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Superhero Smash Season IV—Audio Issue #61: King Kong

Original Air Date

  • June 18th, 2026

Part 1: The Hero (Begins @ 11:00 a.m.)

Super Show ID 1: Superhero Smash (0:30)

  • Good morning. You’ve waited all week, and it’s finally here at last: Another great episode of Superhero Smash on WIUP FM 90.1!
    • Featuring “The Best in Superhero Music and Comic Book Lore”
    • Superhero Smash is a musical force for good!
  • I’m your host, Dr. Gian Pagnucci, but you can call me The New Professor X
  • All summer long, I’ll be playing great music and talking about superhero movies, comics, and history
  • And I’ll have plenty of great guest stars this summer, too
  • But no matter what cool stuff I discuss, you don’t have to worry because this is a NO SPOILERS show
  • Contact me, the new Professor X, via email: SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com

Issue Theme

  • More Than a Monster

Monster Spotlight: King Kong! (1:00)

  • Last week, I featured Godzilla, so this week, I’m featuring that other mighty titan: King Kong!
  • Kong has also been featured in a lot of comic books, and I’ll be talking about those later in today’s show
  • Is Kong a superhero? He probably fits the role a little better than Godzilla
  • Early on, Kong did go on some rampages
  • But he also had a kind of almost human intelligence
  • Kong experiences different kinds of emotions: Happiness, anger, sadness, joy, and even love
  • Kong isn’t just a monster: He’s the original tragic superhero
  • Today…the drums echo…the jungle gives way…the city trembles…and a king climbs toward the sky. Not a villain, not a hero but something too big for both worlds.
  • This is Superhero Smash and today I unleash King Kong!

Kong fights dinosaur in King Kong (1933)

Heroic Opening Song for King Kong (5:13)

  • “King Kong” by The Jimmy Castor Bunch

The World That Created King Kong (4:00)

The film King Kong didn’t just appear out of nowhere. It came out of a very specific historical moment: early 1930s America, especially 1933, right in the heart of the Great Depression. Once you see that world clearly, the movie suddenly feels less like “just a monster film” and more like a myth born from crisis.

In today’s Superhero Smash, we will explore the rise of Kong!

🌍 1. The Great Depression: A World in Collapse

King Kong premiered in 1933, one of the worst years of the Great Depression

  • Massive unemployment, poverty, and economic instability defined daily life
  • Thousands of theaters had closed and major studios were financially struggling
  • The public mood was anxious, uncertain, and often bleak

Because of this, movies became escape:

  • King Kong “transported audiences to a faraway world” where they could forget their troubles
  • It was embraced because people needed spectacle, wonder, and distraction

In other words:

  • Kong was born from a culture desperate to escape reality

🎬 2. Hollywood: Under Pressure and Needing to Innovate

Hollywood itself was in crisis, but also evolving

  • Studios were close to bankruptcy, and attendance had dropped sharply
  • Yet filmmakers pushed innovation: Sound, visual effects, and cinematic spectacle

King Kong was revolutionary because

  • It used groundbreaking stop-motion animation
  • It created a scale audiences had never seen before
  • It became one of the early “blockbuster-style” cinematic spectacles

What did King Kong represents? “When the world is failing, imagination goes bigger”

🏙️ 3. Modernity vs. the Primitive World

The film’s core story, a giant creature taken from a wild island into New York City, mirrors a deeper cultural tension

Early 20th century America was obsessed with:

  • exploration
  • colonial ideas of “unknown lands”
  • conquering nature

The film explicitly centers on a clash:

  • Kong lived on Skull Island which was primal, ancient, and dangerous
  • He is brought to New York which is modern, technological, and ambitious

This clash is not accidental. It reflects a world that was asking: Does modern civilization represent progress or destruction?

