When I think of King Kong (who is celebrating 80s years this week), my first thought is sadly not of the 1933 film. At least not exactly. Instead, it is of the King Kong volume of the Crestwood House Monster Movies series.
The cover didn’t use the classic Kong, but some other version. I think that’ was a mistake.
I’ve talked about this series several times on the Retroist, and King Kong is a big part of it. Not only did he have his own volume, which covered not only the 1933 original but every other version of King Kong that had been made to that point, as well as relatives like Mighty Joe Young, but he was kind of the mascot of the series, appearing on the back covers and the “other titles” page.
They returned to the real Kong for these, and the images have been emblazoned on my mind every since.
Had it not been for the King Kong Crestwood House book, I would not have known much about Kong. I might not have known him at all. So this book is just about as important to me as the movie is to film history.
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I feel sorry for the younger kids these day…they’ll never know how awesome the Crestwood House books were. Unless they come here and see your post, Doug! :)
By the way…I think that might be Rick Baker on the cover from his turn as King Kong in the Dino De Laurentiis version. Not 100% sure though.
My local library had that one and the Godzilla one. I checked those out many, many times.
Wish I had them for Monster Cafe Saltillo! They were awesome!