Thursday, November 2, 2023

TR Pics: The Lost Files of Kong the King


The Untold True Story of
KONG the KING
Featuring Anthony & Ty
Written, Produced & Photographed

In 1980, during an estate sale at the home of Merian Cooper, the creator of King Kong, an assistant made an incredible discovery inside an enveloped locked in a hidden drawer: a long-lost journal that told the true story of the giant gorilla, and that he was not, in fact, enamored of a Hollywood blonde bombshell named Fay Wray, but in fact infatuated with a lost explorer named Raymond Smith. For the first time ever, here are some excerpts from that diary...


“June 10th – Three days have passed since I’ve seen any sign of my crew since we abandoned our vessel off the coast of this island. I think I am being watched, by many eyes, and the feeling is very off-putting…”

 “I turned around after hearing a large tree trunk snap, only to be face to face with the largest creature I had ever seen. I shot at him, but to no avail. Before I knew it, he had scooped me into his dirty hands…”



“This was the largest gorilla I had ever seen. I kept calm so as not to anger him, knowing one tight squeeze of his hand could end me. But he seemed a curious fellow, as if he had never seen someone like me before….”


“I felt powerless, no more so than when this large beast began to strip me of my clothing. Perhaps he had never seen a human before, nor had any idea what trousers were for or why they were worn. Well, he began to see more of me than just about anyone else alive…”


“In all my distress, it turns out I was not alone. Unbeknownst to me, a young islander who I would later learn was named Gor, had been watching from the jungle nearby…”


“My shirt was the next thing to come off. He was delicate in his movements, matched by his curiosity I suppose.“

“I could not tell if he was playing with me, or just examining me. Yet I also suddenly did not fear him. I knew he was a plant-eater and would not see me as food. My biggest fear was that he would drop me!”


“This beast was calm. Almost gentle. He looked at me with great interest, and I began to see him in the same light.”


“Soon I realized that this encounter would have to end. Around this same time, the quiet islander appeared, and he seemed to know the beast. He was calm around him, and the beast seemed much at ease with him. Almost as if he was ready to obey the will of this beautiful island man.”


“Almost without warning, this monstrous creature laid down, as if ready to take a nap. He looked at me with interest, a kind of human-like emoting that moved me. And with that, he let me go. Gor, the islander, was careful to help me escape.”


“My adrenaline had left me, and I found myself collapsing into the arms of my new found emancipator. We retreated into the jungle, and away from this giant ape…


“When I came to my senses, I realized my gratitude towards this young island man. He was a savior to me, and my heart for him was suddenly overwhelmed.”


August 24 – “It has been over two months since I landed on this island, but I feel as if my life here is not over. My gratitude for Gor’s actions turned into affection, and now I fear I cannot go back to the mainland and reattach myself to life there. Here, I am happy, and here I am content. I have the strong arms of that hairy gorilla to thank for that.


”As moved as Merian Cooper must have been when he found this lost journal and photos, he knew well enough that the audience in the 1930s would never accept the truth. So he turned the hero into a heroine, and the quiet gorilla into a fighting monster on the big screen… and the rest, as they say, is Hollywood history."


Like any great visual saga, there are many stories about it's a creation.  Thankfully this King Kong sag, comes many, including a series of visuals depicting how the shoot came together.  Check out the behind the scene's story of TR Pic's shoot with Anthony and Ty on the NEXT PAGE HERE:

1 comment:

Michael Shinafelt said...

Wow! I love this! So creative and cool!!!