It's Andy Fish!

I have a thing about dates– I can remember some incredibly odd ones. December 17th 1976 for example, was the day the remake of the 1933 KING KONG came out starring Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin (not to mention Rick Baker who was actually in the ape suit- something the film makers didn’t want to admit).

I loved that movie and my friends did too– we’d all go to see it every weekend through the winter of 1976/1977. My mom took me on opening night with some friends for my birthday and somehow we got to talking about the movie and she had fallen for the PR that KONG was played by a 40 foot tall Robot through the whole movie. I was beside myself that she thought that. It was clear it was a guy in a suit and thanks to indepespensible magazines like FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILM LAND I had the ability to compare the Kong that could actually walk around and the giant robot who could only stand stiffly and raise his arms in two scenes.

I also knew that makeup maestro Rick Baker was the guy in the suit. If you went back in time and told little Andy that someday he would meet, have real conversations and make a connection with Rick Baker he would have fallen over dead. Same goes for David Prowse who was the actor in the Darth Vader suit who was in my young mind the only saving grace of the movie that would follow in the spring, STAR WARS.

The date is burned into my mind because the movie campaign was endless and every single ad, trailer and preview emphasized COMING DEC 17th– and going to the movies with my friends and my mom 10 days before my birthday was a very happy memory.