Thump your chest, swat planes at Museum's First Friday
December 27, 2005
Event, calendar writers/editors. Images
available.
RALEIGH — Out-leaping the maddest imaginings! Out-thrilling the wildest thrills! It's King Kong! Don't miss the original Great Ape when he appears in all his big-screen glory at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences' Natural Horror Picture Show at 7 p.m. on Friday, January 6, 2006.
"King Kong" (1933) tells the story of Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), a filmmaker who mounts an expedition to the mysterious Skull Island to find a suitable subject. He takes along buff adventurer Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) and gorgeous blonde actress Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) to spice up the show. Arriving on the island, they discover it is home to dinosaurs and other gigantic beasts, and ruling over all is Kong, a roughly 30-foot-tall gorilla with an eye for blondes and an overly possessive nature. And all apologies to Jim Croce, but nobody's badder, not even Leroy Brown.
As legend has it, the busy (11 movies that year) and rising starlet Wray was told by the studio that she would work with a "tall dark leading man," only to find that it was a gorilla. Luckily, she took the part that would ultimately be the highlight of her career. Cabot, also very busy in the '30s, later became a standard character in several John Wayne films of the '60s, including "The Green Berets" and last appeared in the 007 flick "Diamonds are Forever" in 1971. The vaudeville-trained Armstrong is perfect as the overzealous showman who somehow manages to subdue Kong and bring him to the states for an ill-fated exhibition.
Co-directors and producers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack had a lot of fun with this movie. Both had been wrestlers, and they acted out the fighting moves for the battle between the T. rex and Kong in the effects studio before the animators shot the scene. Cooper and Schoedsack also play the roles of pilot and gunner on the plane that attacks Kong at the end of the movie -- they decided to play the parts after Cooper said that after working so hard to bring Kong to life for the film, "we should kill the son of a ***** ourselves."
Peter Jackson, Oscar-winning director of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and director of the new "King Kong" (2005), credits the original "King Kong" as his biggest inspiration in filmmaking. He even said that he cried when he first saw Kong fall off the Empire State Building.
The Museum stays open from 5 till 9 p.m. and the feature film begins at 7 p.m. Come early for live music from The Foyer and quirky film shorts from the AV Geek. You can also enjoy light fare and beverages from the Acro Café. Additionally, the Museum Store offers after-hours shopping and an opening reception for two new artists in the Nature Art Gallery.
If a gorilla on steroids make you nervous, check out the Museum's newest traveling exhibit -- "Discovering Chimpanzees: The Remarkable World of Jane Goodall" -- which stays open till 9 p.m. (last tickets sold at 8 p.m.). This exhibit, which closes January 10, highlights Dr. Goodall's four decades of research and thought provoking ideas on chimpanzees and primates. Exhibit tickets are discounted for First Friday attendees: $4 for all; free for Friends of the Museum. Special guest Lane Batot from the NC Zoo will give a free presentation on his work with chimpanzees, and tell entertaining anecdotes about his summer in Africa with Jane Goodall, at 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium.
The Museum of Natural Sciences is located in downtown Raleigh at 11 West Jones Street. Parking is available on the street and in surface lots along Wilmington and Edenton streets. For more information, contact Steve Popson at 919-733-7450, ext. 379.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in downtown Raleigh, documents and interprets the natural history of the state of North Carolina through exhibits, research, collections, publications, and educational programming. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Visit the Museum on the web at www.naturalsciences.org. The Museum is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary.
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