King Kong (1933) was the creation of Merian C. Cooper, one of Hollywood's most extraordinary and least remembered figures, and it arrived at a precise and loaded moment: during the Great Migration, a time of mass unemployment, and racial tensions on American streets. It was, depending on who was watching and from where, either the ultimate escapist spectacle or something far more pointed; and quite possibly both at once.

The film was a technical revolution built largely on improvisation. Willis H. O'Brien's stop-motion animation; an 18-inch rubber puppet, shot one agonising frame at a time on meticulously constructed miniature sets, was composited with live action through techniques his team largely invented during production, including miniature rear projection and the optical printer, a device that would remain a cornerstone of special effects filmmaking until the digital age.

It was also a pre-Code film, made before Hollywood's moral censorship apparatus fully clamped down, which meant Cooper could let Kong be genuinely violent and terrifying in ways the Production Code Administration mandated 1938 reissue would systematically strip away, scene by scene, with a censor's scissors.

What makes King Kong endlessly worth returning to is that it refuses to be fully settled. The racial subtext is real and documented; so is the fact that audiences have always, instinctively, rooted for the monster. The craft is breathtaking, but so is the discomfort.

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Em: 00:00:46

Hi everyone, I'm Em, and welcome to the 9th Wonder of the World, Verbal Diorama, episode 347, King Kong.

This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy of movies you know and movies you don't. A show to gratify your curiosity. Welcome to Verbal Diorama.

Whether you're a brand new listener, whether you're a regular returning listener, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for choosing to listen to this podcast. I'm so happy to have you here for the history and legacy of King Kong.

And obviously, if you are a regular returning listener, thank you for continuing to come back and listen to this podcast and support this podcast over the last seven years and now 3, 347 episodes. I am so close to episode 350. Huge. Thank you to you for your support.

It genuinely means so much to an indie podcaster who has done literally 347 episodes of this podcast by herself. So once again, thank you so much, regular returning listeners, and if you are a brand new listener, you have plenty to catch up on.

It is now the month of June, and Kaijune has always been a popular month on this podcast. It's something that I really love to do. This is my third time doing a Kai June season and I love great big hulking monster movies.

I always have, I always will.

The last episode was on the Meg, which is super cheesy, super fun, massive shark movie that I think is a lot of fun and I have a lot of time for that movie. But when I was thinking about doing Kaijune, there were two movies in particular that I really wanted to go into.

n the original King Kong from: 1933

We have so much to go into. So without further ado, here is the very old radio trailer for King Kong. Be warned, there's a lot of screaming.

Em: 00:07:59

In New York harbour, Filmmaker Carl Denham, known for wildlife films in remote exotic locations, is unable to secure an actress for a female role he's been reluctant to disclose. In the streets of New York City. He finds Ann Darrow and promises her the thrill of a lifetime, her being the leading lady in a picture.

They are to film on an uncharted island. On reaching the island, they find the native tribe preparing to sacrifice a young native woman.

The native chief offers to trade six of his women for Ann, but the group refuses to give her over.

That night Ann is kidnapped by the natives and taken through the big gate and offered as a human sacrifice to a giant gorilla like beast they call Kong. Let's run through the cast of this movie.

We have Fay Wray as Ann Darrow, Robert Armstrong as Carl Denham, Bruce Cabot as Jack Driscoll, Frank Reicher as Captain Engelhorn, Sam Hardy as Charles Weston, Victor Wong as Charlie, James Flavin as Briggs, and Noble Johnson as the native chief.

ite and the Seven Dwarfs from: 1937

rkably, King Kong was made in: 1933

The definition of Kaiju broadly refers to the genre of giant destructive monsters and tends to have metaphorical meanings representing things like forces of nature and nuclear warfare. But that doesn't mean King Kong isn't a Kaiju movie in the modern sense, nor does it mean it has no links to the OG Kaiju.

ly traced back to Godzilla in: 1954

otege. O' Brien worked on the: 1925

So the tree goes from o' Brien to the Lost World to King Kong to Harryhausen to the beast from 20,000 fathoms to Godzilla, which then birthed the entire Kaiju genre. King Kong was invented by Merian C. Cooper, a globe trotting adventurer who was also a war hero.

