Between King Kong and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms there was Mighty Joe Young. The 1949 creature feature perfected many of the techniques pioneering stop-motion animator Willis O’Brien had deployed to spellbinding effect in 1933’s Kong and was the proving ground for a young up-and-comer named Ray Harryhausen, who would take the art form to new heights in the 1950s and ’60s.
The story of a young woman and her simian companion who decamp from Africa to Hollywood, Mighty Joe Young was light on plot and heavy on effects, ultimately winning the Oscar for its groundbreaking gorilla. A 1998 remake starred Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton.
Now, after 70 years in hibernation, what is believed to be the only surviving Mighty Joe Young puppet has resurfaced. Constructed by master model maker Marcel Delgado, another of O’Brien’s trusted collaborators, the 15-inch puppet retains most of its original latex skin, fur covering, and internal articulated armature (X-rays have shown that its original mechanical skeleton survives) — a rarity for stop-motion puppets of the era.
The puppet has had just three known owners, beginning with Mighty Joe Young co-producer and co-director Ernest B. Schoedsack. Its most recent caretaker was legendary visual effects artist and puppeteer Lyle Conway, who safeguarded it for nearly 50 years.
As Brandon Alinger, the chief operating officer of Prophouse, tells Gold Derby in a brief Q&A, this “is one of the most historically significant filmmaking artifacts” to become publicly available. The Mighty Joe Young puppet will be one of the showpiece items during a four-day Propstore auction beginning Aug. 26, where it’s expected to fetch between $1 million and $3 million.
Gold Derby: How did this puppet manage to survive in such good condition after 70 years?
Brandon Alinger: The survival is all down to the care the prior owners placed in handling the piece. The puppet only ever had three owners — the first was one of the original filmmakers [Schoedsack], and the latter two were serious collectors who prized the piece and took exceptionally good care of it. It was kept out of sunlight and handled extremely rarely for the past 60-plus years, with only minor amounts of restoration and touch-up work undertaken on the face and hands. It’s an amazing survivor.
This is such a significant artifact — it’s a no-longer-missing link between Willis O’Brien’s groundbreaking King Kong and the seminal work of Ray Harryhausen in the 1950s and 1960s, which in turn influenced some of the greatest contemporary animators and filmmakers. What was your reaction when this Mighty Joe Young puppet first came to Propstore?
I was blown away. I had heard of the piece previously and knew of its existence, but to see it before you is an amazing experience. It is one of the most historically significant filmmaking artifacts that has ever come through our doors at Propstore.
What was behind the decision to make the puppet available for auction now?
The most recent owner was Lyle Conway, a noted figure within the effects community and a collector himself, who owned it for approximately 50 years. Lyle, who was a friend of ours, very sadly passed away at the end of last year, leading to the piece coming in for auction.
Willis O’Brien is such a towering figure in effects and animation, but what can you tell us about the contributions of Marcel Delgado?
Marcel Delgado is widely credited for building and maintaining the puppets on both King Kong and Mighty Joe Young, and he worked extremely closely with Willis O’Brien. We should also note that Delgado worked with a team as well as various subcontractors. Delgado is extremely highly regarded amongst O’Brien scholars and made a very important contribution. Lyle Conway was a fan of all of these men, and I believe he met Delgado in the 1970s to discuss his work on the films.
Have there been any similar comps in terms of stop-motion puppets to come to auction over the years?
It’s been many years since an original stop-motion puppet from this era, and of this significance, has come to auction. We would liken its significance in visual effects to an X-wing fighter model from the first Star Wars that we sold a number of years ago, which went for more than $2 million.
What would be your dream puppet to surface?
Without being cliché, this is truly one of them. If an original King Kong puppet surfaced with intact skin and fur, it would arguably be the dream piece — but it is widely understood that only armatures remain. The other stop-motion puppets that approach the same level of importance would be figures from later in Harryhausen’s career, such as the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts. I don’t believe any of those have ever sold, but we can imagine them commanding high values as well.
As far as stop-motion artifacts that have reached public auction, it’s hard to point to something on this level in terms of both its condition and originality, and its significance to the stop-motion craft and to filmmaking at large.
