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January 31, 2012 (XXIV:3) Merian C. Cooper and Ernesrt B. Schoedsack, (1933, 100 min.)

Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack Story by Merian C. Cooper based on a story by Sceenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (undredited) Executive producer David O. Selznick Original Music by Cinematography by Edward Linden, J.O. Taylor, Vernon L. Walker and Kenneth Peach (uncredited) Film Editing by Ted Cheesman Production Design by Carroll Clark and Alfred Herman Costume Design by (uncredited) Special Effects by Harry Redmond Jr.... special effects (uncredited) Optical photography by Linwood G. Dunn Visual effects supervisor, Dunning process by Carroll H. The Toy Wife, 1935 The Last Days of Pompeii, 1935 She, 1934 Dunning Success at Any Price*, 1934 Spitfire*, 1934 The Lost Patrol*, Visual effects supervisor Willis H. O'Brien 1933 *, 1933 The Son of Kong*, 1933 Little Women*, 1933 *, 1933 No Marriage Ties*, ... Ann Darrow 1933 Before Dawn*, 1933 Flying Devils*, 1933 Cross Fire*, ... 1933 King Kong, 1933 The Monkey's Paw, 1932 The Most Bruce Cabot... John Driscoll Dangerous Game, 1929 The Four Feathers, 1927 Chang: A Frank Reicher... Captain Englehorn Drama of the Wilderness, and 1925 Grass: A Nation's Battle for Sam Hardy... Charles Weston Life. Noble Johnson ... Native Chief Steve Clemente… Witch King (as Steve Clemento) ERNEST B. SCHOEDSACK (June 8, 1893 in Council Bluffs, Iowa ... Second Mate Briggs – December 23, 1979, County, California)as six King Kong... King Kong producer credits—1933 The Son of Kong, 1933 King Kong, 1931 Ernest B. Schoedsack... Machine-Gunner on Plane That Kills Rango, 1929 The Four Feathers, 1927 Chang: A Drama of the Kong Wilderness, 1925 Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life—and 16 director credits: 1952 This Is , 1949 Mighty Joe Young, MERIAN C. COOPER (October 24, 1893, Jacksonville, Florida – 1940 Dr. Cyclops, 1937 , 1937 Trouble in April 21, 1973, San Diego, California) has six director credits— Morocco, 1935 The Last Days of Pompeii, 1934 Long Lost 1952 This Is Cinerama, 1935 The Last Days of Pompeii, 1933 Father, 1933 The Son of Kong, 1933 , 1933 King King Kong, 1929 The Four Feathers, 1927 Chang: A Drama of Kong, 1933 The Monkey's Paw, 1932 The Most Dangerous the Wilderness, and 1925 Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life, and Game, 1931 Rango, 1929 The Four Feathers, 1927 Chang: A 66 producer or executive producer credits (E.P. indicated by Drama of the Wilderness, and 1925 Grass: A Nation's Battle for asterisk), some of which are 1963 Best of Cinerama, 1956 Seven Life. Wonders of the World, 1956 The Searchers*, 1953 The Sun Shines Bright, 1952 This Is Cinerama, 1952 The Quiet Man, JAMES ASHMORE CREELMAN (September 21, 1894, Marietta, 1950 Rio Grande, 1950 Wagon Master*, 1949 She Wore a Ohio – September 9, 1941, City) has 33 script or story Yellow Ribbon*, 1949 Mighty Joe Young, 1948 3 Godfathers, credits, some of which are 1976 King Kong, 1935 , 1948 Fort Apache*, 1947 The Fugitive, 1940 Dr. Cyclops, 1938 1933 King Kong, 1932 The Most Dangerous Game, 1930 Danger Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—2

Lights, 1929 The Vagabond Lover, 1926 Aloma of the South 1919 Pallard the Punter (novel "Grey Timothy"), 1916 The Man Seas, 1926 The Untamed Lady, 1924 Unguarded Women, 1924 Who Bought London (novel), and 1915 Nurse and Martyr (short). Grit, 1923 Puritan Passions, and 1923 Second Fiddle. DAVID O. SELZNICK (May 10, 1902 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania RUTH ROSE (January 16, 1896 in Somerville, Massachusetts – – June 22, 1965, Hollywood, California) was producer for 42 June 8, 1978, Santa Monica, California) has eight writer credits, films and executive producer for 45 others. Some of the former some of which are 1976 King Kong, 1949 Mighty Joe Young, are 1950 Gone to Earth, 1949 , 1948 Portrait of 1935 The Last Days of Pompeii, 1935 She, 1933 Blind Jennie, 1947 The Paradine Case, 1946 Duel in the Sun, 1945 Adventure, and 1933 King Kong. Spellbound, 1944 , 1940 Rebecca, 1939 Gone with the Wind, 1939 Intermezzo: A Love Story, 1937 The EDGAR WALLACE (April 1, 1875 in Greenwich, London, Prisoner of Zenda, 1937 A Star Is Born, 1936 The Garden of England – February 10, 1932, Hollywood, California) was a Allah, 1936 Little Lord Fauntleroy, 1935 A Tale of Two Cities, prolific novelist, story writer, and playwright. He has been dead 1935 Anna Karenina, 1935 David Copperfield, 1934 80 years, yet 10 films have been made from his fiction in the past Melodrama, 1934 Viva Villa!, 1933 Dinner at Eight, 1933 Cross decade alone. He has 211 writer, story from and from a novel by Fire, 1933 Christopher Strong, 1930 Street of Chance, and 1924 credits, among them, some of which are Roulette. 2012 Triple WixXx (characters) (in production), 2007 The Wixxer (characters), 2005 King Kong (based on a story by), 2005 Kong: MAX STEINER (May 10, 1888, Vienna, Austria-Hungary – King of Atlantis (character idea - uncredited), 2004 Der Wixxer December 28, 1971, Hollywood, California) won two best (characters), 2002 “Edgar Wallace – Whiteface”, 2002 “Edgar scoring Oscars—Since You Went Away (1944) and Now, Voyager Wallace - Das Haus der toten (1942)—and one best music Augen”, 2002 “Edgar Wallace - Oscar—The Informer (1935). Das Schloss des Grauens”, 2000 He has score or scoring “Kong: The Animated Series”, credits for 362 films and TV 2000 Kong (character idea), 1999 series, among them 1972 Play “Theater: Der Hexer” (novel and It Again, Sam, 1958-1964 77 play), 1998 “Sunset Strip” (184 episodes), (video) (screen story "King Kong" 1962 , - uncredited), 1983 “The Case of 1962 Black Gold, 1957-1962 the Frightened Lady” (play and “Maverick” (118 episodes), novel "The Case of the Frightened 1962 House of Women, 1959- Lady"), 1972 What Have You 1962 “Adventures in Done to Solange? (novel "The Paradise” (87 episodes), 1960 Clue of the New Pin" - uncredited Comanche Station, 1960 The in italian version), 1971 Angels of Rise and Fall of Legs Terror (novel "The Angel