He'd been shot down multiple times in Both World War I and the Polish Russo War and escaped from a prisoner of war camp. The story was conceived partly through his trips to Africa and Southeast Asia to shoot documentary Films with Ernest B. Schoedsack.

Which planted the idea of setting a primitive giant ape. Against the civilization of modern New York City. Cooper's friend Douglas Burden had traveled to the Indonesian island of Komodo.

And returned to New York with living specimens of Komodo dragons. Putting them on display at the Bronx Zoo. Cooper was fascinated by the idea of explorers venturing to a remote island.

And coming back with a giant creature. His initial concept was a film about a gorilla fighting Komodo dragons. He chose gorillas over baboons because he felt gorillas had more personality.

And crucially, gorillas at the time were almost mythical creatures to Western audiences. Meaning Cooper could shape them into whatever he wanted them to be. Sadly, the Komodo dragons at the zoo died shortly after arrival.

But this also directly shaped the story's ending. Because when he was thinking about his gorilla picture. Cooper wanted to bring Kong back to New York in captivity.

And because he was a little bit of a drama queen. Rather than having the creature simply die in a zoo. He wanted it to escape and cause havoc. Komodos also inspired Kong's name.

Cooper was fond of words that started with the letter K. Maybe he was the original Kardashian. And following Burden's trip to Komodo. Cooper wanted to capture a real gorilla from the Congo.

Which doesn't start with K, but has that same hard K start. Cooper was fascinated by Burdon's adventures As chronicled in his book Dragon Lizards of Komodo.

Where he referred to the animal as the King of Komodo. It was this phrase, along with Komodo and Kongo. And his overall love for hard sounding K words. That gave him the idea to name the giant ape Kong.

But this was all happening during the Great Depression. And Cooper needed a production studio to make his Kong film. But he knew it would likely come at great cost.

In October: 1931

Which gave the producers of individual movies much greater independence Than they had under the prevailing central producer system. After achieving cost savings of 30 to 40%. Selzick then recruited behind the camera talent like George Cuka. And and asked Cooper to join rko.

And although he'd only produced three films in his career thus far. Cooper began working as an executive assistant.

dea for king Kong in December: 1931

lace started work in December: 1931

January: 1932

Some of his ideas did survive into the final film. Kong removing Anne's clothes from her body. The rough outline of the New York scenes and a jungle chase sequence all traced back to wall draft.

James Ashmore Creelman was brought in next, and he found it difficult to meet Cooper's demands, feeling there were too many fantastical elements for the film to be believable.

nd Kong, dated March and June: 1932

After Creelman quit, Cooper struggled to find a replacement screenwriter Ruth Rose had never written a screenplay before and happened to be Ernest Schoedsack's wife, but she ended up becoming the secret weapon of King Kong. She gave Kong the heart, but she also trimmed the fat.

Rather than explaining how Kong would be transported to New York, she cut from the island to the theatre. She rewrote the majority of dialogue and gave the script something Creelman's version lacked, a human core.

She incorporated autobiographical elements with Cooper himself the basis of the character of Carl Denham, her husband in the tough but tender Jack Driscoll and herself in struggling actress Ann Darrow. She also created the film's opening sequence showing Denham meeting Ann on the streets of New York.

And most importantly, she removed the extreme sexual and racial elements from Wallace's original draft, making Kong more innocent in his interactions with Ann. Edgar Wallace's initial draft had been called the Beast, but RKO executives were unimpressed with the title.

David O. Selznick suggested Jungle Beast as the film's new title, but Cooper wanted to name the film after the main character.