Heroic Instrumental Theme Song (2:09)

  • “Main Title” from King Kong (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)
    • Composed by Max Steiner
    • Performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under the direction of William T. Stromberg

Part 1: The Hero (Ends @ 12 minutes)

Part 2 The Origin Story (Begins @ 12 minutes)

Super Show ID 2: Superhero Smash (0:30)

🦍 The Origin of King Kong (5:00)

  • So where did King Kong come from?
  • King Kong isn’t born in a lab. He was discovered, and that was the problem. The moment humanity found him, we tried to own him. And the consequences of that greed were dark and tragic.

🌴 1. A Hidden World: Skull Island

Kong comes from a mysterious, uncharted place called Skull Island

  • It’s a remote island filled with prehistoric creatures and dense jungle
  • A native population lives there and worships Kong like a god
  • Kong himself is a giant ape, the dominant force on the island

Kong isn’t created: he exists as part of an ancient, untouched world

🎥 2. Humans arrive (and disrupt everything)

A film crew led by filmmaker Carl Denham travels to the island looking for something extraordinary.

  • They bring along a struggling actress, Ann Darrow
  • The island natives try to offer Ann as a sacrifice to Kong

Kong appears, takes Ann, and carries her into the jungle

This is the turning point:

  • Kong is fearsome
  • But also curious, even protective of Ann

🌿 3. Kong’s True Nature

On the island:

  • Kong fights dinosaurs and other monsters
  • He protects his territory
  • He shows unexpected emotion toward Ann

This is why Kong isn’t just a villain: He’s powerful, but also capable of connection

King Kong (1933) - IMDb

Kong Song 1 (4:33)

  • “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses

The Superhero Smash Comic Book Vault: First Appearance of King Kong (5:00)

  • The Comic Book Vault Sound Effect (0:12)
  • Before Kong ever climbed a skyscraper on the page, he climbed through newspaper panels in 1933, one day at a time.
    • Year: 1933
    • Format: Newspaper promotional comic strip
    • First King Kong Comic Appearance: In a newspaper strip
    • The first strip, printed in the pressbook
    • Publisher/source: RKO Pictures (as a film promotion)
    • Artist: Glenn Cravath
    • These strips were published in newspapers just before the film’s release as part of a publicity campaign
    • Some papers began running them around late March 1933
    • They retold the movie story in short serialized panels
    • Kong’s first “true comic book” appearance was much later
  • King Kong first comic book appearance: Adventures into the Unknown #79
    • There were eventually some Gold Key Comics film adaptations in 1968, but Kong’s first appearance was actually in
    • Adventures Into The Unknown 79 1st Appearance KING KONG Key Comic CGC 6.5 White - Picture 1 of 5
    • Publisher: American Comics Group (ACG)
    • Year: 1956
    • Writers: Kurt Shaffenberger and Harry Lazarus
    • Artist: John Rosenberger
    • Value on eBay today: $1097 (CGC graded 6.5 on a 10-point scale)
    • The story is just one page in which they discuss King Kong as fiction, but then some explorers find a giant leg bone of what they estimate would have been a 50 foot tall ape
    • 1956 COVERLESS COMIC ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN #79 1ST APPEARANCE OF KING KONG - Picture 6 of 7

🚢 4. The Fatal Mistake: Capturing Kong

Instead of leaving the island, Denham makes a choice:

  • He sees Kong not as a being—but as a spectacle
  • Kong is knocked unconscious and taken to New York

He’s put on display as:

  • “The Eighth Wonder of the World”

This is the real origin of the tragedy: Human ambition turns Kong into a prisoner

🎙️5. The Deeper Origin

If you step back, Kong’s true origin isn’t just a clever plot. It’s archetypal:

  • Kong is the last of his kind
  • A god brought low by humans
  • A creature caught between instinct and emotion
  • And a symbol of outsider power brought low by civilization

Kong Song 2 (3:06)

  • “Eighth Wonder of the World” by Dean Miller

Part 2: The Origin Story (Ends @ 30 minutes)

Part 3: The Super Romance (Begins @ 30 minutes)

Super Show ID 3: Superhero Smash (0:30)

