KING KONG goes "beyond the realms of practical adventure," 1933 interview with Merian C. Cooper

"News And Gossip From Hollywood;
Where Apes Grow 40 Feet Tall"
The Loredo Times, Feb. 5, 1933


By DAN THOMAS
NEA Service Writer

HOLLYWOOD, Feb. Dreams seldom become realities — but they often become motion pictures.

There are, for instance, the absurdities of a Marx brothers' film; the almost inescapable happy endings of romances.

Then there are such films as "Just Imagine," made a couple of years ago, based on nothing but a rampant
imagination. In this category, we are about to be handed "King Kong," purely a dream picture if there ever was one. "King Kong" is the result of the dream of an adventurer now so shackled to his desk that his haz­ardous expeditions can take place only in his mind.

For years Merian C. Cooper wan­dered over the globe in search of adventure Many of his roamings have brought him financial rewards with such pictures as "Grass" and "Chang," which he made in con­junction with Ernest B. Schoedsack. Now Cooper is a film executive and an official in four of the nation's big air lines as well. Hence, his wan­derings are confined pretty much within the four walls of his office.

But, that doesn't stop him from dreaming—although now he must dream of tilings which will return a profit. Naturally his mind turns to, travel and adventure. But, there isn't much left in those fields for new screen entertainment. So he had to go further.

"I decided to go beyond the realms of practical adventure," Cooper told me. "I conceived a story basis which at one time or another challenges the imaginations of all adventurers. We who have seen the last remnants of a prehistoric age often have won­dered what would happen if some  thunderous reversal of nature made possible the rebirth of ancient ani­mals.

"Of course, this couldn't, happen. But isn't it an intriguing idea? At least, it's out of the ordinary run of things. And after all, moton pic­tures must possess novelty if they are to be interesting."

And so a year ago the idea for "King Kong," the most novel and imaginative of all films, was born. It has been under production six months. The picture is based on the supposition that somewhere there is an island inhabited by prehistoric animals.

One of them, a huge 40-foot ape, is brought, to New York for exhibition purposes. Crazed by the sight of a fragile, white-skinned woman, he breaks loose and runs amuck on crowded Broadway in search of her. He finds her and carries her to the top of the. Empire State Building. There he makes his last stand against a squadron of army pursuit planes which finally kill him.

Ape Vs. Tyrannosaurs in KING KONG (1932)

"King Kong Planned To Thrill Picture Audiences" 
The Laredo Times, May14, 1933

With a sensational mixture of the prehistoric and the modern in a story of fantastic imagination, RKO-Radio makes a bid for an all-time record with its spectacular production, "KING KONG," featuring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot and in the same role a great animated 10-foot-ape, built to a proportion comparable with monsters of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, "King Kong" will be presented at the Rialto Theater 3 days more.

As a production, "King Kong" was two and a half years in the making. Early in 1929 the first research inquiry was sent to leading paleontologists throughout the world. The studio had a vital interest in the appearance and habit of such primitive monsters as the pterodactyl, the brontosaurus, the tyrannosaurus and the dinosaur.

Did these formidable creatures, now extinct, run, hop, or fly when in fast pursuit of their prey? What, exactly, were their proportions? Active reconstructions of such monsters were to enact roles in the motion picture. It took a year and a half of tremendous work to collect the data, assemble it for practical purposes and construct dozens of reptilian and other monsters in exact scale. During that time and before a camera crank  was turned, the studio had created the largest and most varied collection of prehistoric colossi in the United States.

Man-Made Monsters
In the early part of 1932 Merian C. Cooper, world traveler, adventurer and associate producer for RKO-Radio Pictures, started filming operations with director Ernest B. Schoedsack, his old partner on many foreign trails.

It wasn't just a case of pointing a camera at a group of people. Scores of creatures dating back into the dawn of life had to be animated in smooth motion and in relation to the normal movements of human beings opposite to whom they were to perform. The methods employed in constructing them and photographing them are known to no one outside of Cooper. Schoedsack and their scientist assistants.

In Terrific Combat
The magnitude of their year's task at the camera is clearly seen in the results. One scene shows a battle between the mammoth ape and a tyrannosaurs, largest of prehistoric reptiles.

Still another is a desperate running fight between this giant ape, "King Kong," and scores of men while a white girl is held tightly clutched in the beast's paw. The most spectacular scene of all concludes the picture. "King Kong,'' seeking to escape the torments of man climbs the tallest structure in New York, and there, with the girl at his feet, waves a losing battle against a squadron of army pursuit and bombing planes.

It is said that the prodigious phantasy "King Kong" makes insignificant any film heretofore produced.