He liked the mystery word aspect of Kong's name and that the film should carry the name of a leading mysterious, romantic, savage creature of the story, such as with Dracula and Frankenstein.

RKO sent a memo to Cooper suggesting the titles Kong King of Beasts, Kong the Jungle King and Kong the Jungle Beast, which combined his And Selznick's proposed titles. Cooper would eventually name the story simply Kong. While Ruth Rose was writing the final version of the screenplay.

It was David O. Selznick who added the king to Kong's name. In order to differentiate it from the one word docudramas of the time. The old Arabian proverb. And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty.

And it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day it was as one dead. Which opens the film was actually written by Merian C. Cooper. And isn't a real Arabian proverb.

And King Kong didn't even have a completed script when it started filming. And when it came to putting a cast together during pre production. It was a mix of known and up and coming names.

RKO's original choice for the role of Ann Darrow was Jean Harlow. But because MGM put Harlow under exclusive contract during the pre production phase, she became unavailable.

e of the Wampus baby stars in: 1926

And told Ray she would be playing opposite the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood. Let's be honest, he wasn't lying. Robert Armstrong was a Michigan born veteran.

Broadway and silent film character actor Bruce Cabot was already signed by executive producer David O. Selznick As a contract player within RKO. He was the least established of the three leads. Which created an odd marketing situation.

Because although the film's romantic subplot belongs to Cabot and Ray. It was the established star Armstrong who was chosen for promotional material. Rather than the unknown Cabot.

Interestingly, King Kong wasn't the only movie Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong were working on with Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. During the day they would film King Kong and then at night they would shoot the Most Dangerous Game on the same jungle sets.

tually ended up coming out in: 1932

movies in: 1933

omething pretty common in the: 1930

red in the original Universal: 1932

oln Motion Picture Company in: 1916

Johnson was president of the company for four years before his own acting career was taking off and he couldn't manage both. But his commitment to African American filmmaking was extraordinary.

er a career that spanned from: 1915

But let's be honest, the human actors weren't the stars here. The star of the movie is Kong himself, and he is just a marvelous creation.

And for that we have to get into the extraordinary work of Willis H. O', Brien, who has been mentioned on this podcast before because he was the mentor to one of the greatest animators of all time. The one and only Ray Harryhausen worked under o' Brien and learned the stop motion craft from him, but that didn't happen on King Kong.

curred on Mighty Joe Young in: 1949

O. Hoyt's The Lost World from: 1925

By: 1931

He'd only completed 20 minutes of effects footage to show for an estimated $120,000 development cost, and the studio's head of production, which was Merry and C. Cooper, recommended the cancellation of o' Brien's project because he thought the story was boring. But he was impressed by the effects work and he also wanted it for his giant gorilla movie, which is one way to get your own way.

Cancel one movie so the guy can work on the one you want. O' Brien and the dinosaur models he'd created for the cancelled project. Were put to work on King Kong instead.

And o' Brien set to work building the legendary apex. Cooper insisted that Kong couldn't be portrayed as an actor in a suit for Kong's physical proportions.

O' Brien consulted zoologists at the American Museum of Natural History. To get exact measurements for a bull gorilla. The island's jungle environments were meticulously constructed.

Miniature sets with plants drawn from known jungle settings. Created by layering glass paintings, which were created by Mario Larinaga and Byron L. Crabb.

The physical Kong puppet was a marvel of miniature engineering. While Mary and C. Cooper envisioned Kong as being 40 to 50ft tall. Willis O' Brien and his crew built the models and sets.

Scaling Kong to be only 18ft tall on Skull Island. And rescaled to be 24 foot tall in New York. Although in some scenes he was rescaled to be as large as six 60ft tall.

The puppet was made with cotton and latex, covered with rabbit fur. Over a precisely machined ball and socket metal armature. A more sophisticated internal skeleton that had ever been used before.

Four stop motion models were built in total. Three from aluminium, foam, rubber, latex and rabbit fur.