of Diamond, 1957 20 Million Terror"), 1971 Der Teufel kam aus Miles to Earth, 1957 The Akasava (story "The Akasava"), Giant Claw, 1957 Hellcats of 1969 (novel "The Face in the Night"), 1967 the Navy, 1957 Duel at Apache Wells, 1956 7th Cavalry, 1956 Creature with the Blue Hand (novel "The Blue Hand"), 1966 Thunder Over , 1953 So This Is Love, 1952 Big Jim Psycho-Circus (novel "The Three Just Man"), 1965 The Sinister McLain, 1952 This Woman Is Dangerous, 1951 I'll See You in Monk (novel ""), 1964 The Main Chance (novel), My Dreams, 1951 Jim Thorpe -- All-American, 1951 Goodbye, 1964 Never Mention Murder (novel), 1964 The Verdict (novel), My Fancy, 1950 The Damned Don't Cry, 1950 Young Man with a 1963 Sanders (story ""), 1961 The Fourth Horn, 1950 Backfire, 1949 Homicide, 1948 Johnny Belinda, Square (novel), 1961 (novel), 1960 Crossroads 1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1947 My Wild Irish to Crime (story), 1960 (novel "The Terrible Rose, 1947 Dark Passage, 1946 Night and Day, 1945 Rhapsody People"), 1959-1960 “The Four Just Men” (39 episodes), 1940 in Blue, 1945 Back to Bataan, 1943 Adventure in Iraq, 1943 The Crimson Circle (novel), 1939 The Human Monster (novel Murder on the Waterfront, 1943 , 1942 Seven "The Dark Eyes of London"), 1935 Sanders of the River (story), Miles from Alcatraz, 1942 Across the Pacific, 1942 The Tuttles of 1934 Der Doppelgänger (novel "Der Doppelgänger"), 1933 King Tahiti, 1942 Murder in the Big House, 1942 Wild Bill Hickok Kong (from an idea conceived by / story - uncredited), 1932 The Rides, 1942 Joan of , 1941 Out of the Fog, 1940 Santa Fe Flying Squad (novel), 1929 The Wrecker (novel motifs - Trail, 1940 Annie Sails Again, 1940 An Angel from uncredited), 1929 The Clue of the New Pin (novel), 1929 The Texas, 1940 Virginia City, 1940 Calling Philo Vance, 1939 The Flying Squad (novel), 1928 Valley of the Ghosts (novel / Mad Empress, 1939 Gone with the Wind, 1939 The Roaring screenplay), 1928 The Terror (play), 1928 The Ringer (play), Twenties, 1939 Hell's Kitchen, 1939 Nancy Drew... Trouble 1928 The Terrible People (story), 1928 The Man Who Changed Shooter, 1939 Devil's Island, 1938 Nancy Drew – Detective, His Name (play), 1922 Melody of Death (novel), 1922 The 1938 Painted Desert, 1938 The Saint in New York, 1938 Crimson Circle (novel), 1920 Wanted at Headquarters (story), Bringing Up Baby, 1937 High Flyers, 1937 You Can't Beat Love, 1919 (novel), 1919 Angel Esquire (novel), 1937 Lost Horizon, 1937 , 1936 Second Wife, 1936 The Last of the Mohicans, 1936 Mary of Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—3

Scotland, 1936 The Last Outlaw, 1935 We're Only Human, 1935 Adventures of Falcon” (7 episodes), 1954 Jesse James' Women, I Dream Too Much, 1935 Break of Hearts, 1935 A Dog of 1953-1954 “Mr. & Mrs. North” (17 episodes), 1953 Eyes of the Flanders, 1934 The Richest Girl in the World, 1934 The Age of Jungle, 1952-1953 “Cowboy G-Men” (7 episodes), 1950-1952 Innocence, 1934 , 1934 The Crime “The Cisco Kid” (52 episodes), 1933 Sons of the Desert, and Doctor, 1934 Hips, Hips, Hooray!, 1933 The Son of Kong, 1933 1933 King Kong. Flying Down to Rio, 1933 Flying Devils, 1933 Christopher Strong, 1933 King Kong, 1933/I Topaze, 1932 A Bill of TED CHEESMAN (November 23, 1902, Missouri – December 30, Divorcement, 1931 , 1931 High Stakes, and 1930 1964 – Los Angeles, California) edited 26 films, some of which The Case of Sergeant Grischa. were 1949 Mighty Joe Young, 1938 Law of the Underworld, 1938 Maid's Night Out, 1938 Everybody's Doing It, 1937 Danger EDWARD LINDEN (August 26, 1891, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin – Patrol, 1937 The Outcasts of Poker Flat, 1935 She, 1933 The November 15, 1956, Hollywood, California) has 69 Son of Kong, 1933 King Kong, 1929 The Drifter, 1928 King cinematographer credits, some of which are 1957 “Circus Boy”, Cowboy, and 1928 Tracked. 1956 The Werewolf, 1955 “The Adventures of ”, 1955 Last of the Desperados, 1944 The Adventures of Mark CARROLL CLARK (February 6, 1894, Mountain View, California Twain, 1942 The Dawn Express, 1942 Today I Hang, 1941 – May 17, 1968, Glendale, California) was art director for 172 Swamp Woman, 1941 City of Missing Girls, 1940 Isle of Destiny, films, among them 1968 , 1968 The Horse in the 1938 Law of the Texan, 1938 Paroled from the Big House, 1937 Gray Flannel Suit, 1968 Never a Dull Moment, 1957-1968 “Walt , 1935 Pals of the Range, 1933 The Son of Disney's Wonderful World of Color” (47 episodes), 1968 The Kong, 1933 King Kong, 1927 Spurs and Saddles, 1927 The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, 1968 Rover, 1927 Saddle Jumpers, 1927 Riders of the West, Blackbeard's Ghost, 1961 Babes in Toyland, 1958 The Light in 1927 Speeding Hoofs, 1926 The Terror, 1926 Western Pluck, the Forest, 1957 Old Yeller, 1954 , 1953 Vice 1923 Other Men's Daughters, 1923 Mine to Keep, 1921 The Squad, 1953 Tarzan and the She-Devil, 1952 Clash by Night, Mask, and 1917 A Modern Mother Goose. 1948 Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, 1948 I Remember Mama, 1947 Sinbad the Sailor, 1946 Notorious, 1944 Murder, J.O. TAYLOR (December 27, 1887, Virginia – September 7, My Sweet, 1943 Hitler's Children, 1942 Call Out the Marines, 1974, Los Angeles, California) has 51 cinematographer credits, 1942 , 1934 The Gay Divorcee, 1934 Of Human some of which are 1933 The Son of Kong, 1933 King Kong, 1933 Bondage, 1934 This Man Is Mine, 1934 Hips, Hips, Hooray!, The Monkey's Paw, 1928 Chicago After Midnight, 1928 Coney 1933 Flying Down to Rio, 1933 Cross Fire, 1933 King Kong, Island, 1927 The Haunted Ship, 1927 By Whose Hand?, 1927 1933 The Monkey's Paw, 1932 Little Orphan Annie, 1932 A Bill Pleasure Before Business, 1927 Stolen Pleasures, 1926 Sweet of Divorcement, 1932 The Most Dangerous Game, 1932 Rosie O'Grady, 1926 The Belle of Broadway, 1926 The Lone Westward Passage, 1932 Ghost Valley, 1931 The Big Shot, 1931 Wolf Returns, 1926 The Sea Wolf, 1917 His Sweetheart, and Sweepstakes, 1931 Born to Love, 1931 The Painted Desert, 1930 1916 A Son of Erin. Sin Takes a Holiday, and 1927 The Magic Garden.

