THE SOUND OF KONG

There are lots of monster movies that I consider favorites, but RKO's original 1933 KING KONG tops them all. I know, there's DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY and scads of others that are true classics, but none quite compare to the combination of adventure, fantasy and horror that sets this film apart from the rest. While researching material to include in my article on the 90th anniversary of The Eighth Wonder of the World for PREHISTORIC TIMES magazine I came across this article from POPULAR SCIENCE (April 1933) that does a deep-dive on the sound effects for Kong and the various dinosaurs seen in the movie.

Murray Spivak was hired as the sound effects supervisor and his first order of business was creating vocalizations for the "non-human players". He did not want to use anything that people would recognize as typical animal sounds and ended up modifying and mixing known sounds by lowering the pitch or otherwise manipulating them. When completed, he had a completely new sound library of prehistoric "grunts and growls" as he called them.

My article will appear in the summer issue of PREHISTORIC TIMES (#150). I'll give a shout out when it's published.

THE HUNCHBACK RETURNS

Unless you've been strapped to the whipping wheel, you know that this year marks the 100th anniversary of Lon Chaney's 1923 monster epic, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, the first feature film adaptation of Victor Hugo's thinly-veiled indictment of the Catholic Church.

The next film version was in 1939. Produced by RKO, it starred Charles Laughton with a completely different visage than Chaney's but more true to many illustrations seen of the bellringer.

The two articles following are from HOLLYWOOD magazine (November 1939) and PHOTOPLAY STUDIES (December 1939).

By the way, you can read my in-depth, 15-page article on the Hunchback Centennial in the recently re-launched CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN (see end of post).

Order HERE.

HOW THEY MADE KING KONG (1933)

You can take all the remakes and other films that he has appeared in, and when you put them all together, paws down, they still can't touch RKO's 1933 original KING KONG. A wonder in filmmaking, made by visionary writers, artists and craftsman, KONG is the KING of giant monster movies. From Skull Island to the streets of New York, KONG is one helluva thrill ride, and it holds up even today,

Here's the story from conception to completion, from the Winter 2006 issue of AMERICAN HERITAGE OF INVENTION & TECHNOLOGY.

RARE 1933 KING KONG PROMOTIONAL INSERT

"Conceived and Created to Startle the World!"

- King Kong ad insert

Unless you found yourself digging through mountains of movie fan and trade magazines from the 1930's, chances are you've never seen these. In the February 15, 1933 issue of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, the newly-released KING KONG grabbed the headlines with the promise of the financial "answer to [film] exhibitor's prayers. "It has everything that any showman could ask for", the story went. "It's a good picture on an entirely new theme, produced masterfully, and offering exploitation and values the like of which have hardly ever been seen in a picture before." The issue also contains a review, calling KING KONG "a great piece of imagination hatched in the brain of a showman [Merian C. Cooper] for showmen, produced in grand style and good taste and most capably acted and directed." For the movie exhibitors, KONG was a sure money-maker in a depression that was into its fourth year.

Just a couple of weeks later, the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S March 6th issue included a 28-page promotional insert of KING KONG. Printed in some metallic colors on a heavier paper stock than the magazine itself, RKO, the studio that produced the picture, pulled out all the stops in showing off their product.

This advert is a magnificent piece of monster movie history and is not often seen. Side-by-side with statements of praise by various trade magazines are photos of the people behind the project, including rarely seen shots of production people, such as film scorer, Max Steiner, sound recorder Murray Spivak, and screenwriters Edgar Wallace, James Creelman and Ruth Rose. A nice montage of visual effects men Willis O'Brien, Mario Larrinaga and Byron Crabbe is also included.

The insert credits are listed as: Art visualizations by Larrinaga & Crabbe, photographic art conceptions by Ernest A. Bachrach, and layout motif by Keye Luke. Luke was the Chinese-born actor and artist who played "No. 1 Son" in the CHARLIE CHAN series, Kato in the GREEN HORNET serials and later portrayed Master Po in the TV series, KUNG FU.

As the copy proclaims, "KING KONG [is] a Box-Office Bonanza As Big As a Mountain!"