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The Big Ape part three- The 1950s

13 Jul

July 13, 2011

from July 3, 2007

The 1950s in America were years of prosperity and paranoia. Rural life and racism. The post-war boom may have brought in an era of technology but it brought with it the Red Menace and McCarthyism.

Not surprisingly, The Big Ape fought them both.

The Big Ape Vs. The Red Menace (1954) was put out by All-American Films, which was actually owned by the Boy Scouts of America. In this one, The Big Ape, under presidential orders, infiltrated Moscow to show America the perils of communism. It was a smash, but of course all Big Ape films were smashes.

The Big Ape Vs. McCarthyism (1956) was a puppet show put on by protestors on the White House lawn.

1951 saw the release of the first of many Big Ape comedy albums. “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, Jerk” was an attempt by Bob Hope to dispel his good-guy image work with the raunchy jokes he loved. Hope had always harbored a secret desire to do dirty material, but working on the radio, and later TV and film, meant that he had to work clean and he did very well with his family-friendly act. In truth, Bob Hope was the nastiest man alive. Ask anyone who saw his Vegas lounge act. He knew, though, that releasing an album of dirty material would put an end to the gravy-train, so he decided to do it in the way guaranteed to make the most money while protecting his identity- he credited the album to The Big Ape and appeared on the cover wearing a tuxedo and gorilla mask. Only years after his death did the truth come out.

The comedy albums were but one type of record put out by The Big Ape. Motion picture soundtracks, original Broadway recordings, children’s songs, all were sung by The Big Ape. In 2005 the cast recording of West Side Story from 1959 featuring The Big Ape as Riff sold for $12,350, and a recording of him singing The Mikado went for $8,000. Even an LP of him covering Beatles tunes from the early 70s sold for $850.

Another notable Big Ape fact is that John Wayne earned $195,000 to play the title role in The Big Ape Goes Ape (1959) Wayne had always loved the Ape and wanted to play the Ape at any cost. Any cost to the studio, that is. There was no way that the pairing of the biggest western star and the biggest simian star could be done for less than big star salary. Wayne’s ego didn’t end there. Although the role meant that he would be masked, and Wayne was well aware of that, he still wanted his face to bee seen in the film, forever associating, at least in his mind, The Big Ape and John Wayne. To accomplish this, a lengthy prologue was added to the film. Wayne played Professor John Ape who, in the opening minutes, worked hard on perfecting the potion that would allow him to, in his words “become a giant ape, Pilgrim.” It was never explained why he wanted to become a giant ape, but that’s what he wanted and that’s what he got. But it wasn’t enough for Wayne to be seen in the beginning of the film unmasked, he actually wanted to share some scenes with The Big Ape. It was calmly explained that it would be impossible- after all, he was The Big Ape. So John Wayne, displaying none of the calm and grace that would serve him well in countless feature films, threw a tantrum and threatened to quit. Desperate to keep him (Why they would bother is up for debate. Every Ape film made a fortune.) the producers came up with an ingenious device in which Wayne would also play The Big Ape’s conscience, thereby allowing him and the Ape to appear together via split screen.

Film critic Jeffrey Lane:

            To say that America was having a love-affair with The Big Ape was an understatement. Look at these facts:

 One: Leave it to Beaver, a show about a suburban family whose young son may or may not have been legally stupid guest-starred The Big Ape forty-seven times. Forty-seven!

 Two: The Big Ape co-hosted the Academy Awards twice, once with Audrey Hepburn and once with Marlon Brando, both of whom complained of being overshadowed by the Ape.

 Three: The Big Ape was voted the state symbol of both New York and Colorado. This is why New York is called the Big Ape-le.

           The simple truth is that The Ape was a bigger star than anyone had ever seen before.

“Bigger” was an understatement. In 1953 Rocco Movie Co. was determined to feature the biggest-sized Big Ape in any movie. In Planet Big Ape, The Big Ape was so big he was actually larger than the Earth, and when our planet was destroyed by atomic radiation humanity had to blast off into outer space and colonize The Big Ape.

Sure the plots were silly. Sure the acting was atrocious. Sure the scripts were often bizarre and often The Big Ape only received a few seconds of screen time. If it had The Big Ape’s furry mug it was a hit.

