Metro's Monster Model For 1961
MGM Offers Its Initial Trade Ad on 1-23-61 for Gorgo |
The producing King Brothers had made thirty-eight pictures since 1940. Gorgo would be their thirty-ninth. Herman, Frank, and Maurice mastered whatever genres made money, and lately, that was science-fiction. Gorgo went before cameras in September 1959 and was nearly a year finishing. The Kings were a corporation with, according to sales whiz Herman, 1800 stockholders. A deal was locked for Metro release in May 1960, Gorgo being shot on MGM-British stages in addition to locations (Variety called it "a British quota pic"). Metro had large
The Company Gorgo Kept: Metro's Line-Up For 1961 |
Herman told trades that he and brothers financed Gorgo entirely on their own and that Metro was merely a distributor in worldwide territories outside
The Gorgo Delegation, Each With a Pressbook, Getting Ready To Hear From Merchandising Mastermind Terry Turner |
I've spoken of Terry Turner before. He was, in brief, a showmanship genius. There ought to be books about him instead of yet more on names pounded to death in print. Turner was largely what made King Kong's 1952 revival click. He'd do the same for The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms a year later. TT tuned Godzilla's stateside engine and helped
It Wasn't Really a World Premiere, But Japan Was a Long Way Off, So Who'd Know? |
Snow's On The Ground, But That Won't Deter Crowds From Seeing Gorgo in Philadelphia |
The Fox Theatre's Window Display |
Milgram had three other theatres nearby, and each plugged Gorgo. Two twenty-foot cutouts of the beast with flashing red eyes sat atop the Fox's marquee. Kable News, which printed Famous Monsters Of Filmland magazine, tied up with Philly's United News Company to put a special issue featuring Gorgo at all newsstands serviced by United, thirty trucks emblazoned with Gorgo advertising and reference to Famous Monsters out on streets. It was neither the first nor last time FM would team with merchandisers of a scare film. Gorgo's pressbook tendered James Warren's address to those showmen who'd care to stock copies. So why such extraordinary effort in
Gorgo's stand in
Said spots were essential to sell monsters. Without them, you'd be sunk, a lesson going back to King Kong's 1952 play-off. Boxoffice takes were offset by large amounts pumped into broadcast promotion, and that was never cheap. To such well-oiled machinery, someone had to throw a wrench, and in this case, it was copy-cats Jim Nicholson and Sam Arkoff (or was it Metro and the Kings copying them?). American-International's answer to Gorgo was Konga, also England-made and by Herman Cohen, a live wire independent who knew his monster market cold, having peddled cheapies through AIP over recent seasons. Whatever good will Gorgo engendered, Konga would demolish, him the ape-skin Goofus to Gorgo's Gallant. Producer Cohen got benefit of the Eady Plan as did the Kings, and half of dough was put up by Anglo-Amalgamated, set to distribute in
The Bitter and The Sweet, with a Free Ruler as Reward for Attending |
12 Comments:
Ironically, Charlton Comics licensed both Gorgo and Konga for comic books and both were drawn by Steve Ditko, better known for Spider-man. Those comics are being reprinted in two hardcover volumes as Steve Ditko's Monsters. The first volume, featuring Gorgo is already out and the second, featuring Konga, is out in May.
Did not know about that, Mark. Thanks for the info.
A Charlton "Gorgo" comic in hardback ... boggles the mind.
The Monarch book of GORGO knocked me for double loop as it contained the first heavy duty sex I encountered in a book as a kid. Wow! I wonder how many other kids had their minds exploded by it. Sex scenes that had nothing to do with the movie seemed to be a big feature of such books.
As for the movie, GORGO was, is and always will be one of my favorites.
Dan Mercer speaks to the Gorgo-Famous Monsters tie-in:
It's interesting that M-G-M would have sought a tie in with "Famous Monsters of Filmland" for the "Gorgo" release. The problem, however, with sending orders for promotional materials to Mr. James Warren of Philadelphia, is that he would refer them to his Captain Company subsidiary, and the show would be long gone before they were delivered. Or maybe it was just the opposite, and thousands of children across the land were disappointed because of Mr. Warren's divided loyalties. "I have an order here from a little boy in Levittown, but he shall have to wait until I have taken care of this 'Gorgo' business."
I am that little boy from Levittown, and I am still waiting.
Daniel
I ordered a ton of stuff from Captain Company and got all of it. Not so fortunate with ordering from CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN.
This is the first time I heard of someone not getting their order from Warren.
There is, of course, nothing worse for a kid nor an adult. I bought back issues and all of their masks. Had a great time on Hallowe'en with the masks. My home town in New Brunswick, Canada, had never seen anything like it. Myself and some friends literally scared the yell out of everyone who saw us. The town talked about that night for months.
I ordered the back issues I'd missed (only 8 issues) in 4 installments and received 3 of them. I never got my order of issues #1 and #4. To this day those are the only issues I've never owned, and, of course, they're the rarest of them all.
I bought the paperback of GORGO and dropped it on the living room coffee table. My mom picked it up, shaking her head at yet more monster stuff. Then she browsed the pages and, after a while, said to me, "you're not planning on reading this, are you?" I said, "no, I just wanted it for the cool cover." She said, "Good," and handed it to me. So, of course, I went straight to my room and read it. Hot stuff!
I loved GORGO and still do. Saw it when new at my local movie house and then again at the drive-in some 44+ days later (44 days was the usual required gap between a hardtop and an outdoor showing).
One of the big things we moppets liked about GORGO was that mama monster and offspring walked away into THE END credits instead of meeting a ghostly demise.
"One of the big things we moppets liked about GORGO was that mama monster and offspring walked away into THE END credits instead of meeting a ghostly demise."
You said it. That came about because Eugene Lourie's son cried for the dinosaurs after seeing the earlier films. Lourie decided to make another one to put a smile on his son's face instead of tears.
Eugene Lourie kept making the same dinosaur movie over again, was pretty darn good each time. Love that Basil Gogos cover for Famous Monsters...one of his earliest I believe!
Speaking of Charlton, the ad for the Monarch tie-in paperback has the address of Capitol Distribution Company in Derby, CT - which is where Charlton was based (and CDC distributed Charlton's magazines and comics).
In your research on promotion for Gorgo, did you ever run across photos or references to a 13' statue? I'm helping with the restoration of a 13' statue that resembles Gorgo, but we don't yet know why it was made.
Pretty much everything I was able to find in the pressbook and in trades was included in this post, which of course was published nine years ago, so it is very possible other images and info have turned up since then.
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