80th Anniversary

I know I'm about nine months late, and should have posted this thread early last April, but this movie opened in theaters on April 7, 1933, and had its 80th anniversary this April. But we are still in the same calendar year, and at the very end of it, so now is still a good time to do it. I obviously do not remember when this movie first came out back then, as I was not born until March 5, 1968, but I first heard about it in the 1970s as a child, and watched it some on TV then. I remember watching it one night in the 1970s with my father and younger sister, and after it was over my father referred to Kong as "poor old fellow", referring to his being killed at the end of it. And one night in the 1970s I was going to bed and my mother was in my room tucking me in, and King Kong was coming on TV the following night. I told her about that and really wanted to see it, and in the 1970s I always slept with my light on in the bedroom, I was afraid not to, but she wanted me to stop that, and told me that night that if I slept with it off she might let me stay up and watch it the following night. I actually don't remember if I slept with it off that night or if I did get to watch it the next night, but I do remember it coming on TV another night in the 1970s, and my sister and I wanted to see it, and I think we had something else planned for the first part of when it would be on, and our mother said we could still see the last part of it, the NYC part, and that the best part of it was that part anyway, when he was on the Empire State Building swatting at the planes. Both my sister and I apparently disagreed and felt the best part was the earlier part when he was on the island and wanted to see that part, and objected to her about this. I also don't remember how this turned out, but I do remember I had a poster of Kong on the top of the Empire State Building which I had gotten in the mid 1970s and had taped up on my wall in my bedroom in the 1970s and 1980s.

Then in 1982 we got our first VCR, and in 1983 she brought a copy of King Kong on VHS for me, one of the first movies we had gotten after getting this VCR. Then in the 1980s and first part of the 1990s I watched it a lot on the VCRs we had, and it became one of my favorite movies of all time, I loved it. We then moved in January, 1997 and I became homeless for years and saw no movies on TV or home video. I missed seeing it on DVD for years, but that did not really matter, as it was not out on DVD until November, 2005 when it finally came out in this format. Then in January, 2008 I had a job after years of unemployment, and had built up my money pretty well, and decided to rent a hotel room and a DVD player, and some movies on DVD from two nearby Blockbusters to finally watch some things on DVD, and I rented out some movies, one being the original King Kong, which I watched twice then and still liked as much as before. I then got disability income and my own apartment in 2010, and I brought a TV and DVD player for it, ands then a lot of movies on DVD, and King Kong was one of the first movies I got then, at a DVD/music store. I have watched it several times since then, and plan to watch it before December is over this month, partly because of this anniversary, and partly because it has since the mid 1980s been a very good Christmas movie for me, and I usually watch it right before Christmas most years, and did not get to this year, but will right after Christmas.

I also remember very well in December, 2005 the Peter Jackson remake of King Kong was coming out in theaters, and I definitely planned to see this several times and was really looking forward to it, and wanted to know what time of year in 1933 the original King Kong came out in theaters, as well as the 1976 remake and the sequel Son of Kong in 1933. I was in a bookstore one night and looking at an entertainment book that had the phone numbers and addresses of the major studios in the Los Angeles area in it, and I called two studios on my cell phone and asked about this. The first one did not have this information, but the second one did and told me, but they both seemed a little annoyed at me for calling and asking this, saying why didn't I just look it up on the internet. I explained that I had no internet access, which they said was very strange in this day and age, but the second one I called told me about IMDB and said I should go on there for this and all sort of other information. I then did go on the internet for the first time two months later, in February, 2006 at the public libraries, and a month after that, in March, 2006 got my first email account. And ever since then I have been in libraries using the internet most days, and most of this time has been on IMDB. I don't know how I did without it for so long, but it will always be King Kong that led me to get on the internet and IMDB (though I will admit it is likely I would have gotten on it fairly soon after that anyway). And when I called these studios I actually talked with the archive departments, and I have since really developed an interest in them, and had I majored in history while in college like I should have and gotten a degree in it that is definitely one of the careers I would have pursued and liked to have had, working in the archives department of a major movie studio (which a history degree would have enabled me to do).

"I happen to be a vegetarian". Lex, from Jurrasic Park