NEIL ARNOLD: Some Kent Snippets

G. Howell’s A Kentish Notebook of 1891 records the following stories:

The Gravesend Mermaid
‘Real Wonders!’ At Gravesend – Exhibition August 1825 – ‘A Gravesender visited these wonders (in relation to beautiful dolphins, a learned pig etc) in company with his children and saw the Mermaid, which, he says, “was about 2-ft high”, and had one arm, the other having been cut off and sold. The woman who exhibited it, declared to me it was no imposition that it had been inspected, very minutely, in London, by professional gentlemen and that it was pronounced to be a Mermaid.

A Kentish Swordfish
November 10th 1888 – Capture of a swordfish at Sittingbourne – Long Reach, Milton Creek, caught by a bargeman , 5-ft, 2” from tip of tail to tip of sword. Possibly in pursuit of a whale seen at Gillingham – trying to find its way to the Mediterranean or the Atlantic.

A Sea Eel
1761 – A sea eel, 6-ft long, 20 inches round and weighing 30lb was lately taken in a shallow water, where it had been left by the tide at Whitstable…

A Conger Eel
October 1760 – A conger eel was lately taken in the River Medway near Romney Marsh, which measured 7-ft, 6 ½ inches, and in circumference 2-ft 9” and ¾ with a weight of 56 lbs.

Sperm Whale
February 1762 – Sperm whale 61-ft in length at Broadstairs.
December 1764 – A Spermaceti whale was thrown ashore on the flats at Seasalter, nr Whistable – 54 ft in length, 38-ft in girth at its broadest point.

Autumn 1854 – forty to fifty young whales at the Thames at Gravesend – proceeded until (?). One struck by steamer paddle. All travelled down river.

More monster fish stories to come…

ROBERT SCHNECK PRESENTS: Mermaids and Mermen Part Two

Robert Schneck wrote: This is an article called 'Mermaids and Mermen' by Edward VIzetelly, that appeared in The English Illustrated Magazine No. 209, February 1901. Some of the accounts are familiar; others are not; and it's well illustrated. Hope you can use it.

We can indeed run it Robert, and ran the first part yesterday. Here is part two.

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES:SOME NOTES ON THE MERMAID PART TWO

Hello again!

Today I`m continuing my extracts from The Deep Deep Ocean concerning knowledge of animals thought to be related to the mermaid. Unless you are a believer in the mermaid, this gives a view of the distribution of seals and dugongs (?) or other similar animals around the British Isles several hundred years ago.

'Two years later [than 1556, see Part One of this blog] there is another printed notice of “a moste true and marvellous strange wonder, the lyke hathe seldom been seene, of xvii monstrous fishes, taken in Suffulke, at Downham Brydge, within a myle of Ipswiche, the xi daye of October,in the yeare of our Lorde God 1568 [I love this olde worlde language! Anyone for a Facebook Group? Let uss revivee olde worlde English?] Stow, in his “Annales,” gives a particular description of this “wondrous draught of fishes” some of them being “eight and twentie foote in length at least”.'

Woolfe, in 1586, printed a broadside containing an account of a monster fish found in the stomach of a horse! The registers of the Stationers` Company contain an entry in 1604 of 'a strange reporte of a monstrous fish that appeared in the form of a woman from the waist upwards, seene in the sea.'

Even in 1822 a so-called mermaid was publicly exhibited in London, and continued to be shown to the curious in these matters for many months. But the monster was found to have been constructed of the members of various animals, dexterously put together. Some amusing lines appeared at the period, which I will transcribe:

There then appear 5 verses, I will mention the first and last below:

'Come, mistress mermaid, tell us, for you`ve seen
The deeps and things proud Science pines to see;
Be kind, and say if you have ever been
In worlds the poets deck with imagery.
Say, as you floated on the green sea`s billow,
Didst e`er see Neptune`s car, or Amphitrite`s pillow?...

