Monkey Suit Story

May 19, 2011 4:36 PM

He told me his gorilla suit had been taken by his landlady in Pensacola, Florida because he could not pay his back rent. She kept his trunk with all his possessions as well. So his movie days were over...

A brief, thoughtful recollection of the last days of the elusive Emil Van Horn, who, with pioneers like Charles Gemora, Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Steve Calvert, George Barrows, Janos Prohaska, and Bob Burns, established the golden age of Hollywood gorilla men.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot (7 comments total)

What, no Allan A. Apone in Wise Blood? Well, I guess it was released well after the golden age...
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:42 PM on May 19, 2011

I just noticed last night that Netflix has "The White Gorilla" available on DVD. This movie (apparently) used to scare the crap out of my dad as a young boy in the early '50s. It hillariously features Ray "Crash" Corrigan in something like 3 roles, including both the gorilla AND the hero!
posted by ShutterBun at 4:46 PM on May 19, 2011

Here is The White Gorilla - "A white gorilla is snubbed by black gorillas because of his color. Cut off from his tribe he becomes lonely and angry. After troubling hunters and natives, the white gorilla fights the king of the black gorillas while we are told by a narrator that the fate of Africa hangs in the balance. The movie was made by editing some 1947 acting into footage from a 1927 silent serial, Perils of the Jungle, starring Frank Merrill the fifth screen Tarzan." The starred review on IMDb lets you know what you're in for [excerpt]:

There's several fights between the Bad Black Gorilla & the Bad White Gorilla that are never resolved. They fight, then the narration goes elsewhere, then the two gorillas bump into each other again, act surprised, & start fighting again.

Sounds brilliant, I'm going to watch it now!
posted by unliteral at 5:59 PM on May 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

This made my day. I had no idea there were pros
that did this for a living. I assumed that they just threw
a monkey suit on the janitor, or gave some dishwasher
in the set commons five bucks for the privilege.
So now I have a new batch of heroes admire.
posted by quazichimp at 6:05 PM on May 19, 2011

You'll never eat bananas in this town again.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:10 PM on May 19, 2011

For a long time I thought that actors in gorilla suits was something Wodehouse made up - didn't know it was an actual job someone could get back in 1933. ("Monkey Business")
posted by betweenthebars at 9:10 PM on May 19, 2011

Together with 2 friends we made 3 gorilla suits (making of) and I can tell you that acting in one must be hell. We did some physical activity and after 10 minutes we were lying on our backs cooling off through our eyes. Removing the mask was not an option because it was glued to our face around the eyes. The extra heat of artificial movie lighting and the repetitive nature of movie takes would limit this profession to serious masochists.
posted by Akeem at 1:20 AM on May 20, 2011