Origin of "King Kong" (Chinese? Courting frogs?)

Sun Jan 1 02:34:44 UTC 2006

So, a person might conclude that KING KONG is merely an American
"racistization" of the final ten minutes of INGAGI.
--
-Wilson Gray

On 12/31/05, Bapopik at aol.com <Bapopik at aol.com> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bapopik at AOL.COM
> Subject:      Origin of "King Kong" (Chinese? Courting frogs?)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "King Kong" logically followed other, similar jungle stories (see the
> essay
> at the bottom of this post).
> ...
> What about the name "King Kong"? Where did the authors (Merian C.
> Cooper  and
> Edgar Wallace) get it?
> ...
> "King Kong" had been in use as a Chinese name and, in the 1920s, a popular
> song about courting frogs!
> ...
> ...
> ...
> _http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178260/bio_
> (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178260/bio)
> Cooper had a bizarre dream about a giant ape that was destroying New York
> City and recorded it when woke up. This was the basis for the classic
> _King
> Kong_ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/)  (1933), which he  developed
> and
> produced.
> ...
> ...
> _http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0908624/bio_
> (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0908624/bio)
> He died while in Hollywood working on a film project that would become
> _King
> Kong_ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/)  (1933).
> ...
> ...
> ...
> _"BALLADS,  SONGS AND SNATCHES"; BEST SELLERS IN POPULAR MUSIC OLE GRAY
> GOOSE
> _
> (
> http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=10&did=426818631&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1136066907&clientId=65882
> )
> Abbe Niles. The Bookman; a Review of Books  and Life (1895-1933). New
> York:
> Dec 1928. Vol. 68, Iss. 4; p. 457 (3  pages) :
> Second page:
> _Folk Songs:_ "King Kong Kitchie-Kitchie Ki-Mo", which is the immemorial
> tale of the frog's courting, sung to an old-time banjo by Chubby Parker
> (_Col._;
> with "Down on the Farm").
> ...
> ...
> _IDOLATRY  OF THE CHINESE._
> (
> http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=3&did=327413981&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=11360670
> 05&clientId=65882)
> The American Magazine of Useful and  Entertaining Knowledge (1834-1837).
> Boston: Jun 1, 1836. Vol. 2, Iss. 10;  p. 423 (2 pages) :
> First page:
> The haughty figure in the centre, adorned with such singular
> magnificence  of
> apparel, and with a richly ornamented crown upon his head, is the supreme
> idol of the Chinese--the grand King-Kong himself.
> ...
> ...
> _THE  HEATEN RACE; A Lively Row in 'Frisco's Chinatown;Members of Rival
> Companies  Exchange Pistol Shots;Two Celestials Wounded--A Further
> Outbreak
> Threatened;Other Coast Dispatches--An Electrician Received a Terrible
> Shock
> --Brotherhood Firemen Arrive From the East_
> (
> http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=4&did=748791592&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=
> 1136067135&clientId=65882)
> Telegraph  to The Times. Los Angeles Times (1886. Sep 8,  1890. p. 1 (1
> page)
> :
> Ping King Kong men were holding an out-door religious service on Waverly
> Place when members of the Chee Kong Long Company interfered.
> ...
> ...
> _WELL-DEVELOPED  CASE.; Fearful Influence Exercised by PingPong Upon Its
> Devotees. _
> (
> http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=5&did=547010912&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1136067331&clientId=65882
> )
> The Atlanta Constitution (1881-2001). Atlanta, Ga.: May 25,  1902. p. 23
> (1
> page) :
> "Poorly; every little thing-thong seems to affect me lately. Well, at any
> rate, you are looking like a king-kong."
> ...
> ...
> _THE  MIRRORS OFTHULE" BRILLINTLY DONE.; Best Show that Boston Knights of
> Columbus  Have Ever put In Delights Gathering that falls Jordan Hall. _
> (
> http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=8&did=700358072&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD
> &VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1136067422&clientId=65882)
> Boston Daily Globe (1872-1960). Boston, Mass.: Feb 18, 1908.  p. 4 (1
> page) :
> As King Kong, William A. O'Brien certainly conducted himself with
> skill.  His
> stage presence was excellent and he has a good voice of clear tone and
> much
> volume. His song, "Speech from the Throne," in the first act, was
> splendidly
> sung and made a fine impression.
