I am a 75 year old retired photographer who has loved two things in life, aside from my family. Stereo photography was one and King Kong was the other. I was four years old when King Kong was released simultaneously at Radio City Music Hall and the Roxy Theatre, which was right down the street from the Music Hall. It was probably no more than ten cents to get in, but the Depression being what it was and my father having deserted my mother two months before I was born, kinda put a crimp in our welfare social life.

That's one reason why what my mother did, when I contracted the measles, meant so much . I was as lonely as only a four year old boy can be when confined to his bedroom. Then one day my mother walked in with a four foot tall yellow monkey. God knows how long she must have scrimped and scraped to get the money together for a special ocassion she knew would come. I was lonely no more. For the rest of my bedrest I played with my friend Kong . . . and yellow be damned.

Believe me, I not only understand, but I KNOW how Peter Jackson feels about King Kong. When I took those stereo slides of that armature (Christopher is refering to this armature, which he took 12 stereo slides of) at Movie World in Buena Park, I was moved to construct my own armature. I was doing very well when at one point, just as I began to sculpt the skull, the armature disappeared. I could never determine whether it was stolen or what. Needless to say, I never went back to it.

Anyway, you can understand how much I'm looking forward to Peter's film, even though I can't really agree with the casting. What I would do, if my ship hadn't sunk, would be to make King Kong using the original cast via CGI. And of course, with my love of stereoraphy, I would make it in 3D. There's a company called Opticality Corporation that claims to have a true stereoscopic process that does not utilize any viewing aids.

Wouldn't that be great? King Kong with the original cast, shot in 3D
without glasses of any kind.

Christopher R. Mohr Sr.