King Kong FAQ
From the King Kong HomepageFirst Published July 18,1996
Updated March 1, 1999
Written by Boyd Campbell
E-mail: campbab@netdoor.com
What is King Kong?
King Kong is the title of the 1933 film produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack and which tells the story of a group of film makers who travel to an unknown island to try and make a motion picture using a mysterious island god found there. The god turns out to be a giant gorilla named Kong. The explorers capture Kong and bring him to New York as a public exhibit. Kong escapes his captors in New York and is killed atop the Empire State Building.Return to contents
How Tall is Kong?
Posters advertise King Kong as being 50 feet high. This is an exaggeration to help sell movie tickets. In reality, Kong was much smaller. For the scenes on Skull Island, Kong is made to appear eighteen feet high. This height was appropriate for the sequences where Kong interacts with Fay Wray. Merian C. Cooper, the producer, felt that an eighteen foot high Kong was too small for the New York sequences compared to the giant skyscrapers there and ordered Kong's height changed to twenty-four feet high for those sequences. Most viewers of the film never notice the change in Kong's height.While trying to sell his film project King Kong vs. Frankenstein,
Willis O'Brien gave Kong's measurements as Height 19'-8", Weight 38 tons, Reach 27', Chest
17', Waist 11', and neck 9'
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How was it made?
Although conflicting reports try
to claim that a man in a gorilla suit played the simian star in the original
King Kong everyone associated with the classic film denies this
absolutely. King Kong and the fantastic dinosaurs were realized through
the use of a special photographic process known as "Stop-Motion"
as employed by the earliest pioneer in this technique, Willis
O'Brien.
O'brien photographed miniature models of Kong and the dinosaurs exposing one frame of film at a time and repositioning the model between frames so that when played in succession the models appear to move on their own. Sculptor Marcel Delgado constructed the Kong and dinosaur models using metal armatures or skeletons with ball-and-socket joints. He then covered them with rubber muscles and in Kong's case a skin of pruned rabbit fur.
Special techniques such as rear-projetion
allowed Kong to appear in the same frame with actual footage of Fay Wray
while in other shots she was played by a small animation model. Besides
the animation models, O'brien's crew built a life-size hand of Kong for
shots of him holding Fay Wray and a life-sized bust of Kong for scenes
of him chewing Skull Islanders or New Yorkers.
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What Color was Fay Wray's hair?
Although one of the world's most
famous blondes, Fay Wray's hair was actually more reddish-brown or auburn.
She wore a blonde wig for shooting King Kong and returned to her
natural hair color for The Most Dangerous Game which was shooting
at the same time and often on the same sets. She purchased the wig one
Saturday at the original Max Factor store in Hollywood. Little did she
know that she would become an icon of the American cinema as a great original blonde.
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As a studio executive, Merian Cooper was charged with selecting which
projects to continue with and which to abandon when he came across O'Brien's
work in Creation. Although he didn't think it was a good idea to
continue with production 601 as planned, he did see potential in O'brien's
process to film a story idea he had about a giant ape rampaging in Manhattan.
He had thought of using live gorillas for his production, but the stop-motion
process impressed him as a better idea. Not only that, but it gave him
the idea of combining his giant ape with the dinosaur stars of Creation.
Creation was canceled with only a few shots completed including one showing an actor killing
a baby triceratops and then being chased by its angry mother. Not to waste
the work already done, the abandoned project's staff, sets, and models
were used in the making of King Kong. The triceratops, tyrannosaurus
rex and pteranadon models built for Creation ended up playing a
major role in King Kong (although the triceratops was cut from the
final version of the film) as did the miniature fallen log over the chasm
set.
Merian Cooper decided that the best way to sell the feasibility of King Kong to the studio heads
was to shoot a short sequence involving the stop-motion characters.
They decided to shoot the sequence featuring Kong picking the sailors off
the fallen log and the subsequent battle with the tyrannosaurus rex as
the best bet since most of the models and sets were already built for Creation.
Needless to say the studio decision-makers were overwhelmed by what they
saw and this sequence became one of the most well known in all of cinema
history.
In Los Angeles, Sid Grauman waited
until March 24, 1933 to release King Kong at his Chinese Theater
(the one with the footprints) which was advertised by a special edition
of the Hollywood Reporter magazine. Also featuring live music and dancers,
Grauman was not about to be outdone by New York and arranged to show the
life size bust of Kong used in the film in the theater's courtyard.
National release was April 10,
1933. RKO was nearly bankrupt by this time and the cash proceeds from King
Kong literally saved the studio from destruction at the eleventh hour.
Besides the original release,
King Kong was re-released was re-issued 5 times: 1938, 1942, 1946-47, 1952 and
finally in 1956; This doesn't include the release through Janus Films in the
seventies which included the long lost
censored sequences. A small number of 35mm prints were struck in 1998 for
limited distribution for the sixty-fifth anniversary of the film. Since
1956 Kong was released several times to televison and is currently available
on video tape.
Director Schoedsack donated
$100 to the Officers' Mess fund at Floyd Bennit Field to secure the pilots
and their craft. He gave each of the pilots $10 under the table and they
were so happy with the extra money that they decided to do something special
to show how much they appreciated it. As Schoedsack shot the planes approaching
him he realized that they were actually linked together by lines decorated
by colorful flags. Needless to say that scene had to be re-shot.
