy."

  Could he envision casinos bidding for a T. rex .

  7

  "Absolutely," says Gray.

  Having seen the effect of the "trophy mentality" in the art world of the

  late 1980s, Gray "came up with a n u m b e r considerably higher than the dol-

  lars [McCarter] was working at." He suggested the m u s e u m go back to its

  backers or find new ones and ask for more money. McCarter and his staff

  sought and received additional support from certain board members and

  a commitment from the California State University system to provide up

  to $700,000 for restoration and study of Sue. Putting this auction package

  together was "a bit like space station contracting," says Flynn. "You don't

  know what the upper limit is since there is no precedent." Fearful that word

  of the museu
m's interest in Sue would attract other bidders and drive the

  price up, Gray insisted that McCarter tell his colleagues and everyone at

  McDonald's and Disney not to discuss the dinosaur with anyone. "Cut off

  all contact with Sotheby's, too," Gray ordered. "Throw cold water on it."

  At o n e point Sotheby's called for the museum's financials—docu-

  ments necessary to facilitate bidding. "Don't respond," Gray said. "Tell

  them, "We're not planning to participate,' anything to t u r n off their

  interest."

  Shortly before the auction, Sotheby's again called. Did the m u s e u m

  need help with any arrangements? Gray suspects the house was m o r e

  interested in knowing if McCarter would be bidding. Again, the muse-

  um's director played d u m b .

  About this time, McCarter again called Gray. "Up to this point he

  hadn't said boo to me about [attending] the auction," says the art dealer.

  "Dick," McCarter asked, "would you be willing to be one of our

  agents a n d handle this?"

  A "flattered" Gray said yes. Then he called Sotheby's president Brooks,

  with w h o m he dealt regularly. "I want a r o o m to bid from," he said.

  Brooks said she would make the arrangements. She also agreed to per-

  sonally take Gray's bids, which he would make from a phone in the room.

  "I never told Dede w h o m I represented, and she never asked," says

  Gray. "She might have said, ' M m m . Chicago. Must be the Field

  Museum.' But she couldn't be certain." To maintain that level of uncer-

  tainty, Gray arranged to bid from his own house account.

  E V E R Y T H I N G C H A N G E D T H A T D A Y 2 0 7

  On the eve of the auction, Gray, McCarter, a n d Dr. Peter Crane, the

  museum's head of academic affairs, flew into New York. Uncertain if he

  had e n o u g h m o n e y in his war chest, McCarter continued to call

  prospective donors. At dinner that night, the three m e n discussed their

  strategy: Keep a low profile a n d don't do anything to contribute to a

  bidding frenzy that might drive up the price. They also discussed what

  would happen if they were successful. "I said I should make a state-

  ment," Gray remembers. "So I wrote out a few words."

  T h e following m o r n i n g they took a cab from their hotel to

  Sotheby's, which sits on York Avenue near 72 Street in m i d t o w n M a n -

  hattan. The auction was scheduled to begin at 10:15 AM. Their plan was