Every Picture Tells A Story

THE ART OF RAY HARRYHAUSEN

by Lee Cohen
(This article was written for RayHarryhausen.com and appears here in its original version)

Ray Harryhausen! The name itself conjures a childhood of stirring memories watching the great creations of myth and legend come to life on the big screen of many Saturday matinees. As a young man, no filmmaker meant more to me than Ray Harryhausen.

So, it was with great excitement that the American Cinematheque asked my independent bookstore and art gallery, Every Picture Tells A Story in Santa Monica, California, to host one of the first book signings in America for Ray’s biographical, illustration-laden opus, An Animated Life -- to be held just prior to a mini-festival of his filmed work.

Upon my first perusal of Ray’s book, I found my gallery owner’s eye caught by the stunning Dore-influenced production art that was reproduced in the pages. In addition to being the special effects avatar of my favorite fantasy films, Mr. Harryhausen was a distinctive and compelling illustrator, as well. I immediately had a cause: I wanted the world to know that Ray Harryhausen was an artist and that his production designs could stand alone and be appreciated as fine art.

Upon welcoming Ray to our gallery, my first questions had to with his artwork. Do you have the originals? Will you sell them? Can we do a show? Ray’s response was polite, but firm: he possessed all of his original drawings, but he did not sell them and furthermore, they never left his home in London.

Along with his representative, Arnold Kunert, Ray and I began to hatch a plot. Perhaps we could plan a not-for-sale exhibition and even allow a few of the originals to be reproduced as limited edition prints.

I flew to London in the summer of 2005 and was graciously welcomed into the residence of Ray and Diana Harryhausen. After lunch and conversation, I was taken up a winding staircase to Ray’s fantastic workshop. After an amazing tour of his models and artifacts, Ray opened a closet and stretched his long body up to a top shelf and began to pull down boxes of artwork. I sat spellbound on the floor looking at one masterwork after another. I was like that child again at the Saturday matinees when I first saw the Harryhausen films.

Ray and I came to an agreement - somewhat reservedly on his part. Ray would permit me to take a few of his creations back to the states to have them digitally scanned for the first time and for a subsequent exhibit at the gallery.

We introduced the world to the art of Ray Harryhausen later that year with the Ray Harryhausen Portfolio, which included art from Sinbad, Jason, 20 Million Miles and War of the Worlds. One of Ray’s great fans, Harlan Ellison, contributed a stirring essay and I persuaded Ray himself to write an introduction. It was the beginning of our Ray Harryhausen Collection and the gallery was packed with fans and friends of Ray, including John Landis, J.J.Abrams, Frank Darabont and Ray’s oldest friend, Ray Bradbury.

We would continue to publish new signed,limited editions of Ray’s art and continue to host special events with Ray -- at the gallery, at the Motion Picture Academy and at the San Diego Comic-Con. It has been my true and distinct pleasure to play a small role in allowing Ray Harryhausen’s art to be seen by so many. It has been a very special honor to get to know and become a friend of this great artist.

Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Merian C.Cooper's KING KONG

(This article appeared in the 2008 Comic-Con International Souvenir Program)

RESURRECTING KONG
by Lee Cohen

The original visions of King Kong had not been seen in their true state and artistic beauty in over seventy years. Seemingly, an unbelievable statement, but, as of just a few years ago, it was a fact.

The original 1933 King Kong production and concept art -- hand drawn in great detail by the film designers Willis O Brien, Byron Crabbe and Mario Larrinaga -- was gathering dust, fading and crumbling away in a vault in Southern California.

It was at Comic-Con 2005, that I was first told of the plight of the Kong art by illustrator Joe DeVito, who was, himself, working on contemporary Kong pieces. Joe had been intrigued by our company, Every Picture Tells A Story, because we had begun to publish and exhibit the production art of special effects master, Ray Harryhausen. Of course, the art of King Kong had been a major influence on the life and work of Harryhausen.

Through Joe DeVito and film historian Arnold Kunert, I was introduced to Col. Richard Cooper, the son of Kong creator, Merian C. Cooper. Col. Cooper and his family were excited by the Harryhausen art and he kindly offered to open the family vaults and bring to us the original Kong artwork.

The art arrived at our Santa Monica location in a surprising state. The production art that had survived numbered nine pieces in all. They were, for the most part, unwrapped and packed in old cardboard boxes. Some of them, notably a jungle scene, were incredibly fragile and crumbling at the edges. Others had faded -- grown dark and obscured.

Our job would be to photograph -for the first time -- these precious pieces in a state of the art digital process.

Over the years, there had been photos and reproductions of many of these images, but these representations were far from accurate. None of the reproductions had ever captured the myriad of details, the pathos and the horror that these gifted artists had been inspired to create. In the Kong in the Window piece, the frightened girl image is subtly reflected in the eye of Kong; in the Kong in the Street art, the terror is reflected on the individual faces of the victims. So many of these fantastic details had been lost in the dark and cropped repros seen over the years. But there was yet one more detail, one more discovery that proved the most revealing of all.

Joe DeVito had been helping us determine which of the trio of illustrators had created each of the pieces. But when it came to identifying the artist who had created the most famous Kong image -- arguably, the most iconic film image of all time -- we uncovered a singular mystery: none of the Kong scholars could ever agree on which of the film’s designers had drawn Kong atop the Empire State Building -- clutching Ann Darrell, fending off the oncoming bi-planes. There was no studio record and no research anywhere that indicated its creator.

And so...as we did with each of the images, we gazed in awe at the detail the newly digitized drawing had revealed: the shadings in the sky, the rich Manhattan landscape, the Empire State dome (drawn before the completion of the real life building!) and the figures within it. It was a fantastic piece of art, well worthy of its imperial reputation in film history.

And then we saw it.

In the right hand corner, what had been blackened by age in the original art and hidden for years, was now clearly revealed: the scrawled signature of production designer Mario Larrinaga! Mystery solved!

The original Kong production art was returned to the Cooper family for long term preservation and restoration. The Kong digital images were reproduced as fine art, limited edition prints and made available to the public. We were proud that our company could play a small role in the preservation and history of one of the greatest classics of the cinema -- and in doing so, pay tribute to the artistic achievement of its creators.

Happy 75th Birthday, King Kong! May you roar for generations to come!