Super Romantic Interlude: King Kong’s True Love (4:00)

  • As Legion of Superhero Smash Listeners know, I always have a super romantic interlude during the show
  • King Kong’s story is, in fact, a love story
  • He might be a big monster, but he also has a big heart

The First Scream Queen: Fay Wray

  • Her name was Fay Wray, born Vina Fay Wray in 1907 in Alberta, Canada.
  • She played Ann Darrow, the female lead in the original 1933 King Kong.
  • King Kong and Fay Wray - Hollywood Progressive
  • Her role as the “beauty” captured by Kong made her internationally famous.
  • She was chosen in part because of her ability to scream convincingly, and that scream became iconic in the film.
  • She is often called the first scream queen because of her work in early horror films.
  • Her scenes on top of the Empire State Building, especially in Kong’s hand, became some of the most recognizable images in cinema history.
  • She began acting as a teenager during the silent film era and successfully transitioned into early sound films.
  • Before King Kong, she appeared in several horror movies, including Doctor X and The Vampire Bat.
  • Her career lasted nearly six decades, and even though she did many films, she remained most closely associated with King Kong throughout her life.
  • Fay Wray died in 2004 at the age of 96, and her legacy is strongly tied to that iconic role.

The Second Kong Girl: Jessica Lange

  • I saw the Dino De Laurentiis version of King Kong when it appeared in theaters in 1976
    • King Kong (1976) - IMDb
  • It starred starred Jeff Bridges and introduced audiences to a beautiful young actress named Jessica Lange
    • Jessica Lange ภาพสต็อกบทความข่าว - ภาพสต็อก | Shutterstock Editorial
  • I was only 9 at the time, but I remember thinking Jessica Lange was gorgeous
    • PHOTO KING KONG - JESSICA LANGE V002 196 | eBay
  • Although De Laurentiis added lots of big budget special effects and a huge mechanical Kong hand to make Kong look truly real, the film was widely panned
  • The main problem is that De Laurentiis had tried to remake what by then was considered one of the greatest classic films of all time
  • The original King Kong is a hallmark film which has stood the test of time, and the 1976 Kong film had no chance to over throw the original as king!
  • Fortunately for Jessica Lange, though, she was such a great actress, she outlived the weaknesses of the 1976 King Kong
  • Lange went on to win 2 Academy Awards

🏆 Tootsie (1982)

  • Oscar Category: Best Supporting Actress
  • She played a soap-opera actress (Julie Nichols)

🏆 Blue Sky (1994)

  • Oscar Category: Best Actress (Leading Role)
  • She played Carly Marshall, a troubled military wife

Kong Is the One Who Steals Our Hearts

  • Across every version… every actress… every retelling… one thing never changes—Kong doesn’t just capture the beauty… he connects to her
  • Do the scream queens fall for Kong? You’ll have to watch the movies to decide
  • But for all his power and all his rage, what has made Kong so lovable for audiences is his softer, emotional, almost human side
  • King Kong knows love and heartbreak like so many of us
  • Alas, mighty Kong, twas beauty killed the beast

Kong Song 3 (3:38)

  • “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers

PSA: Visit the IUP Kathleen Jones White Writing Center (1:00)

  • Kong showed his love by sweeping his girl off her feet, literally
  • But if you don’t think you can pull that off, try writing your true love a poem
  • And what better place to get help writing that poem than at the IUP Kathleen Jones White Writing Center
    • The Writing Center is open all summer long, and the Writing Center tutors will help IUP students with any writing challenge, no matter big and terrifying it is
    • You can get help from the Writing Center remotely this summer, via Zoom, where you can talk directly with a tutor, or asynchronously, where a tutor will give you comments on your paper
  • Let me cue that Writing Center Theme Song!