VERNON L. WALKER (May 2, 1894 in Detroit, Michigan – ALFRED HERMAN (September 8, 1889, , New March 1, 1948 – Balboa Island, Los Angeles, California) has 71 York – December 1973, Los Angeles, California) has 43 art cinematographer credits, mostly for shorts. Some of his feature director credits, among them 1952 The Lusty Men, 1952 Beware, credits are 1933 The Son of Kong, 1933 King Kong, 1931 Ten My Lovely, 1951 , 1948 Berlin Express, 1947 Nights in a Barroom, 1924 The Right of the Strongest, 1923 End Crossfire, 1944 The Falcon Out West, 1943 A Lady Takes a of the Rope, 1923 Purple Dawn, 1923 Robin Hood, Jr., 1922 A Chance, 1943 Bombardier, 1934 The Age of Innocence, 1933 Front Page Story, 1920 Square Shooter, 1920 Forbidden Trails, Blind Adventure, and 1933 King Kong/ 1920 The Last Straw, 1920 Would You Forgive? THOMAS LITTLE (August 27, 1886 in Ogden, Utah – March 5, KENNETH PEACH (March 6, 1903, El Reno, Indian Territory – 1985, Santa Monica, California) won or shared in six art-interior February 27, 1988, Los Angeles, California) has 80 decoration Oscars: Anna and the King of Siam (1946), Wilson cinematographer credits, some of which are 1984 “Back (1944), The Song of Bernadette (1943). This Above All (1942), Together”, 1980-1983 “Taxi” (59 episodes), 1979 “Angie” (6 (1942), and How Green Was My Valley (1941). He episodes), 1975-1978 “Rhoda” (84 episodes), 1975 “The Odd has 482 set decorator credits, including 1953 The Girl Next Door, Couple”, 1971 “City Beneath the Sea”, 1970 Pufnstuf, 1969- 1953 Down Among the Sheltering Palms, 1952 Stars and Stripes 1970 “H.R. Pufnstuf” (17 episodes), 1969 Hell's Belles, 1968- Forever, 1952 The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 1952 Les Miserables, 1969 “The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (11 episodes), 1952 What Price Glory, 1952 Don't Bother to Knock, 1952 The 1968 The Young Animals, 1967 A Time for Killing, 1966 “12 Pride of St. Louis, 1952 With a Song in My Heart, 1952 5 O'Clock High”, 1965-1966 “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, 1965 Fingers, 1952 Viva Zapata!, 1952 Red Skies of Montana, 1951 “The Long, Hot Summer”, 1964-1965 “The Outer Limits” (25 The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, 1951 The Day the Earth episodes), 1964 Blood on the Arrow, 1961 “Sea Hunt”, 1961 Stood Still, 1951 David and Bathsheba, 1951 The Secret of Sniper's Ridge, 1958-1960 “Lassie” (73 episodes), 1958 Curse of Convict Lake, 1951 I Can Get It for You Wholesale, 1951 the Faceless Man, 1958 The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Rawhide, 1951 Call Me Mister, 1950 , 1950 No Gold, 1957 “Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color”, 1957 Way Out, 1950 Broken Arrow, 1950 Where the Sidewalk Ends, , 1956 The Wild Dakotas, 1954-1955 “The 1950 , 1950 Cheaper by the Dozen, 1950 When Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—4

Willie Comes Marching Home, 1949 Twelve O'Clock High, 1949 Buck and the Preacher, 1970 Catch-22, 1970 Chisum, 1969 True Dancing in the Dark, 1949 Oh, You Beautiful Doll, 1949 Pinky, Grit, 1968 5 Card Stud, 1968 The Green Berets, 1968 The Odd 1949 Thieves' Highway, 1949 I Was a Male War Bride, 1949 Couple, 1968 Will Penny, 1967 The War Wagon, 1965 The Sons Slattery's Hurricane, 1949 The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful of Katie Elder, 1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told, 1963 Bend, 1949 Down to the Sea in Ships, 1949 A Letter to Three Cleopatra, 1961 Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1959 Last Train from Wives, 1948 Give My Regards to Broadway, 1948 The Iron Gun Hill, 1957 The Buster Keaton Story, 1956 The Ten Curtain, 1948 , 1947 , Commandments, 1954 Rear Window, 1953 Houdini, 1953 Stalag 1947 Daisy Kenyon, 1947 Gentleman's Agreement, 1947 Forever 17, 1952 Son of Paleface, 1952 The Greatest Show on Earth, Amber, 1947 The Foxes of Harrow, 1947 Kiss of Death, 1947 1951 Ace in the Hole, 1950 Union Station, 1950 Sunset Blvd., Mother Wore Tights, 1947 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, 1947 1949 Samson and Delilah, 1949 The Great Gatsby, 1948 Night Miracle on 34th Street, 1947 , 1946 The Has a Thousand Eyes, 1947 Road to Rio, 1947 The Perils of Razor's Edge, 1946 Margie, 1946 My Darling Clementine, 1946 Pauline, 1944 , 1944 Lady in the Dark, Anna and the King of Siam, 1933 Little Women, 1945 Leave Her to Heaven, 1933 King Kong, 1945 The Dolly Sisters, 1932 A Bill of 1945 The House on 92nd Divorcement, 1931 Street, 1945 Diamond Little Caesar, 1930 Horseshoe, 1945 A Tree The Dawn Patrol, Grows in Brooklyn, 1944 1929 The Squall, 1929 Winged Victory, 1944 The , Keys of the Kingdom, 1944 1928 Harold Teen, Laura, 1944 Wing and a 1928 Ladies' Night in Prayer, 1944 Roger Touhy, a Turkish Bath, and Gangster, 1944 Buffalo 1927 Chicago. Bill, 1944 , 1944 The Fighting WALTER PLUNKETT Sullivans, 1944 Lifeboat, (June 5, 1902 in 1943 The Song of Oakland, California – Bernadette, 1943 March 8, 1982, Santa Guadalcanal Diary, 1943 Monica, California) Heaven Can Wait, 1943 won a best costume Stormy Weather, 1943 The design Oscar for An Ox-Bow Incident, 1943 The American in Paris Fighting Guerrillas, 1942 (1951). He has 156 Springtime in the Rockies, costume designer 1942 Berlin Correspondent, 1942 The Postman Didn't Ring, credits, some of which are 1966 7 Women, 1962 Two Weeks in 1942 My Gal Sal, 1941 , 1941 How Green Another Town, 1962 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Was My Valley, 1941 Riders of the Purple Sage, 1941 Belle 1960 Cimarron, 1960 Bells Are Ringing, 1958 Some Came Starr, 1941 Charlie Chan in Rio, 1941 , Running, 1958 The Brothers Karamazov, 1957 Raintree County, 1941 Charley's Aunt, 1941 Blood and Sand, 1941 That Night in 1956 Lust for Life, 1956 Forbidden Planet, 1954 Seven Brides Rio, 1941 Tobacco Road, 1941 Western Union, 1940 Tin Pan for Seven Brothers, 1954 The Student Prince, 1953 Kiss Me Alley, 1940 The Mark of Zorro, 1940 , 1940 Kate, 1952 , 1952 The Prisoner of The Gay Caballero, 1940 Lillian Russell, 1940 Charlie Chan's Zenda, 1952 Singin' in the Rain, 1951 Show Boat, 1950 King Murder Cruise, 1940 The Grapes of Wrath, 1939 Charlie Chan Solomon's Mines, 1950 Father of the Bride, 1949 Little Women, in City in Darkness, 1939 , 1939 1947 Green Dolphin Street, 1946 Duel in the Sun, 1945 A Song , 1939 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, to Remember, 1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1939 Gone 1939 , 1939 The Story of Alexander with the Wind, 1939 Stagecoach, 1938 The Adventures of Tom Graham Bell, 1939 The Three Musketeers, 1939 Jesse James, Sawyer, 1936 Mary of Scotland, 1935 The Informer, 1934 The 1938 Suez, 1938 Alexander's Ragtime Band, 1938 Rebecca of Gay Divorcee, 1934 The Age of Innocence, 1934 Of Human Sunnybrook Farm, 1937 Heidi, 1937 Slave Ship, 1936 White Bondage, 1934 Hips, Hips, Hooray!, 1933 The Son of Kong, Fang, 1936 A Message to Garcia, 1936 The Prisoner of Shark 1933 Flying Down to Rio, 1933 Little Women, 1933 Christopher Island, 1935 She, 1933 The Son of Kong, 1933 King Kong, 1933 Strong, 1933 King Kong, 1928 Sinners in Love, and 1927 Hard- The Monkey's Paw, 1932 The Most Dangerous Game Boiled Haggerty.

