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Gorilla suits are a type of creature suit resembling a gorilla. The gorilla suit is a popular Halloween and costume party costume, and is also used as a source of humour, while more realistic suits have been used both to represent real gorillas in film and on stage.
In 1869, Noah Brooks' short story, "Mr. Columbus Coriander's Gorilla" appeared in Bret Harte's Overland Monthly Magazine. The story concerned a young man employed at a menagerie dressed in a gorilla suit. [1]
In film, gorillas are often portrayed by actors in gorilla suits. The 1918 silent film Tarzan of the Apes has the first known instance of an ape suit, worn by an uncredited actor. [2] The early history of the art of gorilla impersonation saw the rise of Charles Gemora in the late 1920s, an early practitioner of the art in such short films as Circus Lady and the Our Gang entry Bear Shooters . Gemora's original gorilla suit was hand-made and stuffed with kapok. [2] In later decades, in addition to abounding in the Ape Woman films (consisting of Captive Wild Woman , Jungle Woman , and The Jungle Captive ) and B movies such as Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla . Other noted Hollywood gorilla performers were George Barrows, Steve Calvert, Ray Corrigan, Emil Van Horn and Janos Prohaska. Marlene Dietrich famously donned a gorilla suit in the film Blonde Venus (1932), when making a stage entrance to sing "Hot Voodoo". This moment was parodied by the character Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin (1997).
In recent[ as of? ] decades, the work of performers or designers have altered the mechanics and effect of gorilla suits, often using animatronics, taxidermy eyes, realistic fur, and other aides. Jim Henson utilized typical gorilla suits and even a full-bodied gorilla Muppet in several productions (like in Time Piece , The Cube , some episodes of Sesame Street , and the Avery Schreiber episode of The Muppet Show ). The person inside the gorilla suit is often uncredited. Jim Henson's Creature Shop has contributed to this development in its own way, through work on Buddy , George of the Jungle , and MirrorMask . Many suit performers of Henson's characters portrayed gorillas in other productions.
Gorilla suits and masks are also used to disguise their wearer. Members of the feminist artist group Guerrilla Girls maintain their anonymity by wearing gorilla masks for their public appearances. [3] In an effort to avoid reporters, Boston Red Sox manager Theo Epstein donned a gorilla suit when he left Fenway Park after announcing his resignation in 2005. [4]
During the annual Great Gorilla Runs held in North American and British cities, runners in gorilla suits take part in an eight-kilometre fun run to raise money for The Gorilla Organization. The event started in 2003 in London. [5] Finnish racing driver Kimi Räikkönen was part of a gorilla-suited motorboat race crew in 2007 and has attended parties in a gorilla suit. [4]
In 2013, author Dan Savage referenced gorilla suit fetishes when speaking at the University of Oregon. [6] The gorilla suit is often used sexually in burlesque theater, stag parties, and strip shows. One episode of the reality TV show The A-List: Dallas featured male models hired to strip out of gorilla costumes to show off the skimpy underwear products underneath. [7] Comedian Sarah Silverman posed for a Maxim cover, scantily dressed inside a gorilla suit. [8]
In a video that went viral, the problem of situational awareness was demonstrated when viewers were asked to watch carefully and count the number of times a team of basketball players wearing white passed the basketball back and forth while playing against a team wearing black. During the gameplay, a gorilla-suited human walked onto the scene, stood in the midst of the players, beat his chest for a few seconds, and then exited. Because of situational awareness, a large percentage of viewers did not notice the gorilla. [9]
In 2017 Francesco Gabbani won Sanremo Music Festival and took the 6th place at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv accompanied by dancer Filippo Ranaldi wearing a gorilla suit. [10]
In 1963, Don Martin published National Gorilla Suit Day in a collection Don Martin Bounces Back [ d ], in which Fester Bestertester mocks the (fictitious at the time) concept of a National Gorilla Suit Day, and suffers a series of incredible assaults from gorillas and other beasts in various suits. [4] [11] Martin and his collaborator E. Solomon Rosenblum wrote the story as a satire of the greeting card industry. "It's only an excuse for gorilla suit manufacturers to sell their products!" Bestertester complained.