'Farewell, dumb thing! perhaps the next we find
So long a time may not require to woo,
`T will speak, perchance, and haply prove most kind,
And tell us all we`ve useless sought of you-
Rare information yielding on the morning
She`s clapped within the glass case you`re adorning.' (1)

1. W.Jones The Broad Broad Ocean p.266-267

Talking Heads Air

Air…Air
Hit me in the face
I run faster,
Faster into the air
(I say to myself)
What is happening to my skin?
Where is that protection that I needed?
Air can hurt you too
Air can hurt you too
Some people say not to worry about the air
Some people never had experience with….

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: SOME NOTES ON THE MERMAID PART ONE

These notes are taken from an old book The Broad Broad Ocean by someone I only know as `W. Jones` and they concern even older notes (from 1566 onwards) concerning the mermaid as being in reality the Dugong or a related animal:

But first I will mention the Stellerus (Stellers Sea Cow?):

“Only one species of the Stellerus – of the same genus as the two I have mentioned – has been known, about twenty-five feet in length, a native of the Polar seas, and never observed since the middle of the last (i.e 18th) century,so that it is supposed to be extinct. The characteristic features of this animal would lead one to suppose,also,that it may have contributed to the misconceptions about the mermaid.

Mr Rimbault, in “Notes and Queries”,remarks that the exhibition of strange fishes appears to have been at its height in the reign of Elizabeth. Shakespeare twice alludes to it: once in the “Winter`s Tale” ( Act IV .,Scene 3) ,where Autolycus says: “Here`s another ballad of a fish that appeared upon the coast on Wednesday, the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathoms above water, and sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids. It was thought she was a woman, and was turned into a cold fish, for she would no exchange flesh with one that loved her. The ballad is very pitiful and true.” And again in “the Tempest” (Act II Scene 2) A printed notice, dated 1566, has for its title “The Description of a Rare or rather Most Monstrous Fishe, taken on the East Coast of Holland, the 17th November, Anno 1566, with a woodcut of the fish, and underneath the following lines:

“The workes of God,how great and strange they be!
A picture plaine,behold, heare you may see.” (1)

To be continued….


1. W. Jones The Broad, Broad Ocean (date?) pp 265-266

Bob Dylan Idiot Wind

Someone`s got it in for me,they`re planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they`d cut it out quick but when they will I can only guess
They said I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me
I can`t help it if I`m lucky…

IN PHENOMENA MAGAZINE THIS MONTH

In this month's issue of Messrs Mera and Sadler's online magazine there are a lot of things of interest to readers of this bloggo. These include big cat research reports, the latest on Lloyd Pye's ongoing starchild project and some stuff about mermaids. For details, email sadler_dave@yahoo.co.uk

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A MERMAID AND WINGED CATS IN MADAGASCAR

Dear friends,

Muirhead`s Mysteries will be appearing in a somewhat different format from now on. It will be appearing every other day, i. e. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. This is due to the pressure of other commitments.

Our first story today is about a mermaid. Nothing particularly unusual about that, I hear you say (yes I have exceptional hearing, whether you`re in Heywood, Woolsery, or anywhere!). However, this one was white, which rather rules out many animals it could be. The story is from the Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, Nebraska) May 4th 1890:

'HERE`S A MERMAID AT LAST. W. W. Stanton, mate of the schooner Addie Schaefler, now lying at the Market House dock, while fishing for bass 300 miles off St.Augustine, drew in his line, and found entangled therein the strangest fish, if it is a fish, that has ever been caught, says a Jacksonville (Fla) dispatch to the New York Sun. This strange creature is about six feet long, pure white, and scaleless. The head and face are wonderfully human in shape and feature. The shoulders are well outlined, and very much resemble those of a woman, and the bosom is well defined and shows considerable development, while the hips and abdomen continue the human appearance. There are four flippers, two of which are placed at the lower termination of the body, and gave one the impression that nature made an effort to supply the strange creature with lower limbs. Mr Stanton confesses to quite a fright on first of his queer prize, which, on being drawn on board gave utterance to a low, moaning cry, which might easily have been mistaken for the sobbing of a baby.