RAY MOYER (February 21, 1898 in Santa Barbara, California – HARRY REDMOND JR. (October 15, 1909, Brooklyn, New York February 6, 1986, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California) – May 23, 2011, Los Angeles, California) has special effects shared best art direction-set docorations Oscars three times: credits on 60 films, some of which are 1964 “The Unknown” Cleopatra (1963), Sunset Blvd. (1950), and Samson and Delilah (TV movie), 1963-1964 “The Outer Limits” (15 episodes), 1960 (1949). He has 120 set decorator credits, some of which are 1973 “The Aquanauts”, 1958-1960 “Sea Hunt” (90 episodes), 1955- Cahill U.S. Marshal, 1973 Pat Garrett & , 1972 1957 “Science Fiction Theatre” (26 episodes), 1954 Riders to the Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—5

Stars, 1953 Donovan's Brain, 1948 A Song Is Born, 1947 The Gangs of the Waterfront, 1945 , 1943 Wings Bishop's Wife, 1947 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, 1946 Angel Over the Pacific, 1942 Baby Face Morgan, 1942 , on My Shoulder, 1946 The Stranger, 1946 A Night in 1941 Dive Bomber, 1939 The Flying Irishman, 1937 Three Casablanca, 1945 Getting Gertie's Garter, 1944 The Woman in Legionnaires, 1937 Nobody's Baby, 1936 Public Enemy's Wife, the Window, 1944 The Hairy Ape, 1944 Passage to Marseille, 1935 'G' Men, 1934 Manhattan Love Song, 1934 She Made Her 1943 Action in the North Atlantic, 1943 The Outlaw, 1939 Only Bed, 1934 Palooka, 1933 The Son of Kong, 1933 Above the Angels Have Wings, 1938 The Girl of the Golden West, 1937 The Clouds, 1933 King Kong, 1933 Billion Dollar Scandal, 1932 Prisoner of Zenda, 1937 Lost Horizon, 1935 The Last Days of Penguin Pool Murder, 1932 The Most Dangerous Game, 1932 Pompeii, 1935 , 1935 Hop-a-long Cassidy, 1935 She, , 1930 Big Money, 1929 Big News, 1929 The 1935 The Informer, 1934 Anne of Green Gables, 1934 The Gay Woman from Hell, 1929 The Leatherneck, 1928 Square Crooks, Divorcee, 1934 Of Human Bondage, 1933 The Son of Kong, 1928 A Girl in Every Port, and 1927 The Main Event. 1933 Flying Down to Rio, 1933 Little Women, 1933 King Kong, 1932 Little Orphan Annie, 1932 The Most Dangerous Game, and BRUCE CABOT... John Driscoll (April 20, 1904, Carlsbad, New 1931 Chances. – May 3, 1972, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California) appeared in 107 films and TV series, some of which LINWOOD G. DUNN (December 27, 1904, New York City, New were 1971 Diamonds Are Forever, 1971 Big Jake, 1970 WUSA, York – May 15, 1998, Los Angeles, California) has visual effects 1970 Chisum, 1968 The Green Berets, 1967 The War Wagon, credits on 30 films, including 1975 The Devil's Rain, 1970 1966 The Chase, 1965 Cat Ballou, 1965 In Harm's Way, 1964 Darling Lili, 1970 Airport, 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1966 “”, 1963 McLintock!, 1962 Hatari!, 1961 The Hawaii, 1966 The Bible: In the Beginning…, 1965 The Great Comancheros, 1960 “”, 1958 The Sheriff of Race, 1963 It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, 1963 Shock Fractured Jaw, 1958 The Quiet American, 1951 Best of the Corridor, 1961 West Side Story, 1956 The Conqueror, 1952 Badmen, 1949 Sorrowful Jones, 1947 Gunfighters, 1947 Angel Androcles and the Lion, 1951 The Thing from Another World, and the Badman, 1942 , 1939 Dodge City, 1949 Mighty Joe Young, 1947 Out of the Past, 1942 Cat People, 1939 Homicide Bureau, 1936 Legion of Terror, 1936 The Big 1941 Citizen Kane, 1935 She, 1934 Kentucky Kernels, 1933 King Game, 1936 The Last of the Mohicans, 1936 The Three Wise Kong, and 1932 The Most Dangerous Game. Guys, 1935 Let 'em Have It, 1934 Redhead, 1934 Murder on the Blackboard, 1933 Shadows of Sing Sing, 1933 Flying Devils, FAY WRAY...Ann Darrow (September 15, 1907, Cardston, 1933 King Kong, and 1933 Lucky Devils. Alberta, Canada – August 8, 2004, New York City, New York) has 117 film and television acting credits, including 1980 FRANK REICHER... Captain Englehorn (December 2, 1875, “Gideon's Trumpet”, 1958-1965 “Perry Mason”, 1957-1961 Munich, Bavaria, Germany – January 19, 1965, Playa del Rey, “G.E. True Theater”, 1960 “The Islanders”, 1960 “77 Sunset California) appeared in 228 films, among them 1951 Superman Strip”, 1959 “The David Niven Show”, 1958-1959 “Alfred and the Mole-Men, 1951 The Lady and the Bandit, 1950 Kiss Hitchcock Presents”, 1957 Tammy and the Bachelor, 1955-1956 Tomorrow Goodbye, 1949 Samson and Delilah, 1947 The Secret “Studio 57”, 1955 , 1955 “Damon Runyon Life of Walter Mitty, 1947 Monsieur Verdoux, 1946 My Pal Theater”, 1953-1955 “The Pride of the Family” (6 episodes), Trigger, 1944 House of Frankenstein, 1944 The Mummy's Ghost, 1938 , 1936 Roaming Lady, 1936 When 1944 Gildersleeve's Ghost, 1944 The Adventures of Mark Twain, Knights Were Bold, 1935 Alias Bulldog Drummond, 1934 The 1944 In Our Time, 1943 The Song of Bernadette, 1943 Watch on Richest Girl in the World, 1934 Viva Villa!, 1934 The Countess the Rhine, 1943 , 1943 Hangmen Also Die!, of Monte Cristo, 1933 The Bowery, 1933 Shanghai Madness, 1942 To Be or Not to Be, 1941 Underground, 1941 The Face 1933 King Kong, 1933 Mystery of the Wax Museum, 1933 The Behind the Mask, 1940 All This, and Heaven Too, 1940 Dr. Vampire Bat, 1932 The Most Dangerous Game, 1931 Dirigible, Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, 1939 Ninotchka,1939 Devil's Island, 1931 Three Rogues, 1930 The Sea God, 1929 Pointed Heels, 1938 Three Comrades, 1936 Camille, 1936 Nobody's Fool, 1936 1929 The Four Feathers, 1928 Street of Sin, 1928 The Till We Meet Again, 1936 The Country Doctor, 1935 Magnificent Honeymoon, 1926 The Man in the Saddle, and 1925 The Coast Obsession, 1935 The Fighting Marines, 1935 A Dog of Flanders, Patrol. 1934 Men in White, 1934 The Countess of Monte Cristo, 1934 No Greater Glory, 1933 The Son of Kong, 1933 King Kong, 1932 ROBERT ARMSTRONG... Carl Denham (November 20, 1890, , 1932 Flesh, 1931 Mata Hari, 1930 Saginaw, Michigan – April 20, 1973, Santa Monica, California) Billy the Kid, 1929 His Captive Woman, and 1915 The Case of appeared in 181 films and television series, some of which were Becky. 1964 For Those Who Think Young, 1958-1964 “Perry Mason”, 1963 Johnny Cool, 1963 “77 Sunset Strip”, 1961 “Lassie”, 1961 SAM HARDY... Charles Weston (March 21, 1883, New Haven, “Rawhide”, 1960 “Lawman”, 1959 “Colt .45”, 1959 “Wagon Connecticut – October 16, 1935, Hollywood, California) has 85 Train”, 1956-1959 “State Trooper” (28 episodes), 1958 “Have acting credits, including 1935 Powdersmoke Range, 1935 Gun - Will Travel”, 1956 The Peacemaker, 1956 “Cheyenne”, Hooray for Love, 1934 The Gay Bride, 1934 Little Miss Marker, 1955 “G.E. True Theater”, 1955 Double Jeopardy, 1950 1933 King Kong, 1933 Goldie Gets Along, 1933 Face in the Sky, Destination Big House, 1950 “The Silver Theatre”, 1949 Mighty 1932 The Dark Horse, 1931 The Magnificent Lie, 1931 The Joe Young, 1949 Streets of San Francisco, 1949 The Crime Millionaire, 1931 June Moon, 1930 Borrowed Wives, 1930 The Doctor's Diary, 1948 The Paleface, 1948 Return of the Bad Men, Florodora Girl, 1929 A Man's Man, 1928 The Big Noise, 1927 1946 G.I. War Brides, 1945 The Falcon in San Francisco, 1945 High Hat, 1925 Bluebeard's Seven Wives, 1923 Little Old New Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—6

York, 1918 Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1915 Over Night, and 1915 Judy Roaring Twenties, 1939 , 1939 Rose of Forgot. Washington Square, 1939 Union Pacific, 1939 Jesse James, 1938 Blondie, 1938 You Can't Take It with You, 1938 Born to Be NOBLE JOHNSON... Native Chief (April 18, 1881, Marshall, Wild, 1938 Penitentiary, 1937 San Quentin, 1937 You Only Live Missouri – January 9, 1978, Yucaipa, California) played just Once, 1936 My Man Godfrey, 1935 Magnificent Obsession, 1935 about every kind of non-White character Hollywood could think 'G' Men, 1933 Only Yesterday, 1933 Ship of Wanted Men, 1933 of: Native American, Black, Indian, South Pacific tribesman, Riot Squad, 1933 Hello, Sister!, 1933 King Kong, 1932 Air Mail, Iraqi, and more. Some of his 146 credits are 1950 North of the 1932 The Most Dangerous Game, 1932 McKenna of the Great Divide, 1949 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, 1947 Along the Mounted, and 1932 The Airmail Mystery. Oregon Trail, 1947 Slave Girl, 1946 Plainsman and the Lady, 1946 Angel on My Shoulder, 1942 Ten Gentlemen from West Point, 1942 Jungle Book, 1940 Seven Sinners, 1939 Union Pacific, 1937 Wee Willie Winkie, 1937 Lost Horizon, 1936 , 1935 Dante's Inferno, 1935 She, 1935 The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, 1933 White Woman, 1933 King Kong, 1933 Nagana, 1932 The Mummy, 1932 The Most Dangerous Game, 1932 Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1931 Safe in Hell, 1931 , 1931 Son of India, 1930 Kismet, 1930 Moby Dick, 1929 The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, 1929 The Four Feathers, 1927/I Topsy and Eva, 1926 The Lady of the Harem, 1926 !, 1925 Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, 1924 Dante's Inferno, 1924 The Thief of Bagdad, 1923 The Ten Commandments, 1922 The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1921 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1916 Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages, 1916 The Realization of a Negro's Ambition, and 1915 Mr. Jarr and the Lady Reformer.

