IT WASN'T THE AIRPLANES THAT GOT HIM; IT WAS HOLLYWOOD

By Peter Vuono,

     This year I paid a little more attention than I usually do to the Oscars because for decades I've been an Asian action fan. If movie goers only knew how many times Michelle Yeoh risked her life and safety in Hong Kong cinema, they would agree that she would deserve an Oscar for that alone! I've been a fan of Ke Huy Kwan's for sometime even though I've never seen the "Goonies" or ANY Indiana Jones movie! When Kwan called himself Jonathan Ke Kwan he was looking for work after Indiana and took on a humble American made martial arts film in 1991. Although "Breathing Fire" needed a little work in the script it was a martial arts fan's delight and Ke Huy Kwan displayed skills in both acting and martial arts abilities.

      Although I was very happy for these two heroes, I became somewhat despondent over the fact that my skills, meager as they are, never took me further than the plateaus that I took them to. However, I thought about it and soon realized that there is much more to the dreams of glitz and glamour surrounding Hollywood than meets the eye. Oftentimes dreams are shattered by disappointment and pain. One of the many good examples of this was the life of super animator Willis O'Brien.

    O'brien, who was born in 1886, was a renaissance man in every sense of the word. He was a bartender, farm hand, cowboy, rodeo rider, newspaper sports illustrator and pro boxer with a 9 and 1 record!  Somewhere along the way he became proficient in animation and with the models of Marcel Delgado he was hired to do the animation for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lost World" in 1925.

    This opened the door for O'Brien to do what would become one of Hollywood's most iconic films "King Kong" in 1932. RKO had been struggling financially and was about to go under but the amazing success of "Kong" pulled it out of it's financial mire. Shortly after, calamity struck O'Brien. His estranged wife, Hazel, shot to death both of her and O'Brien's sons; one of whom was blind. She turned the gun on herself but was unsuccessful in her attempt. She would spend a year in a prison hospital until she succumbed.

     O'Brien would later remarry and he and his wife Darlyne would stay together until his death. After making "Son of Kong", O'Brien, with the help of friend Ray Harryhausen, animated "Mighty Joe Young" and won the coveted Oscar in 1950. From here, tragedy would touch his professional life until his death.

    O'Brien and Darlyne wrote a beautiful story entitled "Emilio and Geluso". It was a story of a Mexican boy who would raise a bull from it's infancy and together they would save their village from a rampaging Allosaurus. The story was sold to producer/animators William and Edward Nassour. Before production could start the story idea was stolen from someone in RKO. Black listed writer Dalton Trumbo rewrote the script and the purloined idea won an Oscar in 1956 under the new name of "The Brave Ones".

    The Nassour brothers sued for plagiarism for $750,00 and won a settlement out of court. Neither O'Brien nor his wife received a single credit or penny from their Oscar winning idea. Still on good terms with the Nassours, O'Brien sold another idea to them of a cowboy vs. dinosaur movie called "The Beast of Hollow Mountain", contingent on them hiring O'Brien to do the animation.

   When production time arrived, the Nassours reneged on their agreement and did the animation  themselves not allowing O'Brien into the studio. Cheated again, O'Brien struggled to keep his head above water with low budget productions such as the "Black Scorpion" and "The Giant Behemoth", which was made in the garage of his assistant Pete Peterson.

   O'Brien was desperate to come up with another hit and came up with an idea pitting the two greatest movie monsters against one another - "King Kong vs. Frankenstein". He approached the studio that he alone rescued from bankruptcy, RKO and specifically to producer John Beck to pitch the idea. Beck assured O'Brien that he would let O'Brien know of any developments in his idea.

   It was 1962 and shortly before his death, O'Brien would read in trade magazines that Beck stole his idea, approached Toho Productions in Japan and developed "King Kong Vs. Godzilla" in 1963. A final act of chicanery towards one of history's greatest artists by a company that he alone rescued in 1932.

   O'Brien would die peacefully seated in his arm chair on Nov. 8, 1962. His idea, later in 2021 would be remade and grossed 470.1 million at the box office. without he or his estate receiving a dollar or a credit.

   Willis O'Brien's tragic life kept this author grounded that behind the glitz, glamour, tinsel , fame and fortune of Hollywood, there sometimes lies pain, suffering and despair. Perhaps it's better for us that we take whatever talent we have and apply it to our families, friends and community.

   In the final scene of the 1932 "King Kong", a police officer stands over the body of Kong and says to producer Carl Denham, "I guess the airplanes got him". To which Denham answers, "No, it wasn't the airplanes that got him. It was beauty, killed the beast". In like manner, it wasn't the airplanes that killed the dreams and life of Willis O'Brien; it was Hollywood.

REFERENCE: Tyrant Magazine Jan/Feb 1995, Wilmington Vt. Stephen R. Bissette