'It is extremely unfortunate that Mr. Stanton did not succeed in keeping the creature alive, which he thinks might have been done, as the strange object lived two days after being taken. The schooner has been thronged all day by curious visitors, who express much wonder and astonishment at the strange object. Mr Stanton, after visiting several ports and showing his strange creature will donate it to the Smithsonian Institution. The fish or mermaid is in a large six-foot glass jar in alcohol' (1)

Could this have been a beluga, far beyond Arctic waters?

The next story dates from 16 years later and is even more improbable, if that were at all possible. It concerns winged cats in Madagascar as making an appearance in a letter to the New York Tribune of March 15th 1906: (Something tells me it is an elaborate hoax. You can judge.)

'Sir, Referring to your article in to-day`s paper, entitled “The Dog on Wheels” while it is extremely interesting as showing how the speed of animals may be accelerated by simple mechanical means it does not compare with the means which nature supplies to animals to adapt them to their environment, notably the winged cats with twisted tails like a screw, as found in Madagascar (which island, by the way, according to the researches made by Professor Russell Wallace *has flora and fauna found in no other country). These winged cats do not, like ours, prey on rats and mice, but exclusively on birds, and in order to secure their prey nature has provided them with wings like a bat, which are attached to their bodies directly over their front legs, and in addition they have spiral tails, which they revolve with a rapid motion to assist in their flight, and also to aid as a stearing apparatus, and they can in a few seconds soar to the top of the highest trees and capture birds twice there own size. Besides this, they are used by the natives as a kind of animated barometer, as before a storm they run about the fields flapping their wings and honking much as geese do now. Some two years ago a pair of these wonderful animals were imported by Professor Devoe, the weather prophet of Hackensack N. J. who is said to base all of his prognostications upon their movements and he has also bred from them a progeny which he sells off at a very high price, first of course giving ocular demonstrations of their power of flight to purchasers, but he has steadily refused to have them exhibited at the annual cat show held in this city, on the ground that it might reflect on his skill and veracity as an original weather prophet” “FITZ NIGLE”' (2)

* Russell Wallace co-operated with Darwin and was a spiritualist, amongst other things.

1 Omaha Daily Bee May 4th 1890 p.3
2 New-York Tribune March 15th 1906 p.7

Steeleye Span The Wife of Ushers Well

There lived a wife in Ushers Well
A wealthy wife was she
She had three stout and stalwart sons
And sent them o`er the sea
They had not been from Ushers Well
A week but barely one
When word came to this carlin wife
That her three sons were gone
I wish the wind may never cease
Nor flashes in the flood
Till my three sons return to me
In earthly flesh and blood..

Rich

LINDSAY SELBY: Mermaids on the Isle of Man

There are quite a few tales of mermaids from the Isle of Man, but as it is surrounded by sea it is logical that stories about sea creatures would abound. Here is one from 1891:

'The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore 1891

Waldron was surprised to find that the Manx actually believed in mermaids, and he gave several stories that they told him about them, as follows:--"During the time that Oliver Cromwell usurped the Government of England, few ships resorted to this Island, and that uninterruption and solitude of the sea gave the mermen and mermaids (who are enemies to any company but those of their own species) frequent opportunities of visiting the shore, where, in moonlight nights, they have been seen. to sit, combing their heads and playing with each other; but as soon as they perceived anybody coming near them, jumped into the water, and were out of sight immediately.

'Some people, who lived near the coast, having observed their behaviour, spread large nets made of small but very strong cords upon the ground, and watched at a convenient distance for their approach. The night they had laid this snare but one happened to come, who was no sooner sat down than those who held the strings of the net drew them with a sudden jerk, and enclosed their prize beyond all possibility of escaping. On opening the net, and examining their captive, by the largeness of her breasts and the beauty of her complexion, it was found to be a female. Nothing could be more lovely, more exactly formed in all parts above the waist, resembling a complete young woman, but below that all fish with fins and a huge spreading tail. She was carried to a house, and used very tenderly, nothing but liberty being denied. But though they set before her the best provision the place afforded, she would not be prevailed on to eat or drink, neither could they get a word from her, tho’ they knew these creatures were not without the gift of speech, having heard them talk to each other, when sitting regaling themselves on the seaside.'