JAMES FLAVIN... Second Mate Briggs (May 14, 1906 in Portland, Maine – April 23, 1976, Los Angeles, California) was one of Hollywoods great character actors. He appeared in 489 films and television series, some of which were 1976 “Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident”, 1968 “It Takes a Thief”, 1967 In Cold Blood, 1965 Dr. Kildare, 1961- 1965 “Mister Ed” (8 episodes), 1960-1962 “The Roaring 20's” (33 episodes), 1960-1961 “Twilight Zone”, 1962 Policeman / Truck Driver, 1960 “The Untouchables”, 1958 The Last Hurrah, 1958 “Broken Arrow”, 1957 , 1954-1956 “It's a Great Life”, 1951-1955 “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” (8 episodes), 1955 Mister Roberts, 1954 “The Mickey Rooney Show”, 1954 Untamed Heiress, 1953 Abbott and Cooper, Merian C(oldwell) Costello Go to Mars, 1952 “Sky King”, 1951 “The Amos 'n from World Film Directors, Vol I. Ed. John Wakeman. H.W. Andy Show”, 1950 My Friend Irma Goes West, 1950 “The Lone Wilson Co, NY 1987 Ranger”, 1950 When Willie Comes Marching Home, 1949 Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, , 1949 Mighty Joe American producer and director, born in Jacksonville, Young, 1949 Flamingo Road, 1947 Nightmare Alley, 1947 Black Florida, the youngest of three children of John C. Cooper and the Gold, 1946 Angel on My Shoulder, 1946 Cloak and Dagger, former Mary Coldwell. His father, a lawyer who became 1946 Courage of Lassie, 1946 The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in Florida, was 1946 A Stolen Life, 1946 Two Years Before the Mast, 1945 descended from Scotch-Irish planters, and Merian Cooper was , 1945 Mildred Pierce, 1945 Anchors Aweigh, 1945 raised in the traditions of Southern chivalry, patriotism and Murder, He Says, 1945 God Is My Co-Pilot, 1944 Here Come the religious certainty. Waves, 1944 Hollywood Canteen, 1944 Laura, 1943 So Proudly At the age of six, according to Ron Haver, Cooper was We Hail!, 1943 Heaven Can Wait, 1943 Action in the North given Paul Du Chaillu’s Explorations and Adventures in Atlantic, 1943 Mission to Moscow, 1942 Gentleman Jim, 1942 Equatorial Africa, finding the seeds of King Kong in the book’s Broadway, 1942 , 1942 Ride 'Em highly imaginative account of giant apes that were supposed to Cowboy, 1942 Mr. and Mrs. North, 1941 You're in the Army terrorize the jungle villages—including one that carried off a Now, 1941 Texas, 1941 Hold Back the Dawn, 1941 Belle Starr, screaming woman. He decided that he, like Du Chaillu, would 1941 , 1941 Western Union, 1941 High find fame as an explorer, and later, when he was sent north to Sierra, 1940 Knute Rockne All American, 1940 When the Lawrenceville School near Princeton, he trained himself for the Daltons Rode, 1940 , 1940 The Way of All rigors of this career as a boxer, wrestler, and swimmer. Flesh, 1940 Framed, 1940 The Grapes of Wrath, 1939 The Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—7

In 1911, still dreaming of travel and adventure, Cooper Inspired no doubt by the worldwide success of Flaherty’s entered Annapolis Naval Academy. A high-spirited young man, Nanook of the North, they conceived the idea of a documentary he “took chances and got caught too many times”; in 1914 5, his about the Bakhtiari, a fiercely independent nomad people who graduating year—he resigned from Annapolis (presumably upon every year drove their flocks over the mountains of central Persia request) and joined the merchant marine. When the Germans to the grazing lands beyond. Back in the , Cooper sank the Lusitania, Cooper recognized that war was coming and borrowed $5,000 from his family and $5000 more from a new decided that he wanted a part in it. Ron Haver says that he partner, Marguerite Harrison, an adventurous journalist who had “literally jumped ship in London,” injuring himself in the supplied him with food, blankets, and books when he was a process. prisoner in Russia. Shipped back to the United States, Cooper worked as a The three Americans went via Turkey to Persia and then journalist in Minneapolis, Des Moines, and St. Louis. In 1916, on horseback and on foot to Shustar, capital of Arabistan. There desperate for his piece of the Great War, he joined the Georgia they met the Bakhitiari khans and secured permission to join the National Guard, believing that it would be sent to Europe. In migration of 50,000 tribesmen and half a million animals. For stead he found himself skirmishing against twenty-six days they shared all the Pancho Villa on the Mexican border. He hardships of the journey over the volunteered for flight training with the Zagros mountains—fording rivers on Signal Corps and at last, in September goatskin rafts, scaling trackless and 1918, was sent to . The war was snow-covered peaks—until they almost over, but Cooper was in time to be reached the grassy valleys on the shot down and severely burned. He other side. Cooper and Schoedsack greeted the Armistice in a German prison photographed it all with Schoedsack’s hospital. heavy Debrie camera, and Marguerite Released, Cooper was assigned Harrison noted that Cooper “had a to am American relief office in . flair for the bizarre”—“was for ever His interviews there with refugees from striving for startling climaxes and the Russian Civil War confirmed his sharp contrasts.” He was also belief that communism posed an “disdainful of all the refinements of international threat. He left the American life....Stubborn as a mule, moody, army to fight with the Poles against the quick-tempered but generous, loyal to Bolsheviks, flying with the Kosciuszso the point of fanaticism.” Squadron—some sources, indeed, claimed The journey over, Cooper that he both founded and commanded the and Schoedsack tool their film to squadron, though this does not seem Paris. Arriving there practically likely. In July 1920 he was shot down penniless, they developed and edited once more and sent to a prison camp near it themselves into a feature-length Moscow. After ten months he escaped with two others and made documentary they called Grass. Schoedsack went off to the his way to Latvia. There he was imprisoned again as a suspected Galapagos Islands on an expedition led by William Beebe and Communist until an American relief mission bailed him out. Cooper took Grass on the lecture circuit. Its success was so great Cooper returned to New York in 1921, laden with that Jesse Lasky offered to release it through Paramount. It medals. He worked for the New York Daily News and the New created a sensation, grossing many times its minuscule cost (and York Times as a reporter and feature writer, also contributing to incidentally promoting the sales of Cooper’s diary of the journey, the Times articles about his own adventures that he signed “A published under the same title as the film. Fortunate Soldier.” Still intent on becoming an explorer, he spent Though Cooper and Schoedsack are credited as hours every day at the American Geographical Society, studying codirectors, Cooper in his diary gives most of the credit for the mapmaking and survival techniques. His chance came when he film to his friend. A modern critic, Elliott Stein, writes that learned that Captain Edward A. Salisbury was planning an “Schoedsack’s camera captured some of the most remarkable and exploratory world cruise, hoping to gather materials for articles, strikingly framed outdoor footage of the 20s....Unhappily, Terry films, and a book. Salisbury needed someone with writing and Ramsaye, Paramount’s title writer, churned out an endless string navigational experience, and Cooper was accepted. When the of inanities (‘Gosh, it’s another day!’). And since Grass is a expedition’s cameraman absconded after a particularly ferocious collective odyssey, it never deals with families or individuals— typhoon, Cooper suggested as his replacement a young combat the Bakhtiaris are seen from a distance like some race of rugged photographer he had met on the way to Poland—Ernest B. compulsive insects—the concentration on panoramic visions Schoedsack, who had trained at Mack Sennett’s Keystone eventually fatigues.” studios. Cooper and Schoedsack were well aware of this Cooper and Schoedsack first worked together on a film weakness and, before their money ran out, had hoped to repeat when the expedition reached North Africa. They planned a the journey, viewing it from the point of view of a single family. documentary about Ethiopia and Hailie Selassie and shot a great This was the approach they adopted in their second documentary, deal of film. This burned a few weeks later in a fire that also Chang (1927). Amply financed by Jess Lasky (to the tune of destroyed the expedition’s ship. Cooper and Schoedsack decided about $60,000), it was the product of almost two years’ filming to continue their globetrotting collaboration by other means. in the jungles of northern Siam (Thailand). This heavily Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—8 fictionalized documentary centers on a Lao tribesman, Kru. With Perhaps for this reason Cooper left the film industry for his family he leaves the village, clears a patch of land in the two years and turned to his other passion, the airplane. Investing jungle, battles against tigers, leopards, and the encroaching the profits from Grass and Chang, he became one of the vegetation, and tames a wild