Hello, Bushman, how are you?
“I’m okay, thanks. There’s been a lot of excitement around here (the Field Museum of Natural History). I suppose you’ve heard we’re getting a new dinosaur named Sue.”
Doesn’t that make you jealous?
“No way, I’m looking forward to having some new bones around this place.”
When did you first come to Chicago?
“I arrived at Lincoln Park Zoo on a lovely afternoon in August 1930. I came here from West Africa. I was a little thing, only 2 years old and 38 pounds, if you can believe that.”
You grew and put on some weight, didn’t you?
“In my prime I stood 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed, ahem, 550 pounds. But most of that was muscle.”
Did people like you?
“I was loved from the moment I got here. Maybe it had something to do with the Depression. Seeing me made them forget their troubles. I loved acting up for the crowds.”
An example, please.
“Well, one year I decided to throw my birthday cake at the newspaper photographers who were there to take my picture.”
When did you die?
“On Jan. 1, 1951. People came in droves to the zoo. They left flowers. They cried. I was very moved.”
And then you came to the Field Museum?
“Yes, I was preserved and put in this glass case and I’ve been here ever since.”
A person once said you could be elected mayor of the city. Are you still popular?
“Fame is fleeting. Though I don’t think there has ever been a more famous, or beloved, animal in the city’s history, I keep hearing about a bull named Michael.”
That’s Michael Jordan of the Bulls. It’s a basketball team.
“Oh, that’s good to hear. And getting back to Sue, I think she’s going to bring in a vast new audience that will, of course, find me fascinating or frightening. Either way, I have always loved being ogled.”