They kept her in this manner three days, but perceiving she began to look very ill with fasting, and fearing some calamity would befall the Island if they should keep her till she died, they agreed to let her return to the element she liked best, and the third night set open their door, which, as soon as she beheld, she raised herself from the place where she was then lying, and glided, with incredible swiftness, on her tail to the seaside. They followed at a distance, and saw her plunge into the water, where she was met by a great number of her own species, one of whom asked what she had observed among the people of the earth,--"Nothing very wonderful," answered she, "but that they are so very ignorant as to throw away the water they have boiled eggs in."

Source where you can read it online for free:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/fim/fim07.htm

A STRANGE ONE

I have just received the following e-mail and I really have no idea what to make of it. I also have no idea what to reply:

Dear Sir

I have been an amateur cryptozoologist for 30 years yet find myself insufficiently informed to answer the intriguing question posed by my youngest grandchild this morning who, despite her few years, will not accept a fairy-story-type explanation. Could you help me at all, please? If a mermaid were to fall ill, would one treat it as a fish or a human? As facile as it sounds, this is a serious question.

Thank you very much

Yours sincerely

Sostratus Winston

I can only refer Mr Wilson to a section of one of C.S.Lewis's books when he describes centaurs as having both human and horselike metabolisms. However, as I strongly believe that merfolk are all either hoaxes, zooform in nature, or - at best - unidentified sirenians, the answer is probably that they should be treated as any other marine mammal. However, this is a very peculiar question with which to start the day...

"A NASTY MERMAID"

This set of pictures has been doing the rounds lately. It is supposedly of a dead mermaid found somewhere in the neotropics, but - despite being considerably more convincing than either the "Water Blackfella" picture or the ridiculous Quatari `goblin` - I am sure that I do not need to point out that this is a fake.


YES: A FAKE


However, I am getting quite interested in the aetiology of hoaxes. This one turned up twice in the same day in my e-mail inbox. Firstly on a crypto newsgroup, and secondly as an advert for a dating agency. You figure?


As I was posting them here, Emma was looking over my shoulder and said "Eeew its the nasty mermaid. That's just wrong" and shuddered. Apparently these pictures had been prominently displayed on one of the Mysterious Universe websites and had given her "the creeps".

But where did they come from? Whose logo is that in the bottom corner? When and why were they made? And why has it turned up now? I am intrigued.

GUEST BLOGGER NIGEL WRIGHT: The Exmouth Mermaid - the mystery deepens

However long one is in this weird game of being a paranormal journalist, things can still catch you out. So it is with the story of the Exmouth mermaid, as I reported in my last blog for this column. Now, one would think that, after twelve years or so of writing for a living, I would have leaned to double check my sources etc. Well, I have been somewhat caught out by this one! The story of the Exmouth mermaid of 1812 is, in its essence true, but the one thing that does not ring true is the illustration that accompanies it.

It all started due to a reader of the article asking me for a higher resolution copy of the picture. This is a perfectly fair request, and one that I was happy to oblige with. Upon deeper research on the net, I found that the picture involved almost perfectly matched a drawing of a mermaid, famous in cryptozoology circles, called the “Feejee” mermaid. This was exhibited by the famous showman Barnum, in the US in the 1840”s. “Odd!” I thought, so I dug even further. Now, this is where the tale darkens somewhat. What on earth was a picture of an 1840’s exhibit doing, illustrating a story in an 1822 newspaper? For a moment my mind raced with fantasies of time warps etc! Oh!..The follies of old age! But, I am sad to say, the answer lay in the timeline of the relic itself. Let’s have a look at that timeline:-

1822…an American sea captain, Samuel Barret Eades brought to London a wonderful relic, which he had come across in the far east. This relic had been got from Dutch fishermen, who, in turn, had obtained it from some Japanese fishermen. This was the mermaid!. It was exhibited at the Turf coffeehouse, at St. James Street. Now, the same paper that had reported the Exmouth case, The “London Mirror” also reported on the number of visitors to this exhibition, some 400 a day!