chang (elephant) as a work founding stockholders and first directors of both Western animal—a triumph of private enterprise over an inimical Airlines and Pan American Airways. In his spare time he wrote a environment. book (never published) about baboons, a species whose behavior In assembling their material, the filmmakers faced had caught his interest when he was filming The Four Feathers. nearly as many dangers as their hero. Schoedsack, perched in a His researches reminded him of the stories about giant apes that tree, almost paid with his life for his shot of a tiger leaping up at he had read as a boy, and the idea for a film began to take shape. the lens. Cooper, a man of uncontrollable rages publicly slapped Further inspiration came from his friend Douglas Burden, an a Lao chieftain during an argument and that evening was served explorer who told him fascinating stories about the “prehistoric” a chicken stew laced with bamboo barbs; only the accidental island of Komodo in the Dutch East Indies, inhabited by lizards presence of a missionary doctor saved him from an agonizingly twelve feet long. slow death. But there was also a Cooper settled down to good deal of comic relief—in the write the first of several treatments filming as in the film—much of it for what was to become King Kong, provided by Bimbo, an eccentric working out in detail what could be gibbon. achieved with the special effects Chang opened in April then possible. He was forced to 1927 at the Criterion Theatre in New discard the idea of using a real (but York, with a score composed and magnified) gorilla in his film, and conducted by Hugo Riesenfeld. The to investigate instead ways in orchestra included a percussion which models of monsters, filmed section of twenty men pounding six- on miniature sets, could be foot jungle drums during the combined with live action scenes climactic elephant stampede. This projected on the same miniature spectacular sequence (footage from scale. It was at this point that David which was later used in at least a O. Selznick, by then head of dozen other films) was projected at production at RKO, invited Cooper the Criterion through a magnifying lens onto a screen about three to become his executive assistant, evaluating the commercial times the normal size, in a process, known as Magnascope, that prospects of current and proposed RKO productions. In this way had a brief vogue during the mid-1920s. Chang (which was also he met Willis O’Brien. one of the first films shot on panchromatic stock) was a critical O’Brien was a cartoonist and animator of genius who, in success and the top-grossing movie of the year. It launched a The Lost World (1925) and other films, had perfected the whole cycle of jungle thrillers like Trader Horn and King of the technique of “stop-motion animation.” In this process, small Jungle. All the same—enjoyed as it was for its showmanlike models are given the appearance of life by photographing them, mingling of comedy and drama—there are many who prefer the one frame at a time, in successive stages of a movement. In “stark, heart-breaking” simplicity of Grass. O’Brien and his team of model-makers and matte artists, Cooper In a natural progression, Cooper and Schoedsack went saw the solution to his remaining technical problems in King from Chang to their first wholly fictional feature—the second Kong. Selznick was excited by Cooper’s proposals and so was silent version of A.E.W. Mason’s The Four Feathers (1929). Schoedsack when he returned to Hollywood from another Richard Arlen plays Harry Faversham, the gentle, introspective project. Cooper prepared an elaborate case for his film, including young officer who resigns his commission just as his regiments is detailed sketches of some of its most spectacular scenes, and leaving for the Sudan to avenge the death of General Gordon. He eventually RKO—cautious in that Depression year—authorized received white feathers—symbols of cowardice—from four of an expenditure of $5,000 on a test reel. his nearest and dearest, One of these is his fiancée (Fay Wray) Cooper added another $5,000 of his own money and and another is a brother officer (Clive Brook). After being work began. After one false start, O’Brien and his crew blinded in the desert, the Brook character [is] led to safety by a constructed three eighteen-inch model gorillas, each weighing mute heroic tribesman; much later he learns that this was the ten pounds. For each, a skeleton of articulated steel was equipped despised Harry Faversham. David O. Selznick was assigned by with a latex rubber muscular system and padded out to shape Paramount as production supervisor. with cotton. The whole was painted with a liquid latex and, after The Four Feathers matched exterior footage (shot this had dried into a “skin,” a final covering of animal fur was mostly in the Sudan and Tanganyika, sometimes with doubles) applied. For close-ups. O’Brien’s team also built a gigantic bust and scenes filmed in the studio, with a care and precision that and head of Kong, with movable eyes and mouth, as well as a had not previously been attained. Like Chang (but with less giant-sized leg and arm. Models of the principal locations— justification), it included many fine documentary studies of “” and Manhattan—were built on tables on a closed wildlife. One of the last major silent films, it was released with stage. The jungle sets were copied from Doré’s engravings for synchronized music and sound effects but, though it as well Paradise Lost—a favorite of Cooper’s and a work highly received by the critics, seems to have been rather overlooked by relevant to his theme. These sets were painted on sheets of glass, audiences clamoring for talkies. each nine feet by twelve, placed one behind the other to give an Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—9 extraordinary impression of mysterious depths. Live action inhabited by prehistoric beasts. Led by Carl Denham, the scenes were shot on the swampy jungle set constructed for filmmakers sail for the remote island. The long voyage is another Cooper-Schoedsack project, The Most Dangerous Game. uneventful, but full of “carefully orchestrated hints of what lies Meanwhile, Cooper was developing a full shooting ahead.” On the island, the filmmakers find that the inhabitants script. He worked with several collaborators, including Edgar live within a huge palisade as protection from the island’s Wallace, but it was reportedly Schoedsack’s wife Ruth Rose who monsters. But Kong, most fearsome of them all, is only placated contributed most to Cooper’s script, giving the dialogue the by sacrificial offerings of young girls. Ann Darrow is kidnapped “fairy-tale simplicity” he wanted in this, his first talkie. Fay and offered to Kong. Instead of killing her, he is infatuated, Wray was cast as the heroine, the movie star Ann Darrow; fighting in her defense against the other monsters. Jack Driscoll Robert Armstrong was to play Carl Denham, an intrepid and the others rescue Ann and capture Kong, who is taken to filmmaker obviously modeled on Cooper himself; and the part of New York for exhibition. He breaks loose and searches for Ann, Jack Driscoll, the sailor who terrorizing the city. In the end, he becomes Ann Darrow’s lover, went climbs with his beloved to the top of to a young Canadian, Bruce Cabot. the Empire State Building, where he Impressed by the test reel, RKO is machine-gunned to death by two came up with a budget of $500,000 flyers (Cooper and Schoedsack). *which Selznick boosted to $650,000 The film was previewed in by squeezing other projects). San Bernardino in January 1933. A Shooting began in the spring scene in which Kong shakes some of 1932. It is believed that sailors from a log and they fall into a Schoedsack directed the quiet but ravine full of huge, slimy (and tense scenes at the beginning of Kong carnivorous) insects caused so much Kong, Cooper the violent action that screaming in the theatre that it was follows. The latter was a tyrant on removed. Otherwise, the film the set: for the scene in which Kong opened intact on March 2, 1933 at fights the allosaurus—the first back- two new theatres, the RKO Roxy projection ever filmed at RKO—he and Radio City Music Hall, which worked Fay Wray for a full twenty-four hours. There are also had a combined capacity of 10,000. Heralded by a massive many anecdotes about the conflicts between Cooper and his publicity campaign, including the first use of radio plugs, it collaborators, with Schoedsack and Willis O’Brien constantly but played to over 50,000 people on its first day and went on to unsuccessfully opposing Cooper’s insistence on the monstrous become one of the greatest box-office successes there has ever violence he attributes to the film’s real hero, Kong. And it was been. Three sequences were cut when the film was reissued in Cooper who ordained that Kong’s apparent height should 1938 and not restored until 1969—one of Kong curiously picking change, in the course of the off Fay Wray’s clothes, and two of picture, from eighteen feet to exceptional violence. about sixty feet—he “felt As Ron Haver says, King confident that if the scenes moved Kong is a “twentieth century with excitement and beauty, the verison of the myth of Beauty and audience would accept any height