And a simpler lead and fur model used specifically for the famous Empire State Building fall for close up shots. The team also built giant full scale arms, hands and feet. While a giant 40 foot mechanized model head.

Used cables and levers to simulate facial expressions. And could carry humans in its mouth. RKO's promotional material listed Kong's official height as 50 foot.

The soft fur on the puppet retained indents and movements from the animator's fingers between frames. Which actually makes Kong feel more real.

But it wasn't just Kong, but a whole host of prehistoric creatures inhabiting Skull island or Skull Mountain, as it's known in this movie. And these were brought to Life by O' Brien and his assistant animators E.B.

Buzz Gibson, Carol Sheppard, Marcel Delgado, Orville Goldner and Fred Reef. Many of these creatures were the ones previously created for creation.

And many of the techniques used in making King Kong were either completely revolutionary. Or they were making it up as they went along. The stop motion animation was generally filmed first.

With the live action footage matched to it afterwards. Fay Wray actually ended up spending 22 hours positioned in a fake tree. Reacting to a battle scene projected onto a translucent screen behind her.

While the camera filmed her reaction. An immersive setup that allowed her to convincingly portray her character's observation of the animated battle.

ure rear projection camera in: 1933

Which allowed him to project a part of the shot as a miniature frame by frame, then proceed making the stop motion according to what was happening in the miniature. Rear projection was the backbone of most of the human Kong interaction.

King Kong is often credited as the first film to use miniature rear projections to create special effects sequences.

For more complex shots where live actors had to appear within the same frame as Kong, they used the Dunning process invented by cinematographer Carol H. Dunning, which used blue and yellow lights filtered and photographed into black and white film bipacking the camera to combine two strips of film simultaneously creating the final composite shot in camera. It was used in scenes like the climactic moment where the plane crashes from the top of the Empire State Building.

And where natives run through the foreground while Kong battles others at the wall. For wider shots, they used the Williams process, invented by cinematographer Frank D. Williams.

It didn't require colored lights and used an optical printer to synchronize a projector with a camera. So several strips of film could be combined into a single composited image.

e used in film until the late: 1980

Animation for the movie was completed after 55 weeks and the actors filmed on several stages over an eight month period. Some actors had so much time between filming King Kong that they were able to fully complete work on other films.

has so many film credits. In: 1933

Not only was she almost constantly screaming, she is the original scream queen.

She also had to balance herself in Kong's six foot long giant mechanical hand attached to a lever which could be raised or lowered with wind machines giving motion to her clothes. Fay Wray really went through it on this movie. And I think her performance really does genuinely convey the fear that she is feeling at the time.

have health and safety in the: 1930

The stop motion work in particular was punishing. Most sequence had to be shot non stop, often requiring 20 hour work days.

Sometimes the shrubs used to dress the Miniature sets wilted during filming, but similarly, at one point, one of the plants flowered, which left a day's worth of animation rendered useless. Before a scene could be started, all the lights on the soundstage had to be replaced with new ones to ensure they wouldn't flicker.

And the stage had to be sealed so nobody could enter or leave to prevent any wind from moving the foliage.

finished filming in February: 1933

The film's novelization, which was published prior to its release, entered the public domain through a failure to include copyright notice, making the characters and story public domain. This is important because the rights to King Kong are messier than the jungle after Kong's dinosaur killing spree.

When Merry and C. Cooper created King Kong, he assumed he owned the character outright, maintaining that he'd only licensed it to RKO for the initial film and the sequel. But that assumption turned out to be a little bit disputed, shall we say?

In: 1962

he was vehemently against. In: 1963

But the lawsuit never went through because, as it turned out, he was not Kong's sole legal owner, as he had believed himself to be.

t came around the time of the: 1976

November: 1976

still owns the rights to the: 1933

However, domestic distribution rights to those films are owned by WarnerMedia.