1823...The exhibition comes to an end, when Eades is sued by the co-owner of the ship he had sold to but the mermaid in the first place. The relic disappears from public view then until the 1840’s, when it is sold to Barnum by Moses Kimball, owner of the Boston museum.

So, there is the answer!. For whatever reason he had at the time, the editor of the “London Mirror” decided to illustrate the 1812 Exmouth story with a picture of the “feejee” mermaid, which was at that time being exhibited at St James Street!. Journalistic license indeed!

The moral of this story? Well always double, double check your sources! And remember, there is always more than one ending to any story!

GLEN VAUDREY: Two-headed mermaid in Warrington

Glen is one of the newer additions to the bloggo family. He wrote to me out of the blue last year to ask whether we wanted a Western Isles volume in our Mystery Animals of Britain series. We argeed that we did indeed want one, and commissioned him. What we were not expecting was such a bloody good writer and all round nice guy, who - by the way - is writing several other volumes for us...

Having seen the fabulous picture of the two faced lamb on the blog I was reminded of an exhibit in Warrington museum the two headed mermaid.

This particular Feejee mermaid found its way into the museums collection in 1913 following its donation by a Captain Waring who had bought the item in Japan sometime between 1880 and 1890. Sadly it’s not a genuine conjoined merperson but rather a fanciful construct; nevertheless it is rather striking in a malevolent kind of way

NIGEL WRIGHT: A fishy tale of the old Devon coastline

Nowadays we have become accustomed to hearing of strange and wonderful creatures, which arise from the depths of the world’s oceans and seas. However, I have come across a rather weird story that predates any of these modern stories. I live in Exmouth, a rather pretty town, located on the mouth of the Exe estuary, in Devon. Sometime ago I was researching for an article on local strange legends, when I came across this particularly good account of what appears to be, a first-hand account of a mermaid sighting!

The one really good thing about this account is the illustration which accompanies it. It is taken from the national paper of the day (The Mirror). Now for the exciting thing!...the date…1812!, August 11th to be exact. I think the best thing to do now is to allow you, the reader, to have a look at the original account, in full. It is in the words of one of the witnesses, a Mr. Turpin. He begins:-


"The day (August 11)," says he, " being very fine, I joined a party of ladies and gentlemen in a sailing excursion. When we had got about a mile to the southeast of Exmouth-bar, our attention was suddenly arrested by a very singular noise, by no means unpleasant to the ear, but of which it is impossible to give a correct idea by mere description. It was not, however, unaptly compared by one of our ladies to the wild melodies of the AEolian harp,* combined with a noise similar to that made by a stream of water falling gently on the leaves of a tree. In the mean time we observed something about one hundred yards from us, to windward. We all imagined it to be some human being, though at the same time we were at a loss to account for this, at such a distance from the shore, and no other boat near. We hailed, but received no reply, and we made toward this creature as soon as possible; when, to the great astonishment of us all, it eluded our pursuit by plunging under water. In a few minutes it rose again, nearly in the same place; and by that time we had got sufficiently near for one of the boatmen to throw into the water a piece of boiled fish, which he had in his locker. This seemed to alarm the animal, though it soon recovered from its fears, for we presently observed it to lay hold of the fish, which it ate with apparent relish. Several other pieces were thrown out, by which the creature was induced to keep at a short distance from our boat, and afforded us the opportunity of observing it with attention, and found, to our astonishment, that it was no other than a Mermaid. As the sea was calm, and in a great degree transparent, every part of the animal's body became in turn visible. The head, from the crown to the chin, forms rather a long- oval, and the face seems to resemble that of the seal, though, at the same time, it is far more agreeable, possessing a peculiar softness, which renders the whole set of features very interesting. The upper and back part of the head appeared to be furnished with something like hair, and the forepart of the body with something like down, between a very light fawn and a very pale pink colour, which, at a distance, had the appearance of flesh, and may have given rise to the idea that the body of the Mermaid is, externally, like that of the human being. This creature has two arms, each of which terminates into a hand with four fingers, connected to each other by means of a very thin elastic membrane. The animal used its arms with great agility, and its motions in general were very graceful. From the waist it gradually tapered so as to form a tail, which had the appearance of being covered with strong broad polished scales, which occasionally reflected the rays of the sun in a very beautiful manner; and, from the back and upper part of the neck, down to the loins, the body also appeared covered with short round broad feathers, of the colour of the down on the fore-part of the body. The whole length of the animal, from the crown of the head to the extremity of the tail, was supposed to be about five feet, or five feet and a half. In about ten minutes, from the time we approached, the animal gave two or three plunges, in quick succession, as if it were at play. After this, it gave a sudden spring, and swam away from us very rapidly, and in a few seconds we lost sight of it."