Because of this, in 1958, serious thought was given to drafting Bradford B. Jacobs into the presidential race.

Bradford B. Jacobs, as quoted in Time Magazine, April 25th, 1971:

            So I was coming home from a little trip abroad and I got a phone call from some state legislator, Buck somebody-or-other. (NOTE: This was Bradford’s controversial goodwill visit to North Korea.) Asked if I wanted to be President. I said hell no! You see, I couldn’t afford the pay cut. I was supporting a staff of literally hundreds, not to mention a few ex-wives by this time. Sure, I worth at least a few billion dollars, but do you know how fast I spent money? I once paid Marilyn Monroe $50,000 just to sing “Happy Birthday” to JFK. And they all thought she was sleeping with him. She was sleeping with me!

Bradford had a profile unmatched in American culture before or since.

While he didn’t run for office, he acted like he was. He would make appearances at sporting events to throw out the first pitch. He went around kissing babies (and, very often, their mothers.) He chartered a train and made whistle-stop tours of the country. Invariably, his message was the same: “Buy my stuff.”

Meanwhile, not everything with The Big Ape in it was poor quality. In this era, there were some true cinematic triumphs. Foreign cinema, especially, would make true art house films starring The Big Ape. (It should be noted that most of the time, there was very little mention of the actor beneath the mask. This infuriated Liberace, who portrayed The Big Ape as a young piano prodigy in 1959s Clefs, Keys, and The Big Ape.)

This is a partial list of famous actors who played The Big Ape in the 1950s, according to BigApeOnline.com:

  •  John Wayne
  • Audie Murphy
  • Elizabeth Taylor
  • Bob Denver
  • Cantiflas
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Phil Silvers
  • Milton Berle
  • Orson Welles
  • Lucille Ball

As the 1950s ended and America looked ahead to the 60s, America readied itself for an era of change. Two things would be a constant in the coming years: The Big Ape and Bradford B. Jacobs.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART FOUR: THE BIG APE BECOMES GROOVY

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The Big Ape part two- The 1940s

12 Jul

July 12, 2011

from July 2, 2007

Bradford B. Jacobs had sold the movie rights to The Big Ape. Literally anyone with a camera could make a Big Ape film because the rights had become so muddied and legally entangled that it was virtually public domain. Bradford didn’t care. He was richer than he could ever imagine and set to become even richer.

Although he sold the movie rights, he still maintained the merchandising rights. As the 1940’s opened there was a Big Ape merchandising bonanza in the making. Unlike other fictional characters, The Big Ape appealed universally. Men, women, children, of all ages loved the Ape and, more importantly, were willing to spend money on him. Businessmen wore Big Ape neckties. Women wore Big Ape embroidered skirts. Children went to school with Big Ape lunchboxes and read from Big Ape textbooks. Even the normally staid Wall Street investor was likely to be seen with a Big Ape pen and pencil set.

There were Big Ape comic books, Big Ape silverware sets, Big Ape costumes, dolls, toys of every type and even expensive Big Ape diamond jewelry. During this time, The Big Ape  also conquered the world of television, hosting The Big Ape Variety Hour. Although TV, still in it’s infancy, was only in a handful of homes, it seemed as though everyone tuned in at 9 pm on the DuMont Network every Thursday evening. Long before The Cosby Show, this was Must See TV.

Films, however, were where The Big Ape shown the brightest. It should be noted, however, that because there was no one central force overseeing The Big Ape, his characterization often varied wildly from film to film. In some he could talk. In others he could fly. In still others he was average height while in others he was over 100 feet tall. The lack of consistency did not deter the audience. Nearly every single one of The Big Ape films produced in this era made huge amounts of money at the box office.

What follows is a list of some of the more notable Big Ape films of the 1940s.

The Big Ape Meets Hitler (1942) This was a propaganda film produced by the U.S. War Department. The Big Ape went behind enemy lines to kill Hitler. In this movie, The Big Ape was portrayed by a marine in a regular uniform, plus a gorilla mask.

The Big Ape Vs. The Little Dinosaur (1944) Largely played for laughs, The Big Ape found himself shrunk down to microscopic size to fight a similarly shrunken dinosaur.

