The fur problem

So, at the Ray Harryhausen In Person event we got to ask questions, and I had fortunately thought one up. I knew the story about KING KONG and the fur problem. Animator Willis H. O’Brien (Obie) made a test reel for the 1933 KONG and was very nervous about the results because he had encountered a problem with the gorilla puppet — Kong’s fur got moved about by Obie’s fingers manipulating the puppet, so that when the film was run, although the figure moved in a lifelike-for-1933 way (everything was jerkier back then — look at Herbert Hoover) the fur shimmered and flickered about, betraying the impression of the animators fingertips. Obie showed the footage to producer Merian C. Cooper, fearing the worst.

But Cooper was delighted — “You even got his fur rippling in the breeze!”

In later films with animated furry creatures, like MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, on which Harryhausen did most of the animation, with Obie as supervisor, the fur does NOT ripple to the same extent. So I asked, “How did you solve the fur problem?” I presumed there WAS an answer…

“Unborn calf skin,” said Ray H. It seems that while Kong was coated with rabbit fur, which is very fine, later apes and other shaggy beasts got unborn calf skin, which is even finer and has a natural tendency to spring back into place, and could be rubberized. Also, Harryhausen would operate the puppets mainly from the back to minimise visible alteration of the fur.

It’s a little grisly, but now we know.