King Kong roared onto the silver screen on March 2nd, 1933, in an extraordinary simultaneous screening at Radio City and the Roxy, New York - attracting 10,000 viewers in one hit.

The buzz around the film was no accident — RKO Pictures had blitzed the public with an aggressive marketing campaign, including publishing a novelization before the film’s release and producing a radio serial that aired twice a week.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how animation genius Willis O’Brien brought Kong to life through a mixture of stop-motion and scale-models; reveal how Fay Wray was pitched her iconic role; and discover that contemporary critics weren’t as awed by the film’s lauded SFX as you might imagine…

Further Reading:

• ’King Kong - The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson. By Ray Morton’ (Applause, 2005): https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=UPXbsJLVgCcC&pg=PA78&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&bul=1&sig=ACfU3U1G3kZHHv8P03ttnCr8p18YdlLsJw&w=1280

• ’The first (and original) King Kong’ (The Independent, 2005): https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-first-and-original-king-kong-518889.html

• ‘King Kong: The Practical Effects Wonder’ (Katie Keenan, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4sFn3Qiw9g

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

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