The Most Exciting Original Motion Picture Website of All Time!
What's New? Updated 18-AUG-2025 22:42
2025-08-18
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.
On this 48th anniversary of the release of King Kong, I've added
over 40 high-resolution stills from the film that I'd found on a StudioCanal
site years ago and had forgotten I had. Many are quite common, but there are
some unusual shots in the bunch.
The February 10, 1977, issue of Scholastic VOICE, a magazine for
high school students, featured Kong on the cover, with a multi-page
story about the 1933 and 1976 films (but mostly the 1933 film).
I've finally managed to get a copy of the January 1977 issue of the Australian
magazine Parade, which featured Kong on the cover. Inside is a brief
article about the new film, as well as a look at the 1933 film.
I also finally located an actual copy of the UK magazine Movie Maker,
which featured Kong on the cover of the March 1977 issue. I've replaced the
eBay photos I previously had with actual high-res scans of the article.
Over the past few years, I've kept watch on eBay for 1976 King Kong
items, and I've purchased bunches of things so I could scan them to add to
this site. But there have been some items I had no interest in owning, some
I didn't see until they'd sold, and many that were just priced too high.
But I saved the auction photos for many of those, and they've now been
added here to the It Came from eBay! page! On this
page, you'll find candy items, home video releases, puzzles, posters, apparel,
games, models, and lots more that was part of the marketing machine!
Thanks to Clark Holloway, I've learned that the Burger Chef glasses apparently
were distributed by other restaurants in parts of the country that
didn't have Burger Chef restaurants. Clark specifically pointed me to
Arctic Circle glasses ads in Washington and Utah.
I've added three Arctic Circle ads to the Burger Chef glasses page, along with
a link to a Burger Chef Radio Commercial for the glasses!
I've replaced the 'net images of the 2004 German DVD release of King Kong
with actual scans of the packaging. In addition to the wrap and disc, a two-sided
insert was included inside.
In 1976, Polydor France released a disco tune called "King Kong Is Back Again,"
by Century Orchestra. It was released as a 7-inch, vinyl single. The song
is available to hear on YouTube. I've embedded the link on the
Songs & Sheet Music page.
2024-06-03
I attended a convention over the weekend and found a vendor who had this
UK puzzle, which I'd never seen before. Naturally, I had to add it to my
collection (fortunately, the price was right.) There were apparently two more
King Kong puzzles produced in the UK.
It has been added to the
Jigsaw Puzzles page.
Greg Plonowski sent me some high-res scans of the packaging for the
Paramount 4K UHD release from 2024! They've been added to the
Home Video Releases page.
The owner of the Facebook page Drawbridge Of The Castle shared this
scan of an article from an Icelandic newspaper! This article is part
of the hype about Kong being a giant mechanical robot. An English
translation of the article is also available.
The scans have been added to the
Newspaper Articles page.
Starpics was a magazine published in Thailand, and a 1977 issue featured
King Kong on the cover and over twenty pages of King Kong
content. After watching copies on eBay for a couple of years, I finally saw
one listed that wasn't ludicrously overpriced.
The King Kong content has been added to the Magazine Articles page.
I finally picked up a copy of the December 12, 1976, issue of the
oversized UK magazine Observer, which featured Kong on the cover
and a brief photo article inside.
It has been added to the Magazine Articles page.
John Harrison sent me scans of an article he wrote about King Kong
collectibles for the Australian magazine Collectable Traders in
2013.
It has been added to the Magazine Articles page.
A recent eBay auction featured a UK DVD that was apparently a promotional
release in conjunction with the UK newspaper The Sun. I tried to buy
it, but it was gone before I could. However, the seller helpfully provided
scans of the front and back, which I've added to the
Home Video Releases page.
A recent eBay auction featured pages about Kong Kong from the
February 11, 1977, edition of Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper.
The price was exorbitant, but the seller helpfully included decent scans
of the cover and the two-page article. The scans have been added to the
Newspaper Articles page.
I've also added an article about Jim Danforth resigning from the Academy
in protest of the Academy Award presented to King Kong.
Finally, I've sorted the newspaper articles by date.
I also picked up a copy of the August 1977 issue of the Italian magazine
Corrier Boy, which featured a King Kong "mini-poster."
It has been added to the Magazine Articles page.
Thanks to Google Translate, I've added English translations of the booklets
that were included in the Brazilian and Japanese Blu-ray releases, which
can be seen on the Home Video Releases 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!
