King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon

The 1933 KING KONG was not just a terrifying monster movie. It was also an epic fairy tale, a tragic love story, and a landmark piece of cinema that introduced one of the most beloved characters in motion picture history-a universally recognizable cultural icon whose legacy encompasses a vast multimedia universe consisting of more than ten feature films as well as numerous television shows, books, comics, toys, collectibles, and even a Broadway musical.

In this extensively revised and updated edition of a classic book first published two decades ago, King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon is the definitive account of the most famous simian in pop-culture history. It spans the whole of the Eighth Wonder's filmography, chronicling in detail the making of every Kong movie beginning with the 1933 original and continuing through the giant gorilla's Japanese adventures and the epic Dino De Laurentiis and Peter Jackson remakes before concluding with the most recent films that place the great ape within an ever-expanding "Monsterverse." Author and Kongophile Ray Morton also offers entertaining looks at the character's appearances in other media, along with plenty of trivia and reflections on the franchise's enduring appeal. Packed with photographs and based on extensive new research and exclusive interviews, this is by far the most complete and comprehensive guide to all things Kong.

Included here are:
The creation of the Kong character by Merian C. Cooper
The development, production, and release of the original 1933 film and its many successors
The Cartoon Kong: the giant gorilla's animated incarnations.
Kong on the Stage: theatrical productions featuring the Eighth Wonder.
Kong on the Page: the many publications devoted to the great ape.
The Sons of Kong: Kong variants, spoofs, and rip-offs such as Mighty Joe Young, Queen Kong, and A*P*E*.
The Kongs that Never Were: Kong projects that never made it to the screen
The innumerable Kong-related products generated over the past century

Author: Ray Morton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 04/02/2026
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 2.25lbs
ISBN: 9781493076376

About the Author
Ray Morton is the author of four previous popular film histories: King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson (2005), Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Spielberg's Classic Film (2007), Amadeus: Music on Film (2011) and A Hard Day's Night: Music on Film (2011), as well as the books A Quick Guide to Screenwriting, A Quick Guide to Television Writing, and A Quick Guide to Film Directing. He has worked as a script consultant and has written screenplays, teleplays, magazine articles, and columns. He once sculpted a full-sized King Kong out of snow on his mother's front lawn.