In 1933, RKO film producer, Meriem C.Cooper was making what would be his greatest movie ever, KING KONG. Cooper was a take-charge kind of guy and producing to him meant being responsible for the entire picture; assembling cast and crew, picking a director, etc.etc. Thus as the film was nearing completion, he went to RKO’s head of music, composer Max Steiner, and asked him to prepare music for his new monster picture. Steiner, a classically trained Austrian, then proceeded to assemble a score from bits and pieces stored in the RKO archives. It was pretty much choosing from already written music, preferably standard classics. Steiner did this based solely on his reading of the shooting script. When Cooper returned days later and listened to Steiner play some of it on the piano, he was crestfallen.

Cooper instinctively realized Steiner was not grasping what it was he wanted. When he explained he needed Steiner to watch a rough cut of the film and then compose music to
match it, the little Austrian reminded him of the money restraints his department operated under. Cooper, so positive his new kind of thriller required a fresh, original sound, promised Steiner he would pay for an orchestral recording from his own pocket. And he was true to his word, eventually shelling out a whopping $50,OOO for Steiner to compose and conduct his original score. (See picture above.) Once completed, Cooper said it was worth every single penny. KING KONG was one of the first true blockbusters and in the midst of the Great Depression, made $89,931 in New York City alone in only 4 days of its premier!

Movie historians, especially musicologist, are always quick to point out that Steiner’s original score was one of the major factors in the movie’s success. Never before had music been so perfectly matched in mood and rhythm to what was happening on the big silver screen.
Which is why, all these many years later, we fanatical King Kong fans are very aware of the newsmaking events which occured this past week on the Peter Jackson remake.

It was reported that Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS partner, composer Howard Shore, had left the project; after having completed a full score! The news articles, including Jackson’s own public statement, explained that the two had come to an impasse concerning the music. Part of me was not at all surrpised to hear this. Although I liked Mr.Shore’s work on the RINGS trilogy (he deseveredly won an Oscan for one of the three scores), I always felt (simply by listening to that music) that he did not have the sensibilities to capture the bombastic sounds of an over-the-top jungle epic. And let’s be honest here. Be they organic or concrete, the story of King Kong is a jungle adventure.
It was at the same time reported that Jackson had recruited James Newton Howard to come on board and do the music. I was delighted. Howard has written wonderful music for such movies as the live action PETER PAN, Disney’s
TREASURE PLANET & ATLANTIS-The Lost Empire,plus
all the scores for M.Night Shyamalan’s weird thrillers ala THE SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS, UNBREAKABLE and THE VILLAGE. He is a consumate composer with a very good feel for pure adventure melodrama. I’m excited at what kind of music he will deliver and can’t help but wonder if it will echo the great work of Max Steiner. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Finally, I just wanted to let you know the 8 week course I mentioned a while ago on comic books has been launched. Rich Woodall and I started classes two weeks ago and we’re having a blast. The class is small, but with these new flyers Rich whipped out, we hope to see it grow once these and word of mouth get out there. Isn’t anything more fun, at least in my humble opinion, than sharing the knowledge of something you love with others. That’s what this class is all about for Rich and me.

What with the foul, rainy weather finally letting up and sunshine back again, I’ve been able to take out my new bike and go riding. Still a few sore muscles, but it is getting easier. Ha. Not bad for a dude pushing 59!

That’s it for this week, fellow airmen.
Take care, over and out, Ron.