Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong [Hardcover]

Mark Vaz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2005

Explorer, war hero, filmmaker, and cinema pioneer Merian C. Cooper–the adventurer who created King Kong–was truly larger than life. “Pictures cannot be made from an executive’s desk,” “Coop” declared, and he did more than talk the talk–he walked the walk to the far corners of the globe, with a motion picture camera in tow, in an era when those corners were truly unknown, untamed, and unforgiving.

Cooper’s place in history is assured, thanks not only to the monstrous gorilla from Skull Island but because the story of Kong’s creator is even bigger and bolder than the beast he made into a cultural icon. Spellbound since boyhood by tales of life-threatening adventure and exotic locales, Cooper plunged again and again into harrowing expeditions that took him to places not yet civilized by modern man.

Cooper was one of the first bomber pilots in World War I. After the war, he helped form the famous Kosciuszko Squadron in battle-torn Poland. He then turned his attention to producing documentary films that chronicled his hair-raising encounters with savage warriors, man-eating tigers, nomadic tribes, and elephant stampedes.

In addition to producing King Kong, he was the first to team Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers, arranged Katharine Hepburn’s screen test, collaborated with John Ford on Hollywood’s greatest Westerns, and then changed the face of film forever with Cinerama, the original “virtual reality.” He returned to military service during World War II, serving with General Claire Chennault in China, flying missions into the heart of enemy territory.

This book is a stunning tribute to a two-fisted visionary who packed a multitude of lifetimes into eighty remarkable years. The first comprehensive biography of this unique man and his amazing time, it’s the tale of someone whose greatest desire was always to be living dangerously.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With Peter Jackson's King Kong remake due in December, this boisterous, chest-thumping biography of film pioneer Cooper (1893–1973), producer-director of the original 1933 film, is certain to attract attention. Vaz (The Art of the Incredibles; etc.) captures the mythic magic of Cooper's cinematic creations, and Cooper himself emerges as an equally legendary character. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy, but left before graduating and joined the 1916 hunt for Pancho Villa. A 1921 newspaper article tallied his WWI experiences: "All Warsaw is at the feet of the American ace who was twice shot down from the clouds, twice endured the squalor of prison camps, twice was reported dead." Cooper and his partner Ernest Schoedsack traveled the world shooting documentaries, scoring a box-office hit with the Oscar-nominated Chang (1927) before moving on to dramatic filmmaking. After "human dynamo" Cooper took over as RKO studio chief, he joined the WWII Flying Tigers and received a U.S.A.F. brigadier general promotion. Launching Cinerama in 1952, he was awarded an honorary 1953 Oscar. The charismatic Cooper, "a man living his own movie," is no longer an obscure, remote figure, thanks to Vaz's exhaustive research and skillful writing. 90 photos. (Aug. 2)
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From Booklist

An experienced writer on movie special effects and special-effects movies has put together a readable, frequently gripping biography of Merian C. Cooper (1893-1973), whose exploits sometimes put one in mind of Indiana Jones but who is best known as producer--director, with Ernest B. Schoedsack, of King Kong. Before that cinematic milestone, he had been a pilot in World War I and a POW in Germany. His career began with wildlife films that involved frequent journeys to remote regions and, occasionally, acute danger. Nor did he rest on his laurels after King Kong. He returned to flying in World War II, undertaking combat missions when nearly 50 years old as chief of staff of the Flying Tigers in China. After the war, he returned to Hollywood as a senior executive at RKO. The book offers abundant facts, adequate prose, a lavish selection of photographs, and remarks by a panoply of famous interviewees. An altogether appealing addition for film-history collections, even if Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson weren't about to release his own King Kong. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Villard; First Edition edition (August 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400062764
• ISBN-13: 978-1400062768
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #597,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Cotta Vaz is the author of over twenty-one books, including four New York Times bestsellers. His recent works include Mythic Vision: The Making of Eragon, The Spirit: The Movie Visual Companion, and the biography Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong, which was a Los Angeles Times bestseller

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Breathtaking Life Captured, November 14, 2005

By 

Milo Molesworth (Grand Library of Helium, Barsoom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong (Hardcover)

Cover blurbs reflect this reader's approach as well: picked up for the information on King Kong but relished for the other information on Cooper. This is a pretty good read (four stars) of a truly amazing life (five+ stars). If you are a history buff, you will be astounded how many events Cooper saw/participated in; Pancho Villa, First World War, Russian Civil War, Interwar Pacific, Second World War China (with Flying Tigers), etc. The photographs being scattered through the text rather than plates in the center of the book helps with grasping it all. Overall, this book a very nice read for a fan of the old King Kong films or someone who likes early 20th century history. (I bought myself a copy and my father a copy as we used to watched King Kong, Son of Kong, and Mighty Joe Young when it was broadcast every Thanksgiving on Secaucus, New Jersey's Channel 9.)

