A Tyrannosaurus rex at Cabazon Dinosaurs was repainted as a tribute to Paul Reubens, also known as Pee-wee Herman.
Courtesy of World’s Biggest Dinosaurs, Inc.
At a famed roadside attraction just outside Palm Springs, flowers and teddy bears were strewn around the feet of a 65-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus rex.
Over the weekend, thousands of tourists made the trek to the kitschy Cabazon Dinosaurs to see the concrete sculpture known as Mr. Rex, who was freshly painted in an unmistakable gray suit jacket, white shoes and a cherry-red bow tie. On the prehistoric creature’s chest was a heart above the name of the comedy legend it was honoring: Pee-wee Herman.
The late actor Paul Reubens, who conceptualized the character in the 1970s while he was part of the Los Angeles improv troupe the Groundlings, died July 30 after a six-year battle with cancer. He was 70 years old.
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His 1985 film “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” which follows a man on a cross-country road trip to find his stolen bicycle, was a wonky hit that became a cultural phenomenon. Several scenes in Tim Burton’s directorial debut were shot at the dinosaur park in California, and one of the most unexpectedly profound moments of the film comes when Pee-wee and a wanderlust waitress named Simone (Diane Salinger) have a conversation and watch the sunrise while seated inside the mouth of the T. rex.
Josh Munoz, a self-described dino wrangler who has done maintenance work on the Cabazon Dinosaurs since 2019, said he and his co-workers were “kind of taken aback” when they heard the news of Reubens’ death.
“Most of our visitors come because they’re fans of Pee-wee and his movies,” Munoz said over the phone Monday. “Over the last few days, we’ve seen more people than we ever have just to take pictures of the dino and share their childhood memories. Easily hundreds a day.”
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The crew at the roadside attraction started repainting the T. rex as a tribute to Reubens last Tuesday — a gig that required several hours of work and at least five buckets of paint. It’s not the first time the dino has received a new paint job. In the past, he’s been transformed into Fred Flintstone, Santa Claus, a Halloween jack-o’-lantern and a slew of other designs.
“There are about