king kong lives

In 1997, while enjoying a semester of college in LA, I took a class on documentary filmmaking. It culminated with everyone splitting up and working in teams to make some short docs to be graded. My friend, Jason, had an idea for a documentary short involving some local guy who kept some old movie artifacts. I thought it would be a fun time. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. For the man we were to document was none other than BOB BURNS!


"Who?" I heard you ask. Well, take a gander what's in ol' Bob's hands. That is the ORIGINAL King Kong model from 1933. All its fur has deteriorated since then, but the skeletal structure remains. See, Bob has been in the movie business for ages and when most studios were throwing away their spaceship models and props, Bob took them home. His collection grew and grew and so did his reputation, as filmmakers soon started giving him their props and models! They knew Bob would take good care of them. If you happen to wander into his basement, you'll find a full size American Werewolf, the original Time Machine, the Maltese Falcon, and hundreds of other delights.

When I walked into his home, I was in awe. You just can't imagine the amount of stuff he has. You can barely move around and it all goes up to the ceiling! Of course, he had plenty of great stories of his days in the business. We taped them and thanked him and went on our way.

ANYWAY, so today I logged on to Ain't It Cool and found THIS SHORT FILM documenting Bob's trip to New Zealand to visit the set of Peter Jackson's King Kong. It brought a big smile to my face and just thought I'd share it.