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I'm King Kong", September 7, 2005

By 

Matthew C. Hoffman (Chicago, IL. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong (Hardcover)

Mark Cotta Vaz's latest film book is his most important to date as it is the first biography of a true cinema pioneer, Merian C. Cooper. The life of the creator of KING KONG is richly detailed in a work that is hard to put down. The concluding chapters tie everything together nicely in a poignant way while at the same time explaining the lasting impact of Cooper's greatest film. There may be future bios that probe even deeper into this truly larger than life figure and his many achievements, but Mr. Vaz has laid the foundation and has done an admirable job-- one Cooper would be proud of.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "King Kong": Just An Entry On His Resume, December 30, 2008

By 

Thomas J. Burns (Apopka, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong (Hardcover)

The capture of Kong and his arduous voyage to a New York theater were child's play compared to the task facing biographer Mark Cotta Vaz. To him fell the challenge of binding the life of one of the twentieth century's great adventurers, Merian C. Cooper, within the covers of a reasonably sized volume. No one need blush to admit that Cooper [1893-1973] truly seemed "bigger than life." From the time at age six when Cooper devoured the writings of adventurer Paul Du Chaillu--with descriptions of a carnivorous gorilla and a giant snake [hmmm...]--Cooper sensed at the very least that the world was an adventurous place for the person willing to take chances.

Vaz plays particular attention to the two war experiences that in a strange way serve as bookends to Cooper's life. Cooper was no conventional soldier. He was kicked out of Annapolis but fought courageously through World War I in that particular theater that attracts cutting edge soldiers--the air corps. He nearly lost both his hands in a fiery crash, but rather remarkably remained after Versailles to fight at the side of the Poles in their struggle for independence from the Russians. He was captured by the Cossacks, tortured, and imprisoned before a daring escape from a camp near Moscow.

Cooper returned to New York both traumatized and energized, so to speak. His air experience led him to a longtime professional administrative involvement with fledgling Pan American Airlines. But his true professional love was film. Having made the acquaintance of a skilled young cameraman, Ernest Shoedsack, the two men traveled extensively through Africa and Asia with an eye toward a somewhat unconventional type of film-making. One might call it "National Geographic on Steroids." Through the 1920's Cooper with Shoedsack produced and directed on-site several remarkable films of natural drama involving migratory treks of tribes and animals alike. Two in particular, "Grass" and "Chang," were critically acclaimed and evidently successful at the box office.

Even from afar, Cooper kept a finger on the American audience and the changing technology and expectations after the "talkies" arrived in 1927. The idea of a Kong-like film had long been a staple of Cooper's future planning. With the Depression in full force, an epic of this nature faced innumerable hurdles, but Cooper enjoyed remarkable luck in his execution. First, the major set of Kong's island was in storage from another film, ready for extended use. Second, Cooper found a studio [RKO] and a young executive [David Selznick] both on the make to crack the inner sanctum of Hollywood's elite. And third, he was able to draw upon a stunning technological breakthrough by artist Willis O'Brien, who discovered that hand coordinated stop-action manipulation of miniature dinosaurs and gorillas translated into stunning full screen visual effect. Ironically the globe trotting Cooper shot the most exotic picture of his time without leaving California.

Vaz treats the "King Kong" story with just the correct proportion: enough detail to meet the reader's questions without the film dominating the entire book. The author's stance throughout this phase can be summed up as follows: "If you've seen Carl Denham, you've seen Merian C. Cooper." Actress Faye Wray recalled that the coffee shop scene in which Denham persuades Ann Darrow to join his improbable voyage was almost a verbatim rendering of her own first production meeting with Cooper. Released in 1933, "King Kong" would frighten and captivate audiences into the next century.

What clearly frightened Cooper, however, was the cost of creating such an epic. Succeeding Selznick as production chief, he determined that volume was the key to RKO's viability. RKO released 49 films the year of KK's release, including such opposites as "Little Women" with newcomer Katherine Hepburn. Cooper did not believe that his strategy would sacrifice quality, and generally it did not. When other studios had given up on silent film director John Ford, Cooper coaxed him back to work, where Ford turned out "The Lost Patrol" [1934] and "The Informant" [1935] before rescuing the western film genre with an extraordinary run from "Stagecoach" [1939] to "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." [1962] For Cooper, however, his greatest movie may have been one he never made, "War Eagles." From Vaz's description the project envisioned an apocalyptic air war that for all the world resembles a 1940-ish "Star Wars."

But Cooper was distracted by real war, World War II, and soon enough found himself first chief of staff to none other than General Claire Chennault of the famous Flying Tigers of the Asian war theater. Cooper was ubiquitous, with a hand in everything from the Doolittle Raid to the surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. His flying skills remained peerless, but his political outspokenness on behalf of the Chennaults was not welcomed in all corners. He was more in his element after the war with John Wayne and John Ford in the making of "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," [1949] and "The Searchers" [1956] among other post war releases.

Cooper did not lose his taste for cutting edge technology and in 1952 as he turned 60 he unveiled "This Is Cinerama." Despite the interest in the film he was losing artistic ground to younger competitors like Mike Todd. Until his death in 1973, however, Cooper was a fountain of ideas as befit a man of his broad experience and imagination. Vaz uses his final segment of the book, "The Legend," to trace the postmortems of Cooper's many friends and collaborators, such as Shoedsack and Wray, and his creations, notably KK. The character Kong, for example, was the subject of the famous suit brought by Universal Studios against Nintendo over "Donkey Kong." The history of remakes and stunts surrounding the film in recent decades only confirms the superiority of the original product and the man who brought it to life. Those who enjoy this book, incidentally, will be pleased to know that Vaz has produced an extensive body of literary work on cinema that is well worth perusing.