What a fantastic, detailed account that is. It really does give the reader a very good idea of the creature Mr.Turpin said he witnessed. What was it?, I really have no idea, but I love the story for what it is, a really good, detailed account of a very fishy encounter, just out from my lovely home port.

RICHARD FREEMAN: NONDISCRIPTS AND THE FEEJEE MERMAID

Over the past week or so we have been showing you pictures that I took during my visit to the Buckhorn museum in San Antonio, back in November 2004. Once again, this particular image sparked up a reaction in Richard Freeman's psyche, and he writes:

In Victorian times it was not uncommon for explorers to bring back stiffed ‘mermaids’ from the Far East. These bore little resemblance to the beautiful creatures of European myth looking more like aquatic monkeys. Most originated in Japan and were skilful composites were the top half of a monkey is stitched onto the bottom half of a large fish. This is done with such skill that the stitching can only be seen via an x-ray.

In Japan the mermaid is known as the ningyo and has ape like features. It is said that eating its flesh brings extreme long life. In the west these were commonly called Nondescripts.

The most famous was created in 1810 by a Japanese fisherman. It was bought by Dutch merchants who then, in 1822, resold it to an American sea captain, Samuel Barrett Eades, for $6000 (at the time, a huge amount of money). Eades had to sell his ship in order to afford the mermaid, but he hoped to make a fortune by exhibiting it in London. Unfortunately he didn’t own the ship and spent the rest of his life in debt!

His son sold the mermaid to PT Barnum who exhibited it in the UK and the USA. It was destroyed in a fire.

Other examples are in museums around the world and some of the oldest are kept in Japanese temples. The CFZ even has an excellent specimen skillfully created by the special effects wizard Alan Friswell. Thankfully he did not use a monkey!

GUEST BLOGGER ALAN FRISWELL: Dragon tales and monkey business..

Alan first came to my notice when he turned up at our stall at last November's Unconvention. He was clutching a box that had once held a plastic Christmas Tree. He thrust it at me, and said "Here's your mermaid".

I vaguely remembered Richard F having said that one of his mates had offereed to make us a feegee mermaid, but I had forgotten all about it. Sad to say, so many people offer to do stuff for us, and then fail to deliver, that I had got into the habit of treating all such offers cum grano salis, but the advent of Alan shows that I should not be such a cynical old sod. Now he has become a guest blogger..

While I’ve read what must be thousands of books on Fortean subject matter since childhood, and would--in my more self-aggrandizing moments--consider myself to be something of an amateur cryptozoologist, I would feel very uneasy spouting off about big cats, lake monsters and alligators up the U-bend with any pretence of authority in the company of professionals such as Jon and Richard.

My real ‘trade’, if you will, is special effects, particularly stop-motion animation, and I do know a bit about that. So I thought you might be interested to hear about how a cryptozoological expedition that led to the discovery and classification of a new species, was subsequently responsible for the creation of the most famous fantasy film in cinema history.

