The story behind the image, PART 1
(Coming in Part 2: An interview with artist John Berkey)
To the horror of my friends who enjoy great sci-fi and monster movies, I nurture an abiding affection for the KONG remake that assaulted theaters in 1976. I was young and impressionable, so my allowance went toward as many KONG-related products as I could reasonably afford. (See also KING KONG: LOST AND FOUND.)
Then and now, I'm fascinated by the poster series created for the film by sci-fi artist John Berkey, who is also well-known as creator of poster art for STAR WARS and STAR TREK, among many other films.
Initially offered to Frank Frazetta, who balked at the tight schedule as well as DeLaurentiis's "input," the Kong project led with the well-recognized "Kong atop the WTC," followed by variations on the theme that depicted scenes from the film.
| Berkey's "sketch," commissioned by Paramount on the very afternoon that they won their legal battle with Universal over rights to do the film. It appeared in the New York Times days after Berkey finished it. |
The poster refined for wider distribution. |
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(Left) The final version of the poster, with helicopters added and the shadow under Kong's right foot removed, as it appeared on the cover of the official soundtrack album.
(Below) The Italian version of the poster is obviously repainted - - though no one knows why. (Thanks to Anders Röder for the Italian images.)
(Left) Detail from the Italian version of the poster. Why a different version in Italy? That's anyone's guess. However, thanks to "'76 Kong" fan Michael Friedlander, I've learned that this is referred to by Universal (current holder of Kong film rights) as "Travolta Kong," while the domestic rendering is "Elvis Kong."
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Though Berkey painted individual faces for each Kong poster, he was surprised to see that someone in the Paramount art department had "pasted" the same face on each image - - quite an intricate task in those pre-PhotoShop days.
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The world had never seen so pervasive a marketing image. Many remember the "sketch" version that appeared in The New York Times. A striking version came to us kids via Dynamite magazine, featuring KONG astride the twin towers of the World Trade Center flailing at jet aircraft. Later versions mixed the jets with more realistic helicopters, and the shadows on the tower under Kong's right foot were eliminated because someone suddenly  realized that a 40-foot ape could not straddle the two rooftops.
As it is so succinctly explained in The Creation of Dino De Laurentiis's King Kong by Bruce Bahrenburg:
Kong's leg is off the south tower of the World Trade Center to indicate that he has just jumped from one to another.
(For perspective, it's worth noting that Bahrenburg was also the credited publicist for the film, and his book was published by Pocket Books, which was owned by Paramount's parent company, Gulf+Western.)
Berkey created a series of paintings depicting Kong destroying various things - - sort of a "Kong wrecking fill in the blank" motif - - all the while featuring the exact same face. These images appeared on everything from drinking glasses to album covers.
The scenes were:
- Kong wrecking snake;
- Kong wrecking Skull Island wall;
- Kong wrecking train;
- Kong wrecking boats (a rarely-seen variation);
Also created but not as ubiquitous, were:
- Kong wrecking Shea Stadium;
- Overhead view of Kong scaling World Trade Center (the only painting with a different Kong face, albeit partially obscured by the angle).
The packages above are courtesy of Tomoyuki Yamazaki of Tokyo, Japan.
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