Scans of a 2005 Mexican DVD release of King Kong have been added
to the Home Video Releases page. These images
came from Amazon. I also added photos of an Italian Blu-ray and the terrible
cover of the UK 4K UHD.
A recent eBay auction of the King Kong cards released by Allen &
Regina in New Zealand revealed something I didn't know: the images on the backs
of the cards are black and white. I've added the auction photos of the cards
to the Collectible Cards page.
A ticket for a UK press screening of King Kong
has been added to the It Came from eBay! page. It would
be fun to own, but the seller's $600 asking price was ludicrous.
An invitation card for a preview screening of King Kong in Japan
has been added to the It Came from eBay! page. The
screening happened in August, so I assume it was August 1977.
I keep finding things! I recently acquired a U.S. promotional newspaper
that I hadn't seen before. The paper opens up to a four-page spread.
Scans of the paper have been added to the Press
Books & Newsletters page.
Another way-overpriced magazine from Brazil showed up on eBay. I wasn't
going to pay $300 for it, so I've added the scans to the
It Came from eBay! page.
In 1990, John Berkey painted a new version of his painting depicting
King Kong fighting the snake. I've added that image, as well as the story
behind it, to the Posters page. I've also added a low-res image of Berkey's
original art for the "wall" painting and a large banner from 1976.
I've created a new page devoted to the King Kong 1976 movie posters
from around the world! The majority of the images were borrowed from
Heritage Auctions, which always posts nice, high-res images of the items
they auction.
I've added eleven more vintage newspaper articles to the Newspaper Articles
page. The new articles include several related to the protest staged at the Empire State
Building in March 1976.
I've added several more vintage newspaper ads for the Burger Chef glasses to the Collectibles
page for those! I've also added an article about the promotion.
In July 2025, Heritage Auctions listed a variant of the King Kong maquette made as gifts
for the crew. This variant is a different pose of Kong, with Kong lifting a helicopter
over this head! You can see photos of both maquette styles on the
Dino's Maquette gifts page.
I've added scans of an article from the May 1977 issue of Silver Screen Horror. The
article is an overview of screen giants, including brief mentions of the 1976 film. It has
been added to the Magazine Articles page.
Back in 2007, John Michlig wrote a two-part article about John
Berkey's poster art for King Kong. The article was titled
"The Greatest Teaser Poster of All Time," and it was published
on the KongIsKing.net website, which was set up to promote the 2005 film.
I've had links to that article on the Links page here, but discovered today
that it appears that KongIsKing.net disappeared sometime over the past couple
of years.
If you've never read the article, it's very interesting.
2025-06-19
I've added a photo of the King Kong trading cards wrapper from
New Zealand to the King Kong Cards page.
2025-06-16
I recently picked up an Australian promotional newspaper for King Kong.
Scans of the four-page paper have been added to the Press
Books & Newsletters page.
Here's an odd item found on Etsy: a waterproof fiberglass reinforcement
compound called Gorilla Hair! I assume the use of the art was unauthorized,
but who knows? Added to the
It Came from eBay! page.
I've created a new page for non-U.S. newspaper articles and clippings. It
is currently populated with fifty-four clippings, from articles about the film
to reviews and ads, from the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Thanks to the website Garage Sale Finds, scans of the
TV Guide ads for the two-night television premiere of King Kong
have been added to the Magazine Articles page.
Thanks to a recent eBay auction, a scan of a movie poster apparently
distributed to NBC stations for the television premiere of King Kong
has been added to the Press Books & Newsletters page.
An unopened pack of King Kong trading cards from Argentina showed up
on eBay. The photos from the auction have been added to the
It Came from eBay! page.
I just acquired the other two memo books that were released. There were memo
books with three different covers featuring John Berkey's art: the poster image,
the train, and the wall.
New additions to the It Came from eBay! page: a 1976
LP Theme from King Kong and Movie Greats from Pickwick and a
Japanese disc shooter toy from Bullmark.
Thanks to a thread on BlueSky, I just learned about a restaurant that used
to be in Salt Lake City that was called King Quong Restaurant. Owned by
restaurateur Johnny Quong, it used
imagery from the 1976 King Kong to promote the restaurant, which
included an animatronic gorilla inside.
I lived in Utah for three of the
years the restaurant was open, and I never heard about it then! Too bad.
While not officially related to the film, this is another example of the
film's timeless effect on pop culture!
I just stumbled over this Vanity Fair Jessica Lange video from five
years ago. She discusses King Kong in the first few minutes, something
she hasn't done a lot of over the years!
2025-02-23
I added a trade magazine ad for Barry White's version of the "Theme from
King Kong" to the Songs and Sheet Music
page.
2025-01-28
I somehow missed that the Spring 1977 issue of Cinefantastique
featured an article about Jim Danforth's resignation from the Academy, in
addition to their review of the movie. I've added the Danforth article
to the page.
Note:
The files and images on this site are made available as a reference for fans.
Most of these items have not been commercially available for 45 years or more,
if they were ever commercially available, and no profit is derived from this
site. It is a fan-run site for entertainment purposes only. King Kong
is owned and copyrighted by Paramount.
Hunter's King Kong 1976 Archive
I was eleven years old when the first teaser poster for Dino Del Laurentiis's
King Kong was released, and I was immediately hooked. I had seen the 1933
film and loved it, and I was intrigued by the image on that first teaser.
When the film was released on December 17, 1976, I went to see it, and it has
been one of favorite films of all time every since. I've collected various
King Kong 1976 items my whole life, and I finally decided the time
was right to share my collection with others who love this film.
For now, everything on this site comes from my personal collection, except
where noted. My friend Greg Plonowski has already contributed a couple of
great magazine scans.
Now I hear the chant: Kong! Kong! Kong! Enjoy your visit!
