Kong back at Orpheum, er, Utah

"King Kong" opens Friday in Salt Lake in the same theater where it premiered more than 43 years ago.

But many changes have taken place over the years.

First, the name of the theater has been changed. It used to be the Orpheum. Now it's the Utah. Next, the prices for shows are different. For the first "King Kong," charges were 20 cents to 1:30, 30 cents to 6 and 40 cents to close. It was the depth of the depression when the first "King Kong" was released - Feb. 25, 1933, to major cities and April 16, 1933, in Salt Lake.

Of course, changes have been made in the theater, too. It used to be one theater. Now it's two. Equipment and seating also have undergone many changes.

The biggest change, though, probably is in the movie itself. Even though the first movie was advertised as "the eighth wonder of the world," and it was reviewed in The Deseret News as "an exciting film thriller, will make you gasp," the sequel is reported to be even "bigger and better."

It opens in 1,043 theaters in the U.S. and Canada Friday and in another 1,000 throughout the world before Christmas. Six-three theaters in New York had to put up a minimum of $100,000 each to get the film, which reportedly has and advance of $20 million, biggest on record.

The first film, big as it was advertised, played only a week in Salt Lake after its opening because there weren't enough prints to go around and they had to move it to other cities. Now the supply of prints could be limitless.

The new "King Kong" has been hailed as "much better and more exciting than the original," which is exceptional praise. Few sequels rate that type of approval.

This "King Kong" cost $34 million to make. It has been surrounded by one of the longest and most expensive campaigns ever accorded a picture. The campaign started Nov. 30, 1975, with a full-page ad in the New York Times; announcing that the movie would appear one year later.

Dino De Laurentiis, the producer, had good reason to open the flood gate of publicity then. Universal Pictures had made an announcement that it would make "King Kong." De Laurentiis rushed into production with his "King Kong" before rights to the title were settled in the courts and even before he had the monster's mechanism perfected.

The classic story of beauty and the beast stars Jessica Lange, a New York and Paris fashion model, as Dwan, the young lady who is protected by the giant beast. Jeff Bridges plays the zoologist who engages in a contest for the lovely woman found adrift in the Pacific Ocean. The original Dwan was played by Fay Wray, a native of Salt Lake, now a 66-year-old sometime actress. She appeared in more than 100 movies after "King Kong," but that was the film for which she became known.