Studio Canal owns the: 1976

January: 2029

Version of Kong within the Monsterverse, which is Skull island, and any of the Godzilla vs. Kong movies, won't be affected because these more recent films retain their own separate copyrights.

But speaking of lawsuits, in: 1982

Universal contacted Nintendo, giving them 48 hours to cease marketing Donkey Kong, to dispose of all Donkey Kong inventory, and to hand over all records of profits made from the game. Nintendo's attorney, Howard Lincoln, was at first inclined to settle for five to seven million dollars.

But eventually he decided to fight because he realized that Donkey Kong was the sign that Nintendo had made it big.

January: 1983

During the court battle and subsequent appeal, the courts ruled that Universal did not have exclusive trademark rights to the King Kong character. They ruled the trademark was not among the rights Cooper had sold to Universal.

While they had a majority of the rights, they did not outright own the King Kong name and character, and the court's ruling noted that the name, title and character of Kong no longer signified a single source of origin, so exclusive trademark rights were impossible. The courts also pointed out that the Kong rights were held by three parties, rko, who owned the rights to the original film and its sequel.

mpany owned the rights to the: 1976

The judge then ruled that Universal owned only those rights in the King Kong name and character that RKO Cooper and the Dino De Laurentiis company did not own.

The court of appeals also noted that Universal knew that it did not have trademark rights to King Kong, yet proceeded to broadly assert their rights anyway, and this amounted to a wanton and reckless disregard of Nintendo's rights.

Second, Universal didn't stop after it asserted its rights to Nintendo and embarked on a deliberate systematic campaign to coerce all of Nintendo's third party licensees to either stop marketing Donkey Kong or pay Universal royalties. Finally, Universal's conduct amounted to an abuse of judicial process and in that sense caused a longer harm to the public as a whole.

Universal alternatively argued to the courts first that King Kong was part of the public domain, and then second that King Kong was not part of the public domain and that Universal possessed exclusive trademark rights to it.

Universal's assertions in court was based not on any good faith belief in their truth, but on the mistaken belief that it could use the courts to turn a profit.

And because Universal misrepresented their degree of ownership of King Kong, claiming they had exclusive trademark rights when they knew they did not, and tried to have it both ways in court. Regarding the public domain claims, the courts ruled that Universal acted in bad faith.

They were ordered to pay fines and all of Nintendo's legal costs from the lawsuit.

That, along with the fact that the courts ruled that there was simply no likelihood of people confusing Donkey Kong with King Kong, caused Universal to lose the case and the subsequent appeal.

And as for Nintendo's lawyer, John Kirby, Nintendo considered him to have saved the entire company by defending them against the lawsuit from Universal. So much so they named the video game character Kirby after him as well as bought him a $30,000 boat which was christened Donkey Kong.

It's time to segue into the obligatory Keanu reference of this episode. And if you don't know what that is, it's where I try and link every movie that I feature with Keanu Reeves because he is the best of men.

And I truly, truly do not know how to link Keanu Reeves to King Kong. It's so very difficult.

When a movie came out in: 1933

So the easiest way to link Keanu Reeves to this movie is that King Kong is the king of his world and Keanu is the king of men. And it's goofy, but it's the only way that I can do it. But let's talk about the music.

Because the score for King Kong really did represent a shift in the scoring of movies in general and of the use of non diegetic music in movies. RKO bosses were initially skeptical about the need for an original score.

However, they agreed to let Mary and C. Cooper try to improve the film with the use of music. The studio suggested using old tracks in order to save money. But Cooper asked regular RKO musical collaborator Max Steiner to score the film.

And because the funding for the film had almost run out, he said he would personally pay for the orchestra. Steiner wrote the score in two weeks and Cooper paid him $50,000.

And King Kong became a landmark of film scoring, including the use of leitmotifs for Kong, Anne and the jungle itself. Steiner would say that King Kong was made for music.

