It’s been quite a while since I last posted a 'ShukerNature Picture of the Day', but this particular photograph seemed an ideal candidate for such a role, especially as it's one that I've been meaning to blog about for ages, so here it is, together with what I've managed to uncover concerning its nothing if not visually striking subject.
Needless to say, had I encountered this picture recently I would probably have simply assumed it to be an AI-generated image and therefore may not have investigated it, as the head was certainly far too big to be from any type of anatomically-feasible primate, even one of the cryptozoological kind.
In reality, however, I first encountered it online some years ago (on Wikipedia, if memory serves me correctly), and its arresting appearance was such that I decided to do whatever I could to identify exactly what it depicted and where it had originated. Here is what I discovered.
As indicated by this present ShukerNature post's tongue-in-cheek title, parodying the biblical Salome's imperious demand to King Herod Antipas for John the Baptist's head (served on a platter, which it duly was!), I had initially wondered whether this public-domain photo may have been in some way related to the original, classic King Kong monster movie released by RKO Radio Pictures in spring 1933, directed by Marian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and starring Fay Wray alongside this movie's titular stop-motion mega-star created by celebrated animator Willis H. O'Brien. Perhaps it was a spare giant ape head for close-up shots, or used for publicity purposes?
Although that idea ultimately proved false, I suspect that it nonetheless contains an element of relevance to the latter movie. For what I finally found out was that the object in this photo is actually a gaff, in this instance specifically a stage prop that had featured in a major pantomime performed just a few months after the release of King Kong, so it seems possible that the prop was inspired by this film, which had proved such a massive hit worldwide earlier that same year.
According to an unidentified, tantalizingly-brief newspaper report published on 11 December 1933 that had contained the photo, what it depicted was a 4.5-ft-tall giant ape or monkey head made from cardboard and paper (NOT from the remains of any real, dead animal) that had been specially constructed by a stage props company for a pantomime staged in Glasgow, Scotland, during the winter 1933/34 pantomime season.
Sadly, the report gave no further details, not even naming the pantomime in question or the theatre where it was staged. According to the Panto Archive website's comprehensive listing of Glasgow pantomime venues and productions (click here to view the entire list), the only pantomime staged in Glasgow during the 1933/34 season was 'Babes In The Wood', at the Theatre Royal, and featuring veteran Scottish music hall comedian Tommy Lorne (1890-1935) as its principal star.
Perhaps, therefore, the giant monkey/ape
head had appeared in it in the capacity of a guardian to the babes abandoned in
the wood, or possibly as a comic bogeyman-type character. This is only
speculation on my part, however, as I have been unable to discover any further
information concerning either the head itself or the pantomime in which it
appeared, but I did succeed in locating a second newspaper photo of it. Dating from
the same period, but this time showing the head of a man inside the prop's gaping
mouth and a woman standing alongside it, this second photo can be accessed here. I wonder if this eyecatching effigy still survives somewhere, stored away, perhaps, in the vaults of some theatre or stage props provider?
At any rate, we can all be reassured now by the comforting knowledge that somewhere deep within the cloud-shrouded Skull Island of make-believe movie-land, the real King Kong is still striding majestically through his stop-motion domain with his huge head held high, still firmly attached to his mighty neck and shoulders, whereas, tragically, the same cannot be said for John the Baptist's.
Speaking of Skull Island: be sure to click here to read my full review of the more recent King Kong-starring monster movie Kong: Skull Island in my film review blog, Shuker In MovieLand.
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