Word: gorillas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...cover story on the making of the 1976 version of King Kong, Janos talked with Producer Dino de Laurentiis, Director John Guillermin and many members of the film's cast and crew of thousands. They were no difficulty. The hard job, literally, was making contact with Gorilla Mime Rick Baker, who stood in for the 40-ft. "audioanimatronic" Kong in scenes that were shot in miniature...
When Janos came upon Baker on a Paramount sound stage last week, the actor was still in full Pongidaean regalia: from hairy ape costume down to the special contact lenses he wore to simulate the smoky, mysterious eyes of a gorilla. "You need eye contact with a person you're interviewing," says Janos. "And those apelike eyes were chillingly disconcerting." He finally decided to talk with Baker after hours, when they could meet man to man, so to speak. Sighed Baker as his interviewer departed: "Now you know what it must have been like to be King Kong...
Ever willing to clutch at straws, movie people have been more than anxious to clutch at the hairy hide of the wonderfully exploitable gorilla who is not only house-high but has a soul as well. Ever since production was announced, King Kong had the potential to be what the industry annually requires, a "big bopper." as they say in the trade. A genuine big bopper is something on the order of The Godfather, The Exorcist, The Sting or, to name the film most like Kong, Jaws. It should generate domestic grosses of $50 million to $100 million and, almost...
...happy. He coolly divides women tennis players into four categories. In Class A, of course, are the stars. He wishes he designed for Evert, but notes, "Anybody can dress a sugarplum fairy. The challenge is Margaret Court. She walks like the Queen of Sheba, but she plays like a gorilla. I have to bring out the Queen of Sheba...
...cuffs, please-at least not on the suit being tailored for Hollywood's newest screen giant. He is, after all, a 40-ft. mechanical gorilla named King Kong, and after months of appalling technical problems, he is almost out of the woods and onto the sets of Producer Dino De Laurentiis' monster movie. While the $3 million Kong endured some final tinkering on his hydraulic hands last week, workers began fitting his horsehair covering onto a wood-and-Styrofoam standin. Once the suit is transferred to the star, the unnaked ape will team up with Actors Jeff Bridges...