March 2, 1933 –
RKO Studios, on the brink of bankruptcy, gambled the studio on a filmed puppet show for kids, releasing the film King Kong on this date.
In the original film, the character’s name is Kong — a name given to him by the inhabitants of “Skull Island” in the Indian Ocean, where Kong lived along with other over-sized animals such as a plesiosaur, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs. ‘King‘ is an appellation added by an American film crew led by Carl Denham, who captures Kong and takes him to New York City to be exhibited as the “Eighth Wonder of the World“.
Kong escapes and climbs the Empire State Building (the World Trade Center in the 1976 remake) where he is shot and killed by aircraft. Nevertheless, “it was beauty who killed the beast“, as he only climbed the building in the first place in an attempt to protect the lead female character Ann Darrow.
The film saved RKO Studios from bankruptcy.
The Haus of Dcaligari 