Writing Center Theme Song (0:30)

  • “I Love the Writing Center” by Dr. Weinstein

Superhero Smash Super Shout-out: To Dr. Dan Weinstein (0:10)

  • And let me also give a Superhero Smash Super Shout-out to Dr. Dan Weinstein, the Director of the Writing Center and LLW Associate Professor
    • Dr. Weinstein isn’t a giant ape, but he’ll climb to the top of Leonard Hall to help student writers!

Part 3: The Super Romance (Ends @ 40 minutes)

Part 4: The Good Deed (Begins @40 minutes)

Super Show ID 5: Superhero Smash (0:30)

Super Good Deed for the Week: Be a Guardian of the Wild! (3:00)

  • Superhero stories are about doing good
  • And in that spirit, I have been trying to make Superhero Smash be a musical force for good
  • King Kong may be the ruler of Skull Island, but at his best, he’s not just a force of strength, he’s a protector of his world. In many stories, Kong stands between his island and destruction, defending the balance of nature against anything that threatens it.
  • This week’s challenge is to channel that same kind of protector energy.

The Superhero Smash Move

For this week’s Superhero Smash Move, try the following:

  • Find one piece of the natural world around you that needs protecting and step up. It could be your campus, your neighborhood, or even a small outdoor space you pass every day.
  • Pick something simple but meaningful: Clean up litter, respect wildlife, or take care of a place that others overlook.
  • The key is this: Strength isn’t just about how powerful you are, it’s about what you choose to protect.

Super Example

If you aren’t sure what to do, here are a few powerful possibilities:

  • Maybe as a student, you’ve noticed trash building up near a walking path or green area. Take a few minutes to clean it up before you leave. No announcement, no credit, just protecting your environment like a silent guardian of the island.
  • You can also show your respect for wildlife by being careful not to disturb animals. Observe them from a distance, but don’t feed them, don’t chase them, and don’t disturb the spaces they call home.
  • You can help wild animals by putting out fresh water (especially in summer), planting native plants or flowers, and turning off unnecessary outdoor lights at night; there’s no need to have a big light in the yard shining all night long

That’s this week’s Superhero Smash Move: Be like King Kong at his best–Not  the force that dominates the jungle, but the one who protects it. Super good deed!

Superhero Smash Super Shout-out: To Cormac Pagnucci (2:00)

  • I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about King Kong this week and Godzilla last week
  • But there are some other great monster films to watch and enjoy
  • And I want to give a Superhero Smash Super Shout-out to my son Cormac, listening out in the Philadelphia area
  • Cormac is a big fan of giant monster movies, and he has taught me a lot about them
  • He convinced me to watch the original 1933 King Kong because, as he said, “the movie was way ahead of its time!”
    • King Kong - Wikipedia
  • We actually watched that film as well as the original 1954 Godzilla movie
    • Godzilla (1954 film) - Wikipedia
  • And top round out that monster movie marathon weekend, we also watched the first Planet of the Apes movie from 1968, an equally great film about apes with human intelligence
    • Planet of the Apes (1968) (Film) - TV Tropes

Superhero Smash Guest Star: Cormac Pagnucci Interview (5:00)

  • A monster hunter’s report!

Long Lost Heroes: The Forgotten Monsters (3:00)

