A film historian’s account of King Kong’s nine-decade screen career, expanded with new research after two decades, comes to Pasadena Tuesday.
Ray Morton will discuss and sign “King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon” at Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., at 7 p.m., according to Vroman’s event listing and Morton’s author website. The listings identify the book as a revised and updated edition, published by Bloomsbury Academic.
The book traces the history of the King Kong franchise from the 1933 classic through its sequels, remakes and MonsterVerse films, along with the character’s impact on popular culture. That scope covers Kong’s original screen debut, the character’s later sequels, the Dino De Laurentiis and Peter Jackson remakes, and the more recent MonsterVerse films, according to the publisher’s description of the book.
The new edition expands on a book of the same title Morton first published in 2005, according to his author website and the publisher. Morton conducted new interviews for the update, the sources say. He is also the author of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Spielberg’s Classic Film” and several other film histories, according to his publisher biography.
Vroman’s was founded in 1894. A Yelp business listing for the store describes it as the oldest independent bookstore in Southern California, a characterization that has not been independently confirmed.
For more information, call Vroman’s at 626-449-5320.
The updated edition also covers the King Kong character’s appearances in other media, including television and comics, according to the publisher’s description of the book.
