As someone once said, “It was beauty killed the beast!”
Mechanical “prehistoric gorilla” from Messmore & Damon’s attraction “The World a Million Years Ago,” which debuted at the Chicago World’s Fair (1933-4), “A Century of Progress.” Of course, no such fantastic ape ever lived. But the Fair opened the same year that the movie King Kong appeared, and so…
Souvenir postcard (left) showing poster art from the movie that inspired Messmore and Damon’s giant “prehistoric” ape. Below, another giant “prehistoric gorilla,” this one, as seen in this postcard (one of a set), one of the many exhibits displayed at Dinosaur Land, in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