King Kong's roar was actually a lion's roar and a tiger's roar combined, slowed down and ran backwards. Upon the release of the film, the score received very little critical review because it was mostly overshadowed by the special effects.

However, it started to receive more attention as the movie became more famous in the years that followed. Composer Christopher Palmer wrote that the score marked the real beginnings of Hollywood music.

And professor of music at the University of Nottingham Mervyn Cook added that it almost single handedly marked the coming of age of non diegetic film music. It was the first feature length original score for a talkie.

The first major Hollywood film to use an original film thematic score rather than background music. The first score to use a 46 piece orchestra and the first score to be recorded on three tracks.

One for sound effects, one for dialogue and one for music. King Kong is known as a pre code adventure horror monster film.

And to understand what that actually means and the implications it had on re releases of the movie, we need to talk briefly about the hays code.

In: 1922

st of July: 1934

King Kong, released in March: 1933

d genuine enforcement in late: 1933

This, along with a potential government takeover of film censorship, was enough pressure to force the studios to capitulate to greater oversight. The code prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, graphic or realistic violence, sexual persuasions, and rape.

It had rules around the use of crime, costume, dance, religion, national sentiment and morality.

More specifically, it forbade the use of profanity, obscenity and racial slurs, Graphic violence, criminality, substance use, promiscuity, miscegenation, and homosexuality. It was even why married couples were required to sleep in separate beds for at least two decades of Hollywood filmmaking.

ginal release of King Kong in: 1933

That was considered completely unacceptable and eliminated entirely. The brontosaurus attack was edited so the creature claimed only three.

Three victims rather than five, because apparently three deaths are more morally acceptable than five deaths.

Code remained in effect until: 1968

dered lost for many years. In: 1969

The cutscenes were added to the film, restoring it to its original theatrical running time of 100 minutes. Restoration teams then painstakingly reintegrated the moments that had disappeared across decades of reissues.

rint located in the UK in the: 1980

mpleted by Warner Brothers in: 2005

and during its first run in: 1933

the weekend after King Kong's: 1933

Before the: 1952

tten Tomatoes didn't exist in: 1933

King Kong explores the soul of a monster, making audiences scream and cry throughout the film, in large part due to Kong's breakthrough special effects. So much so, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also called.

The Academy wanted to give Willis H. O' Brien an Oscar for his technical effects on King Kong. But Willis insisted that each of his crew also receive an Oscar, which the Academy refused to do.

later for Mighty Joe Young in: 1949

ong that came out in December: 1933

In the: 1960

In: 1998

In: 2005

Brothers made skull island in: 2017

King Kong is incredible, but it's also many other things that I can't not talk about in this episode.

And it's not a particularly nice subject to talk about, but we need to talk about it because the racial subtext of King Kong is there and it can be seen as racist propaganda and it can also be enjoyed as spectacular entertainment. And both things can be true at once. And this is especially relevant to King Kong. You can't really escape from the accusations of of blatant racism.

King Kong premiered at a time when black men were regularly depicted as ape like in popular culture. Racial exploitation movies were a thing.

The: 1930

The great economic crisis of the Depression led to mass unemployment and an exodus of population from southern states, states with large black populations, into cities where they were concentrated in ghettos. Fear of the economic crisis and fear of the black population fed each other in the white American imagination.

King Kong was rooted in an explicitly racist period of American history and supported, at least implicitly, the cultural understanding shared widely by white Americans of the quote, unquote, danger posed by African American men.

The most widely discussed interpretation of King Kong is that it functions as a coded representation of black masculinity, specifically the white supremacist stereotype of the sexually threatening black man.

om the Birth of a Nation, the: 1915

The Skull island natives are depicted as primitive, superstitious and racially distinct from the white, quote unquote, civilized men traveling to a remote island to extract something monstrous and bring it back to New York.

It mirrors the logic of colonialism and the slave trade almost point for point, whether Kong's death represents a symbol of black otherness whose death restores white order as Some cultural critics have suggested, or a tragic look at the violent outcomes of a racist society, remains an open debate.