  • I’ll also mention just a few more other monster movies that I learned about from my son
  • The very first monster movie is a silent film called The Lost World that was released way back in 1925
    • The Lost World was based on a story about people traveling back to the time of dinosaurs
    • The story was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who also created Sherlock Holmes
    • The Lost World (1925 film) - Wikipedia
    • The Lost World (1925) | Midnight Only
  • I’ll also mention that there were a number of early movies that tried to capitalize on the success of 1933’s King Kong
  • This inclued Japan’s (First) Lost Kong film: Wasei Kingu Kongu (1933)
    • This movie was a cheap ripoff of Kong
    • There are no known copies which is too bad because the ape in the film looks pretty comical based on the few movie still photographs that have survive
  • Then in 1953 The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
    • Like Godzilla, this is a kaiju movie, but it was made in America and actually got into theaters ahead of Godzilla
    • Too bad the movie producers weren’t able to capture for America the same magic that the Japanese movie makers created with Godzilla
    • The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms - Wikipedia
    • The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
  • And, of course, in 1962 Kong and Godzilla got to meet and feet in King Kong vs. Godzilla
    • King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963) - IMDb
    • Who wins that great battle depends on if you watch the Japanese version of the American version
  • Finally, I also want to mention a truly great movie, Kong: Skull Island
    • The film stars Samuel L. Jackson, and he is outstanding in the movie, as he is in every roll he plays!
    • Amazon.com: KONG SKULL ISLAND MOVIE POSTER 2 Sided ORIGINAL FINAL 27x40 BRIE LARSON TOM HIDDLESTON: Posters & Prints
    • One great thing about Kong: Skull Island is how realistic the filmmakers can now make Kong look
    • Kong: Skull Island' Wins Where Almost Every Other Reboot Fails Miserably | WIRED

Kong Song 4 (3:07)

  • “Run Through the Jungle” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR)
  • This great song was included as part of the music for Kong: Skull Island

Part 4: The Good Deed (Ends @ 50 minutes)

Part 5: The Fantastic Finish (Begins @ 50 minutes)

Super Show ID 5: Superhero Smash (0:30)

The End of King Kong, For Now! (3:00)

🏢 The Empire State Building (The Symbol of the Age)

  • Now of course, Superhero Smash is a no spoilers show
  • But I think almost everyone knows how the movie ends
  • Kong climbs to the top of the Empire State Building
  • The building had just been completed in 1931 and was the tallest in the world when the film preimered
  • The Empire State Building symbolized:
    • technological triumph
    • American ambition
    • modern power
  • But during the Depression, even that symbol of success felt uncertain or hollow
  • Scholars note that the film connects Kong and the building as symbols of the era’s rise and fall [jstor.org]

The image becomes myth: The modern world conquers—and destroys—what it cannot understand

King Kong climbing the empire state building from a birds eye view in the style of Ansel Adams --style raw

⚠️ Social Tensions Beneath the Surface

  • King Kong also carries deeper (and more uncomfortable) meanings tied to its era
  • Scholars often read the film as reflecting:
    • racial anxieties in 1930s America
    • fears around power, “otherness,” and social boundaries [popmatters.com]

You don’t have to lean into any one interpretation, but it’s important context: Kong was not just a monster, he was a figure people projected fears onto

King Kong’s Story Is a Myth for the Ages

  • Put all of this together and you get something powerful:
  • King Kong is essentially:
    • A Depression-era escape fantasy
    • A warning about human ambition
    • A tragic outsider story
    • And a reflection of modern anxiety

Kong climbed to the top of the Empire State Building and to the top of the monster world. He is the King!

Kong Song 5 (3:25)

  • “Theme from New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra

Super Show ID 6: Superhero Smash To Be Continued Next Issue! (1:00)

  • Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: Tarzan!
    • If you are enjoying today’s show, you can catch more Superhero Smash on Thursday mornings at 11:00 a.m. all summer long on WIUP FM 90.1
    • I thought the perfect way to follow Kong’s story is to take a look at that the great jungle hero Tarzan
    • So tune in next Thursday at 11:00 a.m. to hear all about the other Lord of the Jungle
  • Listen to Superhero Smash on WIUP FM 90.1
  • Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
  • And remember, while Superhero Smash is about the exploits of amazing individuals,
    • “You don’t need superpowers to be a hero. The only thing it takes to be a hero is the courage to do what’s right when someone needs your help.”–Gian Pagnucci

Heroic End Credits Song for Godzilla (0:59)

  • He started as a god on an island… became a spectacle in a city… and ended as a legend the world could never forget. He was the great King Kong
  • And there’s only one way to finish today’s Kong show…
  • With the theme song from the 1966 King Kong Animated Series
  • It’s short, but ever so sweet
  • “King Kong”

Part 4 Ends (@60 minutes)

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