That’s right, Bill. Thanks for reminding me of that.

Willis O’Brien’s original idea was to do a stop-motion animated film called (brace yourselves) KING KONG VS FRANKENSTEIN!! The Frankenstein Monster in question was to be a weird biological giant created in a laboratory and would somehow end up on Skull Island in a bout of fisticuffs with Kong. Although I have my suspicions, I’m not certain exactly why the film was never made.

Nor do I have any idea how (or even if) this movie was to fit into the original KING KONG and SON OF KONG continuity. However, based on Obie’s very cool preproduction illustrations, I think the movie could have been a lot of fun. There was an early issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS that printed some of these drawings, and—although it does seem like kind of a silly idea today—I’ll bet the audiences of fifty or sixty years ago would have eaten it up. Me too, no doubt.

On the down side, O’Brien’s widow once reported that he was very upset about KING KONG VS GODZILLA, a concept which, he believed, had be stolen from him. Understandably, he was especially heartbroken by the phony-looking Kong in that film.

Apparently, prior to the 1931 Universal version, Obie was also very interested in bringing the FRANKENSTEIN novel to the screen, with an animated puppet in the role of the Monster. Could have been very interesting.

Martin