tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-694962915730683342.post7504756775428292725..comments2023-07-30T08:25:35.005-04:00Comments on A Night in the Forest: King JimmyBetts4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18037389343121979588noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-694962915730683342.post-21364528368089430472007-08-19T20:01:00.000-04:002007-08-19T20:01:00.000-04:00Jim was my best "King Kong" buddy. No one else in ...Jim was my best "King Kong" buddy. No one else in the world has been able to share my enthusiasm for that old black-and-white adventure/thriller to the degree that Jim had. If Jim and I ever ran out of new stuff to talk about, we could always talk about "Kong" and about how cool he was, along with Fay Wray and every other aspect of that movie. <BR/><BR/>We particularly enjoyed listening to Max Steiner's incredible music score for that 1933 film, and we would very often play it (in his car or in mine) while we were driving ANYwhere. We knew the film so well that we could say nearly every line in the film in perfect synchronization to the music as we listened to it. I believe that I could recite the Skull Island native dialogue better than Jim could (example: Captain Englehorn refuses to sell Fay Wray to the native chief by saying "Mahlem ahnay rotah nah hee", which translates into English as "Our woman is our luck and we dare not part with her"). But Jim was much more skilled at reproducing Kong's roar than I am. Both skills have very limited uses in our modern everyday world, I grant you. Anyway, we always had a great time playing this Kong dialogue game. <BR/><BR/>But sometimes Jim and I would actually WATCH the movie together, too! Sometimes he would visit me at my apartment, and (instead of rehearsing for a play or working on some project like we were SUPPOSED to) we would sit back and watch "King Kong" - usually the classic black-and-white version, but we also watched the unintentionally funny German-dubbed version, as well as the really peculiar French-dubbed version (in which most of the NYC "depression" footage was missing). And sometimes we'd even watch the mostly dreadful COLORIZED version! Once, Jim and I drove (in the rain, I think, which is probably the night that Betsy is describing in her blog) to some hole in the wall theatre outside of Baltimore just to see "King Kong" on a big movie screen instead on on TV, only to find that the print that they were showing was cut to ribbons and looked worse than my 1983 VHS copy - but we still got a big kick out of that evening anyway. <BR/><BR/>Sometimes Jim would surprise me with all kinds of "Kong" related presents. He gave me a great "Kong" T-shirt for my birthday last year (I'm wearing it right now). He also gave me his little "King Homer" plastic toy. And he and Betsy brought me back a really classy "Kong" toy from their trip to the Empire State Building when they went to see "Spamalot". All of them are cherished pieces that are proudly displayed on the "Kong" shelf in my living room. <BR/><BR/>"King Kong" in all its many forms was a great source of childlike enthusiasm for Jim and me, and watching it made us feel much younger than we were. I doubt that I'll ever have that same "Kong" connection with anyone ever again. I miss Jim very much, but I'll always feel close to him, as long as I can watch "King Kong". <BR/>- Johnoneders63https://www.blogger.com/profile/17201097021984543857noreply@blogger.com