the Beast and the destructive that fit into the scene.” By and powers of both love and large, he was right. civilization.” Elliott Stein, who has The score for King Kong seen the picture more than two was the work of Max Steiner, hundred times, calls it “the greatest head of RKO’s music department. adventure film ever made,” and It was as extraordinary as Carlos Clarens write that “one everything else about the film, questions or marvels at, or wonders often dissonant and using at the first sight of the monster, but leitmotifs for characters in the thereafter one is caught in nothing manner of Wagner. As Ron Haver but the sheer flow of events, each says, Steiner “wrote a score for an eighty-five piece orchestra thrill surpassing the previous one in splendid outrageousness, that heaves, rumbles and shrieks its way through the film, The film’s art is to make the technical tour de force seem underlining emotions, adding suspense, terror, and a kind of epic effortless.” aural accompaniment. A grunt from an animal was picked up Since then, as Stein says, Kong “has emerged...as one of with a corresponding growl from the orchestra, while Wray’s our great culture heroes, an absorbed and central personage of screams were echoed and intensified constantly by the strings. the American mythos.” He is a major leitmotiv in Thomas Nobody had ever heard music like this before in a film, or so Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow and an incarnation of the hero’s much of it. Steiner’s music for King Kong was, and is, a fantasies in Karel Reisz’s film Morgan, as well as a familiar landmark in film scoring.” reference point in ads, cartoons, and comedy shows. During the King Kong opens in New York with preparations for a button craze of the 1960s, one of the most popular read “King film to be made on location on Skull Island, reputed to be Kong Died for Our Sins.” And for one British critic, “it is the Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—10 principal triumph of the film that our sympathy is always with from KING KONG (1933 film) Wikipedia Kong....man is directly culpable, man with his movie cameras, http://en.wikipedia.orgwiki/King_Kong_(1933_film) gas bombs, and aeroplanes. Man as Faust, unable to let things be. King Kong was influenced by the “Lost World” literary genre, in It is because, for all its limited technical means and strict particular Edgar Rice Burrough’s The Land That Time Forgot conventions, this film succeeds in finding the perfect form and (1918) and Arthur Conan Doyle’s, The Lost World (1912), which content to transmit this truth that King Kong will remain a depicted remote and isolated jungles teeming with dinosaur life. triumph of the cinema.” The $24 million remake by Dino De In the early 20th century few zoos had monkey exhibits Laurentiis in 1976 seemed by comparison “knowing, full of so there was popular demand to see them on film. William S. nudging Freudian jokes.” Campbell specialized in monkey-themed films with Monkey Stuff During the filming of King Kong, Selznick resigned and Jazz Monkey in 1919, and Prohibition Monkey in 1920. from RKO in a dispute, and Cooper succeeded him as vide- Kong producer Schoedsack had earlier monkey experience president in charge of production. Among the films he produced directing Chang in 1927 (with Cooper) and Rango in 1931, both or supervised were ’s Little Women (1933) and of which prominently featured monkeys in real jungle settings. several directed by Schoedsack, including The Most Dangerous Capitalizing on this trend “Congo Pictures” released the Game (1933, called The Hounds of Zaroff in Britain), Son of hoax documentary Ingagi in 1930, advertising the film as “an Kong (1933), and The Last Days of Pompeii (1935). In Flying authentic incontestable celluloid document showing the sacrifice Down to Rio (1933) he teamed and of a living woman to mammoth gorillas!” Ingagi was an for the first time. Cooper was one of the first to see the unabashed black exploitation film, immediately running afoul of possibilities of the new three-color process, and with the Hollywood code of ethics, as it implicitly depicted black formed Pioneer Pictures to exploit the process women having sex with gorillas, and baby offspring that looked in films like Rouben Mamoulian’s Becky Sharp (1935). He also more ape than human. The film was an immediate hit, and by persuaded Whitney to invest in Selznick International Pictures, some estimates it was one of the highest grossing movies of the founded in 1935, of which Cooper served as vice-president. 1930s at over $4 million. Although producer Cooper never listed During World War II Cooper returned to active service Ingagi among his influences for King Kong, it’s long been held with the air force, becoming chief of staff to General Chennault that RKO green-lighted Kong because of the bottom-line in China. He participated in the 1942 air attacks on Japan and the example of Ingagi and the formula that “gorillas plus sexy New Guinea invasion and afterwards served as deputy chief of women in peril equals enormous profits.” staff to General MacArthur, finally achieving the rank of King Kong was released four times between 1933 and brigadier general in the air force reserve. 1952. All of the releases saw the film cut for censorship In 1946 Cooper formed an independent production purposes. Scenes of Kong eating people or stepping on them company with , Argosy Pictures. He had already were cut, as was his peeling off of Ann’s dress. Many of these produced one Ford film, The Lost Patrol (1934), and now he cuts were restored for the 1976 theatrical release after an supervised some of the finest of the director’s postwar pictures, uncensored print was discovered in the United Kingdom (which among them The Fugitive (1947), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore was not covered by the American Production Code). a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Wagonmaster (1950), Rio Grande (1950), and The Searchers (1956). He also produced one more TRIVIA film of Schoedsack’s, Mighty Joe Young (1949), an extremely * In the original script, the gorilla is named “Kong”. interesting variation on the Kong theme. In 1952, as always in “King” was added to the title by studio publicists. Apart from the the forefront of technical advances, he coproduced This is opening titles, the only time the name “King Kong” appears in Cinerama, the first movie made in the new three-strip process. It the picture is on the marquee above the theater where Kong is grossed over $330 million in the United States alone. The same being exhibited—and the marquee was in fact added to the scene year Cooper was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture as an optical composite after the live footage of the theater Arts and Sciences for “his many innovations and contributions to entrance had been shot. However, Denham does refer to Kong in the art of the motion picture.” his speech to the theater audience as having been “a king in his “Cooper was no faceless studio executive or colorless native land”. technical innovator,” wrote Ron Haver. “His personality was * The giant gate used in the 1933 movie was burned along distinct, a blend of the culture and traditions of the South, where with other old studio sets for the burning of Atlanta scene in he was born and raised; the more aggressive and pragmatic Gone with the Wind. The gate was originally constructed for the North, where he was educated; his reading of romantic writers Babylonian segment in D.W. Griffith’s 1816 film Intolerance. such as Kipling, Harte, London, and Haggard; and the works of * The gate can also be spotted in the serial Shakespeare and the Bible, a book he read every day. Muscular, (1934). short, with sparse, sandy hair, and an outthrust jaw, he had a * King Kong is often credited as being Adolph Hitler’s blunt forthright manner. He would size up a person through favorite film (unconfirmed but often mentioned). crackling brown eyes which could freeze to ice when he was * Jungle scenes were filmed on the same set as the jungle displeased or angry.” Cooper was quite often very angry indeed: scenes in The Most Dangerous Game (1932). in 1932, when his first car stalled and he could not restart it, he * The original metal armature used to bring Kong to life, pushed it off a cliff. as well as other original props from the 1933 film, can be seen in He died in 1973, survived by his wife, the book It Came From Bob’s Basement. It was on display in Dorothy Jordan; two daughters; and a son, a major in the air London until a few years ago in the now-closed Museum of the force. Moving Image. Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—11

