It’s been quite a while since I lastposted a 'ShukerNature Picture of the Day', but this particular photographseemed an ideal candidate for such a role, especially as it's one that I've beenmeaning to blog about for ages, so here it is, together with what I've managedto uncover concerning its nothing if not visually striking subject.

Needless to say, had I encountered thispicture recently I would probably have simply assumed it to be an AI-generatedimage and therefore may not have investigated it, as the head was certainly far too big to be from any type of anatomically-feasible primate, even one of the cryptozoological kind.

In reality, however, I firstencountered it online some years ago (on Wikipedia, if memory serves mecorrectly), and its arresting appearance was such that I decided to do whateverI could to identify exactly what it depicted and where it had originated. Hereis what I discovered.

As indicated by this present ShukerNaturepost's tongue-in-cheek title, parodying the biblical Salome's imperious demand toKing Herod Antipas for John the Baptist's head (served on a platter, which it dulywas!), I had initially wondered whether this public-domain photo may have beenin some way related to the original, classic King Kong monster movie released by RKO Radio Pictures in spring1933, directed by Marian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and starring FayWray alongside this movie's titular stop-motion mega-star created by celebratedanimator Willis H. O'Brien. Perhaps it was a spare giant ape head for close-upshots, or used for publicity purposes?

Although that idea ultimately provedfalse, I suspect that it nonetheless contains an element of relevance to thelatter movie. For what I finally found out was that the object in this photo isactually a gaff, in this instance specifically a stage prop that had featured in a major pantomime performed just a fewmonths after the release of King Kong,so it seems possible that the prop was inspired by this film, which had proved sucha massive hit worldwide earlier that same year.

 

According to an unidentified, tantalizingly-briefnewspaper report published on 11 December 1933 that had contained the photo, whatit depicted was a 4.5-ft-tall giant ape or monkey head made from cardboard andpaper (NOT from the remains of any real, dead animal) that had been speciallyconstructed by a stage props company for a pantomime staged in Glasgow,Scotland, during the winter 1933/34 pantomime season.

Sadly, the report gave no furtherdetails, not even naming the pantomime in question or the theatre where it wasstaged. According to the Panto Archive website's comprehensive listing ofGlasgow pantomime venues and productions (click here to view the entire list), the onlypantomime staged in Glasgow during the 1933/34 season was 'Babes In The Wood',at the Theatre Royal, and featuring veteran Scottish music hall comedian TommyLorne (1890-1935) as its principal star.

Perhaps, therefore, the giant monkey/apehead had appeared in it in the capacity of a guardian to the babes abandoned inthe wood, or possibly as a comic bogeyman-type character. This is onlyspeculation on my part, however, as I have been unable to discover any furtherinformation concerning either the head itself or the pantomime in which itappeared, but I did succeed in locating a second newspaper photo of it. Dating fromthe same period, but this time showing the head of a man inside the prop's gapingmouth and a woman standing alongside it, this second photo can be accessed here. I wonder if this eyecatching effigy still survives somewhere, stored away, perhaps, in the vaults of some theatre or stage props provider?

At any rate, we can all be reassured now by thecomforting knowledge that somewhere deep within the cloud-shrouded Skull Islandof make-believe movie-land, the real King Kong is still striding majestically throughhis stop-motion domain with his huge head held high, still firmly attached to hismighty neck and shoulders, whereas, tragically, the same cannot be said for Johnthe Baptist's.

Speaking of Skull Island: be sure to click here to read my full review of the more recent King Kong-starring monster movie Kong: Skull Island in my film review blog, Shuker In MovieLand.