> ...
> ...
> ...
>      _The Daily Courier_
> (
> http://www.newspaperarchive.com/Viewer.aspx?img=5eXteVl0qByKID/6NLMW2vwjRTk9QdcUe+V8JDD4jZ2h4hc5cA0sBkIF+CsZYmrz
> )  _Friday,
> November 30, 1928_ (http://www.newspaperarchive.com/Search.aspx?Search=)
> _Connellsville,_
> (
> http://www.newspaperarchive.com/Search.aspx?Search="king+kong"+AND+cityid:6072+AND+stateid:77+AND+range:1753-1928)
> _Pennsylvania_
> (
> http://www.newspaperarchive.com/Search.aspx?Search="king+kong"+AND+stateid:77+AND+range:1753-
> 1928)   ...and' Bis.  Slngors. Down on the Farm. KING KONG KItehie Kttchle
> Kl-Ma-O..
> ...
> ...
> ...
> ...
> _http://www.geraldpeary.com/essays/jkl/kingkong-1.html_
> (http://www.geraldpeary.com/essays/jkl/kingkong-1.html)
> Missing Links: The Jungle Origins of King  Kong
> GERALD PEARY
> (Slightly revised from its original  printing in THE GIRL IN THE HAIRY PAW
> [New York, 1976], ed. by Ronald Gottesman  and Harry Geduld)
> (...)
>
>
> As noted earlier, Merian Cooper claimed  conception of the creature, King
> Kong, while making FOUR FEATHERS in 1927. But a  better candidate for the
> inspiration comes through Willis O'Brien and THE LOST  WORLD with its
> lost-in-time
> behemoth stumbling through the London streets,  unleashing destruction
> with
> every step, so much like what Kong would do to New  York. The brontosaurus
> even
> stuck its head through a third-story window, an  action so novel as to be
> repeated in KING KONG, when the giant gorilla comes  looking for Ann
> Darrow in the
> upper stories of a hotel. And the brontosaurus's  collapse through London
> Bridge, the city's most iconic public site? O'Brien  brought the scene
> back, transfo
> rmed into Kong's Empire State Building  tumble.
> An even more literal link in THE LOST WORLD to  KONG was the "ape man" of
> the
> movie, which chased the Londoners about the  Amazonian jungle. Although
> played unconvincingly by an actor in painted makeup  and furpiece attire,
> this
> character was at the center of an episode so close to  what occurs in KING
> KONG
> that there can be no mistaking the THE LOST WORLD  source. When KONG's
> Driscoll
> and Ann fled the mighty ape by climbing down a rope  and dropping into the
> waters far below, they echoed Edward Malone's THE LOST  WORLD escape by
> rope from
> the ape man down the side of a steep plateau. In both  scenes, the
> excitement
> comes from the primate adversary taking hold of the rope  and pulling it
> back, hand in hand, toward the top of the ravine. At the last  moment, the
> dangling heroes in both films loosen their grasps and fall to  safety,
> avoiding being
> mauled by the jungle beast at the top.
>
> There is a far more obscure literary source  than Conan Doyle which also
> affected the future shape of KING KONG, a 1927  pulpish gothic mystery,
> THE
> AVENGER, one of the 173 novels of British author,  Edgar Wallace. He would
> go to
> Hollywood in 1931 and cooperate with Merian Cooper  on the "idea" of KING
> KONG.
> Wallace also composed a completed early script  version of KONG before
> dying
> suddenly in 1932, several months before the picture  went into production.
> If
> not as essential a source as THE LOST WORLD, Wallace's  THE AVENGER
> managed a
> modest influence on certain plot elements of KING KONG and  seems to have
> introduced sketchy versions of several of KONG's characters.
