Hey, Monster Kids! The celebration of King Kong’s 90th anniversary this year continues with the return of our Kong-related feature Hail to the King (Kong), a series of occasional posts in which we spotlight images related to the god-emperor of Skull Island—some you might recognize; some might be completely new to you.
We’ll kick things off with a promotional lobby card featuring two of the human stars of the classic monster movie, scream queen Fay Wray and her leading man, Bruce Cabot:
“King Kong still has the wiseacres guessing, though there seems to be no doubt that it will be one of the big ones of the year. Apart from the ape-monster, who has the name role and who is twenty-five feet tall, the picture stars Bruce Cabot and Fay Wray. If there really is a fight between this huge ape and a dinosaur, we shouldn’t worry much about the rest of the picture.”—The New Movie Magazine, January 1933
Of course, New Movie Magazine proved to be right—there was nothing to worry about when audiences finally got to see King Kong just two months later. From the contributions of Wray and Cabot, to that much-anticipated monkey-dinosaur fight, a good time was had by all!
And while we’re on the subject of the big ape, in case you’re unfamiliar with the story of Kong and his obsession with Ms. Wray’s character, struggling Depression-era actress Anne Darrow—the Beauty to his Beast—it just so happens that your friendly fiends here at ’Warp Central have the perfect book for you…
King Kong is a digital-exclusive republication of the 1932 novelization of the original movie classic. Written by Delos W. Lovelace, based on the story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper and the screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose, it includes scenes that didn’t appear in the final cut of the film—including the notorious “spider pit” sequence in which Kong’s human pursuers are attacked by horrific arachnids and insects. Our version features six original black-and-white illustrations by comics artist Paul Tuma, whose work has appeared in the pages of The Twilight Zone, Paul Kupperberg’s Secret Romances, and Bloke’s Terrible Tomb of Terror.
King Kong is available for download right now, so visit its product page for ordering information.
