Marcel Delgado

On 24th of November 2009 the original 1933 King Kong model as used in the film and designed/built by Delgado was sold at an auction for 200,000 dollars. Made out of steel with ball-and-socket joints and covered with rabbit hair it stands 18 inches tall and weighs some ten pounds.

Marcel Delgado was born in 1901 in Mexico. After moving to California he took an interest in Art and ultimately met his future friend and mentor Willis O' Brien. His first work was on 'The Lost World', vastly improving the techniques formerly used to make models appear as life-like creatures. Football bladders were used to mimic breathing and chocolate served as blood. The models of the film were were exhibited in Los Angeles in the Museum of Arts and Sciences for many years until time caught up with them and rubber parts started to disintegrate. For a period they were accidentally sealed between walls, but were recovered later. During the production of The Lost World Delgado was treated with respect, but when a follow-up 'Atlantis' was stopped he was demoted to a regular laboring job and often shunned because of his Mexican nationality. After a switch to RKO he became a unknown genius with his work on 'King Kong', where most of the - relative - intricate mechanisms were his work. A number of unrealized projects followed until the relative sixes of 'Mighty Joe Young' where the technical standards of the various models really reached a peak. Subsequent work on later films was mostly uncredited.