* King Kong’s height is different in different parts of the Arriving on fog-shrouded “Skull Island” in the midst of movie. He appears to be 18 feet tall on the island, 24 feet on a native sacrificial ceremony, the travellers are confronted by the stage in New York and 50 feet on the Empire State Building. island’s human inhabitants, who immediately try to bargain six * In the original script Kong was going to climb the of their women for the golden-haired Ann. Noting that “blondes Chrysler Building. The Empire State Building and the Chrysler are scarce around here”, Denham removes the crew to the ship. Building were both being built at the very same time and the That night, however, the locals slip onto the Venture and kidnap Chrysler Building was supposed to be the taller of the two. There Ann. Back on the island they bind her to a sacrificial altar. Just as was a competition who could build the tallest building in the the ship’s crew arrive in hot pursuit, Kong – a gargantuan gorilla world, so the Empire State Building creators added an – appears from the jungle, roars ferociously, and carries Ann observation deck and mooring mast at the last minute, making it away on his giant paw. During the chase through the jungle, both the world’s tallest building. The script was changed and Kong the sailors and Kong encounter monstrous dinosaurs, and Kong climbed the Empire State Building, looking down on the spire of fights a spectacular battle with a Tyrannosaurus. Driscoll finally the Chrysler building. saves Ann from Kong’s mountain lair; Denham then drugs Kong with gas bombs and transports him back to America. The transition to New York City is announced by Denham with the declaration: “Why, the whole world will pay to see this!” Chained for display in a Manhattan theatre, Kong is enraged by flash bulbs and breaks free to smash his way through the streets in search of Ann. His final battle takes place atop the Empire State Building where, riddled with bullets from circling fighter planes, he gently sets Ann down, roars one final time, and falls to his death. In one of the most famous lines in filmdom, Denham sums up the sympathetic appeal of the great monster as he stands over Kong’s body: “It wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty that killed the beast”. The continuing success of King Kong is due not only to its spectacular special effects, but also to the exemplary economy with which the filmmakers handled the screenplay, filming and editing. The film’s first two lines, for example, provide all the establishing exposition the story requires: Weston: Is this the moving picture ship? Dock Worker: Yeah, you goin’ on this John McGowan-Hartmann, King Kong, from Senses of crazy voyage? Cinema 29: The story itself is essentially divided into three acts King Kong, as character, icon and film, is one of the most (New York to Skull Island, on the island, back in New York), recognised images in all of cinematic history. Released in 1933, and the pace of the film steadily increases, never giving the it is often somewhat simplistically credited with the single- viewer time for reflection. An oft-described animation sequence handed rescue of RKO studios from bankruptcy (1). Kong was in which some of the sailors are dropped by Kong into a ravine re-released in 1947 and 1952, and has enjoyed numerous revivals and then devoured by giant insects was trimmed by Cooper, who since the restoration of some original scenes in 1986. In 2003 the realised that such a horrific vision would place too much film is of particular interest, as director Peter Jackson’s punctuation in the middle of a suspenseful build-up. It is this sort production company, WingNut Films, has announced a remake of attention to narrative detail that allows the story to unfold (2). smoothly, from beginning to climax. The 1933 original tells the story of an adventurous Although Kong is “the product of many contributions” movie producer, Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), whose latest (3), the film is in several ways a reflection of the three principles project has him preparing for a “crazy voyage” to a mysterious in this regard: co-producers and directors Merian C. Cooper and island. Convinced that his film needs “a pretty face” to lend a Ernest B. Schoedsack, and chief technician and animator Willis love interest, he rescues starving actress Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) H. O’Brien. from the streets. With a promise of “the thrill of a lifetime… and Cooper and Schoedsack had worked together on the a long sea voyage”, Denham secures her promise to accompany documentary features Grass (1925) and Chang (1927). Both had him on his expedition. served in the war, and they were veterans of many exotic Denham and Darrow join the crew of the SS Venture, voyages like those of Denham (clearly styled after Cooper) and which includes Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) and Jack Driscoll (after Schoedsack, whose wife Ruth Rose had Driscoll (Bruce Cabot). Once under way, Denham shoots a accompanied them to Africa and subsequently co-wrote the screen test of Ann on the ship’s deck for which he instructs her to screenplay for Kong). In 1931, Cooper went to work for David look upward and “scream for your life!” He then informs the O. Selznick at RKO Studios, bringing with him the vague idea Captain and Driscoll about his intention to search for an island for a film about a giant ape (4). “way west of Sumatra”, where the “natives” are said to worship Willis O’Brien – Obie to his friends – had discovered some kind of powerful “God or spirit or something”. Revealing a the process of stop-motion animation using articulated figures in map of the island, he asks Engelhorn, “Have you ever heard of… 1915. After a brief career with Edison, he animated the Kong?” prehistoric monsters for 1925′s film version of Arthur Conan Cooper and Schoedsack—KING KONG—12

Doyle’s novel, The Lost World, a hugely successful project. In Kong as digital effects seem, they might not have been possible 1931 he was under contract to RKO, building and animating test without the ingenuity of O’Brien, and the lasting influence and sequences for a film to be entitled Creation. While Creation was appeal of his greatest creation. headed for the scrap-heap, Cooper realised that what O’Brien had And it is a remarkably universal appeal. An already achieved with animation could be put to use making his acquaintance of mine was perplexed recently when I told him ape film, a project that would otherwise have been technically that I study film. He is from the Middle East, doesn’t watch films impossible. In the right place at the right time, the principle from the West, and thought he would find my field creative figures behind Kong enjoyed a very happy accident. incomprehensible. “Do you know King Kong?” I asked him. He Just as the similarities between the producer/directors and their smiled and raised his arms in imitation of the great ape: “Oh yes! filmic counterparts are too obvious to ignore, those between I know King Kong”. O’Brien and his most well-known creation, Kong, are equally ENDNOTES compelling. Although Obie and his team – including, most 1. Although there were other factors in the studio’s ability importantly, modeller Marcel Delgado – made extensive use of to ride out the depression, King Kong certainly didn’t motion studies in plotting the movement of animated figures, the hurt. Steve Archer notes that “Kong was a triumph for end result could hardly be kept from exhibiting a sense of motion all who were connected with it”. Willis O’Brien: Special natural to O’Brien himself, as the hands-on animator. This is Effects Genius, McFarland, Jefferson, N.C. and London, perhaps most notable in the fight sequence between Kong and the 1993, p. 20 Tyrannosaurus in which Obie, a former boxer, depicts Kong in a 2. Press Release (31 March 2003). Cited at fighter’s stance, pummelling the dinosaur with his fists. The effect of this “personalised” animated movement is a unique http://news.yahoo.com aesthetic combination, at once the work of art and the signature 3. Ernest B. Schoedsack quoted in Orville Goldner and of the artist. George E. Turner, The Making of King Kong, A.S. In addition to the movie as a whole, the animation and Barnes, New York, 1975, p. 80 photographic effects in King Kong left a legacy of their own 4. Goldner and Turner (pp. 1-31) provide a detailed within the film industry. It is difficult to find a special effects account of the exploits of Cooper and Schoedsack prior technician – or a director of effects-driven films – who does not list Kong as a primary influence. The techniques developed for to 1931. and during the making of the film are relevant even to later See, for example, Don Shay The Making of Jurassic Park technologies; the CGI dinosaurs of 1993′s Jurassic Park were (Ballantine, New York, 1993). Shay is also the author of the originally intended to be animated in stop-motion, and the definitive biographical piece on Willis O’Brien, “Willis O’Brien: techniques originated by Willis O’Brien have been instrumental Creator of the Impossible”, Cinefex 7 (January 1982). in the development of digital animation (5). As far ahead of King

SPRING 2012 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS XXIV Feb 7 Ernst Lubitsch, To Be or Not to Be, 1942 Feb 14 Luchino Visconti, Senso 1954 Feb 21 Stanley Kubrick, Paths of Glory 1957 Feb 28 Sidney Lumet, 12 Angry Men 1957 Mar 6 Satiyajit Ray, The Music Room 1958 Mar 13 spring break Mar 20 Clint Eastwood, The Outlaw Josey Wales 1975 Mar 27 John Woo, The Killer 1989 Apr 3 Krzysztof Kieslowki, Kieslowski, Red 1994 Apr 10 Terrence Malick, Thin Red Line 1998 Apr 17 Fernando Meirelles, City of God, 2003 Apr 24 Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight 2008

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