In 1968, I was 14, a late age for an American boy to catch his thrilling first sight of King Kong.
Oh, sure, I’d seen Son of Kong and King Kong vs. Godzilla and various comic book knock-offs like Charlton’s Konga and DC’s Titano. But all these merely whetted my appetite to see the fabled original film, then already 35 years old.
So I gladly parted with a quarter that June when Gold Key’s 64-page King Kong one-shot landed on newsstands. With a script by Gary Poole and pencils by Giovanni Ticci, the comic was a faithful adaptation of the movie. The irresistible cover painting by George Wilson showed Kong framed against a blood orange dawn sky at the top of the Empire State Building while biplanes swooped in for the kill.
The comic answered all my questions about the plot of the 1933 film, which fully fulfilled its reputation when I finally saw it a year or two later.
When I watch the film now, I’m interested to observe that while the native islanders killed by Kong have our wholehearted audience sympathy, the Manhattan swells who elbow each other to gape at him in a Broadway theater do not, quite. They’re jaded and idle, and it is to relieve their pampered boredom that Kong has been gassed, caged, and enslaved.
CLOSE-UPS of crowd.
1ST MAN
What is it, anyhow?
2ND MAN
They say it’s sort of a gorilla.
1ST MAN
Gee, ain’t we got enough of them in
New York?
YOUNG MAN
(to his girl)
I hear it’s bigger’n an elephant.
GIRL
(chewing gum)
Does it do tricks or what?
WOMAN
(in evening dress)
Heavens, what a mob.
HER HUSBAND
Well, you would come. And the
tickets cost me twenty bucks.
Like the audience in Phantom of the Opera, they’re going to get more than their money’s worth.
In the uncredited role of a teenage usher was the actor Bill Williams, who’d later star in TV’s The Adventures of Kit Carson. But his son William Katt, who starred in Carrie and The Greatest American Hero, never knew that growing up.
“No, he never mentioned it,” Katt recalled. “I’ve seen the film several times and didn’t realize he was in it. Go figure! LOL.”
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