MY REVIEW FOR THIS BOOK

In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression and scant years before the Second World War, a group of truly gutsy film pioneers made a movie that would change the industry forever. Although Cavalcade would be named Best Picture, King Kong changed the landscape of motion pictures forever.

A grump and occasionally besotted (in the archaic sense) old man named Willis O'Brien or Obie was charged with the responsibility of animating Kong. Long decades before computers brought life to the impossible creatures of the screen, Obie cobbled together an assembly of metal armature and rabbit fur and through the painstaking process of stop motion animation brought King Kong to life. He was not alone.

Merian C. Cooper, the real life counterpart to Robert Armstrong's colorful Carl Denham, was an aviator, Air Force officer and pioneer, adventurer and filmmaker to remote and dangerous locations. In no small irony, Cooper would pass on April 21, 1973. Armstrong would pass one day prior on April 20, 1973. I'm sure the Gods of Motion Pictures wanted to make absolutely sure that the latter would be there to welcome the former to the Great Silver Screen in the Sky.

Throughout much of his life, Cooper's right hand man was rough and ready Ernest B. Shoedsack, a fellow aviator including time as a combat pilot in World War One and early cinematographer. There's a fantastic buddy picture waiting to be made about these two. My gosh. What a story that would be. I can practically see Carl Denham pounding his fist into the palm of his other hand in pitching the idea.

In a bit of justifiable nepotism, Shoedsack brought his wife, Ruth Rose into the project. She reworked the script considerably basing Denham's character on Cooper and hero, Jack Driscoll on her own husband, Ernest. All things considered, a more perfect match couldn't have been depicted on screen.

This book tells the whole tale. The back story. The run up to the movie. The challenges faced in making it. the reward felt in having achieved it. I am in no wise telling stories out of school when I say that it remains my all-time favorite movie with one notable exception which I consider its equal, the original 1954 Gojira (Godzilla) which while not stop motion required considerable genius and dedication to bring to the screen.

If you're a real movie fan, my friend, this book belongs somewhere in your collection.