> In Wallace's novel, a movie company travels on  location to the gloomy
> English provinces (Skull Island). Jack Knebworth, movie  producer (Carl
> Denham),
> reaches among the anonymous extras on his movie and  brings forward a new
> star,
> beautiful Adele Leamington (Ann Darrow, Denham's  soupline discovery).
> Adele is
> plagued on the set by a mysterious ourang-outang  named Bhag (Kong), who
> chases her across the provincial terrain.
> And what of movies made without any of the KONG  party? STARK MAD (Warner
> Brothers, 1929) was a "jungle quest" fantasy which is  lost today. That's
> unfortunate for film history, because descriptions suggest a  genuine
> influence on
> KING KONG. One scene from the plot summary sounds  particularily relevant:
> those
> on an expedition into the South American jungles  enter a Mayan jungle to
> find a gigantic ape chained to the floor. OURANG  (Universal, 1930) was a
> film
> seemingly never released. If it followed true to  its advertising
> campaign,
> OURANG would have been ahead of KING KONG for its  bestial sexual theme in
> its
> story of a woman carried off by ourang-outangs  through the jungles of
> Borneo. A
> Universal ad in VARIETY showed an attractive  female struggling in the
> arms of
> a large primate,three years prior to the  subjugations of Ann Darrow.
> About this time, Willis O'Brien teamed for the  first time with Merian C.
> Cooper, working on a KONG prototype called CREATION,  about a shipwreck on
> a
> mysterious island filled with dinosaurs. A bit of this  film was shot,
> then
> abandoned; O'Brien wasn't happy yet with his story.
> By 1930, the KING KONG project was forming from  at least three
> directions:
> from Willis O'Brien's THE LOST WORLD experience, from  Cooper-Schoedsack's
> in-the-field documentary work, from Edgar Wallace's THE  AVENGER. And
> jungle
> movies were suddenly so much in vogue that VARIETY commented  in January,
> 1930, "So
> many people are going into woolly Africa with cameras that  the natives
> are
> not only losing their lens shyness but are rapidly nearing the  stage
> where
> they will qualify for export to Hollywood."
> The cycle culminated with a tremendous box  office hit, TRADER HORN (MGM,
> 1931), shot in spectacular fashion, and with  ninety-two tons of technical
> equipment, by W.S. Van Dyke on African location.  The time was ripe for
> KING KONG,
> though what was needed was an interested  studio. The infamous INGAGI
> incident
> of 1930 served as catalyst for RKO's  commitment to such a project.
> In April, 1930, representatives of "Congo  Pictures, Ltd." walked along
> Market Street in San Francisco offering the  theatres purchase rights to a
> picture,
> INGAGI, said to show footage of Sir  Hubert Winstead of London's
> sensationalist travels into the Belgian Congo. Every  theatre but one
> turned down the film
> as a fake. The Orpheum decided not only to  exhibit INGAGI but to promote
> it
> vigorously. A tabloid newspaper filled with  stills from INGAGI was
> distributed door to door in the area of the theatre. A  jungle exhibition
> was set up in
> the lobby. The Orpheum brought in $4,000 worth  of business the opening
> day,
> an unprecedented $23,000 for the first week. RKO  Studio, owner of the
> Orpheum,
> picked up national rights, and soon INGAGI was  playing everywhere. It
> doubled house records in Seattle, was termed "the talk of  the town" in
> Chicago, and
> soon was among the highest grossing films in the  USA.
> "Photography is poor," said VARIETY.  "Accompanying lectures, synchronized
> on
> the film, are supposed to have been done  by Winstead, but the speaker
> uses a
> plain American accent." None of this  mattered to the public, nor the fact
> that three-fourths of the picture was taken  up by tired stock shots of
> elephant
> herds, hippopatami, and sundry animals  scurrying about the jungle. Real
> attention was directed to INGAGI's last ten  minutes, which showed an
> African
> tribe of completely naked "ape women" (though  obstructed from full view
> by
> strategic thickets) sacrificing one of their woman  to a gorilla. INGAGI
> publicity
> centered on this final scene, shamelessly  foregrounding the erotic
> aspects of
> the sacrifice, the perverse implied union of  woman and jungle animal.
>