In 1912, P.A. Ouwens, a Dutch scientist based in Java, had travelled to Indonesia after reports of living dragons had spread to various small islands in the region. Although a man with a conservative interest in zoology, the accounts of giant reptiles capable of killing goats and cattle, and occasionally human beings were too compelling to ignore, and Ouwens embarked on a full-scale dragon hunt (I bet Richard would have liked to have been around for that one). Eventually arriving on the island of Komodo, Ouwens was amazed to discover that the dragon legends were, at least in part, spectacularly true, and the giant monitor lizards were appropriately named Komodo dragons, subsequently becoming Varanus komodoensis.

These deadly animals are possessed of tremendous strength, and are capable of bringing a human being down with ease. They tear chunks of flesh from their prey by holding down the victim with their front feet, and dismember it by biting down, and twisting their powerful neck muscles. If this wasn’t bad enough, their jaws are swimming with bacteria of extraordinary virulence, and a single bite can precipitate fatal blood poisoning in hours.

These creatures really do qualify as monsters, although those of us who love this stuff can also see great beauty and magnificence in these living prehistoric beasts.Fast forward to 1926, and W. Douglas Burden, the naturalist and explorer, lands on Komodo with the American Museum Natural History expedition, successfully capturing two of the great dragons. Their arrival, and establishment in the Bronx Zoo ends in disaster, as the creatures sadly languish and die in the alien environment.

One of Burden’s friends is the filmmaker Merian C. Cooper. Cooper, a real-life Indiana Jones-type character had an extremely colourful past as a soldier and adventurer, and had established himself, along with his partner Ernest B. Schoedsack as a highly successful producer of outdoor movies, set against the often savage backdrops of primitive cultures and the brutality of untamed nature.Cooper is enthralled by Burden’s tales of the primordial world of Komodo, and begins to formulate a film theme that would capture all the thrills of the ‘lost world’, and the excitement of bringing some great monster back to civilization. He searches for a name, a word that would, by itself, conjure up the atmosphere and sensibility of lost lands and times.

The name Komodo gives him his inspiration, and from it, he creates the name Kong. Originally, Cooper was actually going to film Kong on Komodo, and get in amongst the dragons. His intention was to enlarge them photographically, to make them appear dinosaur-sized. At this point, the lizards were the ‘stars’ of the project, and according to an interview with Fay Wray in the 1960’s, Cooper had always wanted to have a monster climb a skyscraper, but in the original script, he had intended to have two giant Komodo dragons climb--not the Empire State building, but the Chrysler Building.

It was only in subsequent adjustments to the story that he realised that the ‘monster’ needed more anthropomorphism in order to engender audience sympathy, so Kong became a giant gorilla, for which Cooper intended to use a man in a suit.While trying to raise finance for Kong, Cooper was employed as a trouble-shooter at RKO studios, being given the job of assessing movies in production, and their viability at the box-office.

He views a film called Creation, a lost-world-type film involving the discovery of dinosaurs in an underground valley, and cancels the project, believing that because of the uninspired storyline it lacks the necessary vitality and interest to make it a hit. The technical work however, amazes him, and he falls in love with the process of stop-motion animation. Asking the special effects designer Willis O’ Brien, if it would be possible to create a giant ape with the same techniques. O’Brien demonstrates that the model animation process will make anything possible, and Cooper realises that the whole of Kong can be made in the studio; that the giant reptiles can now look like real dinosaurs, and--fortunately, I’m sure you’ll agree--that the giants of Komodo can be left in peace. The rest of course, is history.

King Kong, through the genius of Wills O’ Brien, became the ultimate classic of fantasy storytelling. Carl Denham, the intrepid filmmaker who travels to Skull Island and brings Kong back to civilization is directly based on Cooper. The film inspired thirteen-year-old Ray Harryhausen, who through his own work has influenced almost every special effects technician working today, including yours truly. So we have a lot to thank those old Komodo lizards for. Not only for providing us with a glimpse into a spectacular--and terrifying--primeval past with their own awesome presence, but for being directly responsible for the most iconic and influential monster movie of all time.

Thanks chaps! An account of Burden’s adventures can be found in: Dragon Lizards of Komodo: An Expedition to the Lost World of the Dutch East Indies,available on all good Amazon websites.