Kong's death, shot down by white men from biplanes atop America's most iconic skyscraper, has been read as white men restoring white order after the threat of miscegenation.

While King Kong is often compared to the story of Beauty and the Beast, many film scholars have argued that the film was a cautionary tale about interracial romance, even though literally all an does is scream and show fear towards Kong.

While Cooper and Shoed Sack insisted in contemporary interviews that there was no hidden meaning to King Kong, a posthumously published interview with Cooper revealed that his inspiration for the film was rooted in the image of a giant ape falling from the tallest building, which would represent how primitive people are doomed by modern civilization.

Whether consciously or not, whether politically inspired or not, King Kong reinforced the racial status quo and preyed upon white fears of black Americans. And yet, despite the controversy surrounding it, it's also literally the eighth wonder of the world.

It's impressive still now in: 2026

we all know, that was Jaws in: 1975

But it's moviemaking at the height of what we expect moviemaking to be. Artistry, craftsmanship, emotion and richness of character. The level of detail in Kong himself just blows my mind.

Almost like they didn't have to go so hard on him. But he's so detailed and charismatic and at times frighteningly scary.

His animalistic nature comes out and throws crew members to their death and stomps on people. And then in the small moments with Anne, he's playful and inquisitive. The attention to detail and technical brilliance is just astonishing.

It's worth adding that I do really enjoy Peter Jackson's remake. And I actually saw that before I saw the original. But while Jackson's remake does a lot of things well, it just can't match this in terms of Kong.

The CGI Kong looks great, photo real and acts like a real ape. But there's something about this Kong that's primeval. It's not slick.

You see the finger marks in the fur and you know a human has made this movie and it just feels so tangible. I've always been in awe of the work of Ray Harryhausen and how he gave his creatures souls.

He clearly learned it from the best because the there's something ageless about this Kong. Just thinking about how many movies, how many franchises owe a debt to King Kong. Not least Godzilla, but also Jurassic Park.

I'm sure those big gates were not an accidental homage.

There's probably much I've missed in this episode as pertains to Kong's long lasting legacy through cinema, video games, comics, books, theme park rides, musicals.

sode by one podcaster, but in: 1933

It may not have birthed Kaiju movies, but it birthed the tragic monster movie and put the focus on man's hubris and the relationship humanity has with the natural world. Just like arrogance, greed and ignorance became Kong's untimely end, humanity is also at risk of the same things and beauty.

Beauty will be the end of us all. Thank you for listening. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on King Kong and thank you for your question.

Continued support of this podcast Next episode I'm going to give you a quote and the quote is by Tomoyuki Tanaka and he said quote I felt like doing something big. That was my motivation. I thought of different ideas. I like monster movies and I was influenced by King Kong unquote.

s to talk about Godzilla from: 1954

So please join me next episode for the history and legacy of Godzilla. Thank you for listening to Verbal Diorama, a totally free and independent podcast that relies on listener support.

If you want to show your support in multiple different ways, you could leave a rating or review wherever you found this podcast. You could tell your friends and family about this podcast or you could find me and follow me on social media and you can share the podcast that way.

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To Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Jack, Dave, Stuart, Nicholas, Zoe, Kev, Danny, Stu, Brett, Xenos, Sean, Ryno, Philip, Adam, Elaine, Aaron, and Steve. Please consider joining them and supporting this podcast on Patreon. If you have the means to.

If you want to get in touch, you can email [email protected] you can also go to verbaldiorama.com and you can fill out the contact form. You could say hello, you can give feedback, or you can give suggestions as well. I would genuinely love to hear from you.

You can also DM me on social media as well, if that's an option available to you. I love to hear from people and I always try to respond as quickly as possible.

Thanks again for listening and thanks for supporting independent podcasting. It means more to us than you know. And finally.

Em: 00:58:23

Bye.