The Big Ape Vs. Doctor Verlucci (1946) Astor Pictures had produced a very popular series of Doctor Verlucci movies in the 1930s and early 1940s. Doctor Verlucci was a scientist who often tried to dominate the world with assorted death rays and giant robots. After six films, the series had run its course. Doctor Verlucci was a villain and again and again he would get to the brink of victory when the hero would finally defeat him in the last reel. The public had just had enough. Looking to turn their fortunes around, the producers turned Doctor Verlucci into a hero and made The Big Ape his nemesis. To show how evil The Ape was, he wore a handlebar mustache and tied a girl to the railroad tracks.

Gorilla of Doom (1947) Wearing a space suit, The Big Ape came from Mars to steal all of Earth’s bananas.

Throughout the 1940s, The Big Ape could be seen virtually anywhere. Bradford B. Jacobs, however, could not. Bradford was busy with first the war effort, then post-war European reconstruction.

General Bruce E. Freedkin, from his Congressional testimony before the HUAC:

            There wasn’t another man like Bradford B. Jacobs. No sir, he was a patriot. Whether it was the bullets he sold the army or the rafts he sold the navy, no one did more for victory than that man. I personally  remember when he visited the front. He brought with him enough ammunition for every soldier to fight for another month. And if the soldiers couldn’t afford the ammo, he was ready to offer a generous line of credit.

While it wouldn’t be accurate to call Bradford B. Jacobs a war profiteer, it wouldn’t be all that far off. While he never sold anything to the enemy, he did keep close at hand a German-English dictionary, “if the need should ever arise.”

During this time he also met the man who would become his right hand. Literally. For a brief period of time Bradford refused to touch anything with his right hand. This was due to a Chinese fortune cookie which Bradford very badly misinterpreted. Reggie Van Der Leek could always be found at the right of Jacobs ready to do anything from shake a hand to lift a fork. This made for some very interesting meals, but BBJ, as Van Der Leek referred to him, was so filthy rich that no one would say a word.

Reggie Van Der Leek eventually became an executive of Jacobs Colossal Studios. JCS had evolved from making pictures to making supplies for the military to making whatever else Bradford could make a few bucks on. Reggie worked very closely with Jacobs as the years went on.

Reggie Van Der Leek, interviewed from his West Texas rest home in 2006:

           Man whee-oh, that BBJ was weird. He insisted on calling everybody “Buck.” I was with him when he met the President and he said “watch it Buck, you’re blocking the buffet.” Hee, we all had a laugh. The President, he wasn’t so amused, but BBJ was more popular with the public so he had to shut up. I once saw a poll around 1948 or so that said that ol’ BBJ would win the Presidency if he ran, so that took the wind out of ol’ Buck’s sails a might.

            Yeah, the public loved BBJ. Of course, he gave them The Big Ape, an’ that woulda been enough for any man, but not ol’ BBJ. He personally came out every Thanksgiving an’ shot a turkey for a poor family. On February ninth it was the anniversary of some relative of his, some ol’ Civil War hero or something. He’d get up in this gray Confederate uniform an’ take out this ol’ rifle an’ take the whole crew down to his family’s ol’ home in Jacobs Landing, West Virginia or someplace. Bought the town presents. Every gol-darned person there got an autographed Big Ape glossy photo.

Reggie wasn’t exaggerating about “the whole crew.” Bradford surrounded himself with a  group of leeches and hangers-on that would make Elvis jealous. (When the two met in 1965, Elvis would profess his jealousy over Bradford’s crew in person.) Many of the people around Bradford had a legitimate business purpose. There were people whose sole job was to film his every move. There were other’s whose sole job was to film the people filming Bradford. There were still other’s whose sole job was to film the people were in the general area of Bradford while he was being filmed. This was not paranoia- in 1948 a crazed Big Ape fan tried to kill Bradford because he imagined that The Big Ape was ordering him to kill.

Other people around Bradford were there because they either amused Bradford, or Bradford thought they might amuse him in the future, or they had amused him in the past.

Bradford also became the host of Gravesend Radio Theater, hosting a series of spooky stories aired over WOR in New York. He didn’t need the money, he did it because he thought it would be fun. In fact, Bradford was motivated by only three things- money, fun, and money, in that order.

As the 1940s ended and the 1950s began, both Bradford B. Jacobs and The Big Ape were poised to make even bigger splashes.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART THREE: THE ADORING PUBLIC

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