Since more of these items were made and sold, more of them stil exist
today and are highly collectable. Original King Kong posters can be very
valuable often selling for thousands of dollars. While I do not deal in
these types of items, if you have or would like to buy an original King
Kong poster, please contact Bruce
Hershenson or visit his website at http://www.brucehershenson.com/.
In 1938, when producer David O. Selznick was filming Gone With The
Wind, he was struck with the task of filming the climactic burning
of Atlanta. To make the sequence as dramatic as possible, Selznick ordered
several older outdoor sets burned and filmed. The largest of these sets
was the great wall of Skull Island which was decorated to resemble 1800's
buildings, doused with kerosene and burned as a dramatic backdrop for the
scenes of Rhett Butler in the carriage.
Godzilla, a giant dinosaur mutated
by radio-activity, was the star of many Toho films since the late 1950's.
Since in previous Godzilla films Godzilla was presented as being over 100
meters in height, Kong experienced a dramatic increase in size match his
Japanese rival.
The film would have fulfilled
a life-long dream of O'Brien's to see his creation in color but it may
be fortunate that he never lived to see the film since Toho decided against
using his stop-motion animation process to make the film and instead relied
on a somewhat unconvincing rubber and fur costume worn by a Japanese actor
cavorting in miniature cities.
Despite these problems King
Kong vs. Godzilla was fairly successful both in Asia and America. It's
unfortunate that Toho decided against using stop-motion for this film since
there are many fans who would have enjoyed seeing both Kong and Godzilla
filmed using this process.
At the present time, Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong is on hold while the director works on other
projects.
What was Production 601?
Production 601 was the proposed film, Creation, which employed the
talents of Willis O'Brien and Marcel Delgado. The film's plot involved a
group of submarine sailors who were trapped on a mysterious island where
dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals still lived. The studio shut down
production on the film when it was deemed too expensive during a financial
crisis related both to the depression and the high expense of making the
studio capable of producing movies with sound.
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What are some of the notable cameo appearances in Kong?
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When was King Kong first released?
In New York, King Kong opened
at both the New Roxy and the Radio City Music Hall on the same day (March
2, 1933). No film had ever been shown at both theaters which gave it a
total seating capacity of 10,000. The film earned $89,931 in four days
in New York smashing all records (remember movies prices were around $0.15
at the time) The show featured music and dancers prior to the film. There
were ten shows daily at both theaters.
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What sort of planes were those that shot down King Kong?
The planes used to topple King Kong
from the top of the Empire State Building were four basic navy training
models, Curtiss 02C-2 and Navy NY. The scenes were shot using these real
planes, miniatures and a full-scale mock-up which featured a Vickers-style
gun on a swivel mount which was used for close shots of the pilots (Cooper
and Schoedsack) firing at Kong.
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What is the value of original 1933 King Kong posters?
RKO realized how popular King Kong could be so they cut the price
of their posters and other advertising art and ordered extra printing on
it all to encourage theatre owners to advertise heavily.
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What became of the great wall set after the film was finished?
Stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen tells the story of how, as a young
boy, he would ask his dad to drive him down to see the great wall set--still
standing on the RKO/Pathe lot following the 1933 premier. It was a huge
set and found duty in a handful of films after King Kong.
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What does RKO stand for?
RKO stands for Radio Keith Orpheum where the "R" really means Radio Corporation
of America or RCA. The phrase "a radio picture" was to alert movie audiences
that this was a sound movie, like on the radio.
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Where did Toho Studios get the idea for King Kong vs. Godzilla?
In 1963 Willis O'Brien tried to
create interest in his script called King Kong vs. Frankenstein,
which featured the giant ape pitted against a giant version of the Frankenstein
monster. He hoped to make the film by using his stop-motion process to
animate both Kong and the Frankenstein monster. Finding no luck inciting
interest among American studios he was able to interest the Japanese studio,
Toho, in the concept. He did several preliminary
sketches and script treatments for Toho but eventually the deal fell
through and the film was never made, but shortly after O'Brien's death,
Toho released King Kong vs. Godzilla which featured a story line
almost identical to his King Kong vs. Frankenstein script except
that the Frankenstein monster was replaced by Godzilla. Neither O'Brien
nor his estate were ever compensated for the use of his idea.
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Were there different endings for the Japanese and American versions of
King Kong vs. Godzilla?
It has long been rumored that King Kong vs. Godzilla has two endings.
One showing Kong as the winner for American distribution and another showing
Godzilla as the winner for Japanese audiences. This is not true. Both the
American and Japanese versions of the film end exactly the same except
that in the American film you hear Kong's roar at the end and in the Japanese
version you hear Godzilla's roar right after Kong's so that the audience
knows that both monsters survived. There is no difference in the film itself,
only the soundtrack.
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Are there any plans to film another remake of King Kong?
In 1996, Universal Studios announced that New Zeland Director, Peter Jackson was given the green light to produce
a new version of King Kong. Jackson directed such popular films
as Forgotten Silver, The Frighteners, Heavenly Creatures, Braindead,
Meet the Feebles and Bad Taste.
For more information on the possible new remake of King Kong, check
out the Film Scoop Website: http://www.islandnet.com/~corona/films/details/kingkong.html
Or Aint
It Cool News for a report with pictures of Jackson's proposed Kong
model.
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