Subsequently, Don Martin fans have celebrated National Gorilla Suit Day on January 31. [12]
A gorillagram is a gift message, similar to a singing telegram, but delivered by a performer dressed in a gorilla suit. [13] "Gorilla-Gram" is an abandoned trademark of Gorilla Gram Inc., first used commercially on March 20, 1980. [14]
The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, their media franchise encompasses films, television, music, and other media associated with the characters. Owned by the Jim Henson Company for nearly five decades, the Muppets and their franchise were acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2004.
The Muppet Show is a variety sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and starring the Muppets. It is presented as a variety show, featuring recurring sketches and musical numbers interspersed with ongoing plot-lines with running gags taking place backstage and in other areas of the venue.
Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character created by Jim Henson and Jon Stone for the PBS/HBO children's television program Sesame Street. He has a green body, no visible nose, and lives in a trash can. Oscar's favorite thing is trash, as evidenced by the song "I Love Trash", with a running theme being his collection of seemingly useless items. Although the term "Grouch" aptly describes Oscar's misanthropic interaction with the other characters, it also refers to his species. The character was originally performed by Caroll Spinney from the show's first episode until his retirement. Eric Jacobson began understudying for the character in 2015, and in 2018 officially became the primary performer of the role following Spinney's retirement.
Rubber fetishism, or latex fetishism, is the fetishistic attraction to people wearing latex clothing or, in certain cases, to the garments themselves. PVC fetishism is closely related to rubber fetishism, with the former referring to shiny clothes made of the synthetic plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the latter referring to clothes made of rubber, which is generally thicker, less shiny, and more matte than latex. PVC is sometimes confused with the similarly shiny patent leather, which is also a fetish material. Latex or rubber fetishists sometimes refer to themselves as "rubberists". Male rubberists tend to call themselves "rubbermen".
Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the children's television show Sesame Street. An eight-foot-two-inch-tall (249 cm) bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skate, ice skate, dance, swim, sing, write poetry, draw, and ride a unicycle. Despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as a single word. He would refer to grocer Mr. Hooper as "Mr. Looper", among other mispronunciations. He lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and right next to Oscar the Grouch's trash can. In Season 46, the nest sits within a small, furnished maple tree, and is no longer hidden by used construction doors. He has a teddy bear named Radar.
Brian Henson is an American puppeteer, filmmaker, actor and the chairman of The Jim Henson Company. He is the son of puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson.
Congo is a 1995 American science fiction action-adventure film based on the 1980 novel by Michael Crichton. It was directed by Frank Marshall and stars Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Grant Heslov, Joe Don Baker and Tim Curry. The film was released on June 9, 1995, by Paramount Pictures and tells the story of an expedition team and a mountain gorilla owned by one of its members who go to the Congo jungles to find a missing expedition and the ruins of an ancient civilization where diamonds might be located while encountering the gray gorillas that lurk near there.
"Bein' Green" is a song written by Joe Raposo, originally performed by Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog on both Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. It later was covered by Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Van Morrison, and other performers. "Bein' Green" is considered the signature song of Kermit the Frog.
George of the Jungle is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Sam Weisman and based on Jay Ward and Bill Scott's 1967 American animated television series of the same name, which in turn is a spoof of the fictional character Tarzan, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Written by Dana Olsen and Audrey Wells, and starring Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church, Holland Taylor, Richard Roundtree and John Cleese. It tells the story of a young man raised by wild animals who falls for an heiress and contends with the heiress's spoiled and narcissistic fiancé. The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and was released in theatres throughout the United States and Canada on July 16, 1997. It was later aired on Disney Channel in the United States on December 5, 1998. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $174 million worldwide. A sequel, George of the Jungle 2, was released direct-to-video on October 21, 2003.
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla is a 1952 American comedy horror science fiction film, directed by William Beaudine and starring horror veteran Bela Lugosi with nightclub performers Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo in roles approximating the then-popular duo of Martin and Lewis.
Representations of gorillas are common in popular culture in the Western world with the full range of electronic media having gorillas as mascots, gorillas behaving like humans, and humans behaving like gorillas.
Ingagi is a 1930 pre-Code pseudo-documentary exploitation film directed by William S. Campbell. It purports to be a documentary about "Sir Hubert Winstead" of London on an expedition to the Belgian Congo, and depicts a tribe of gorilla-worshipping women encountered by the explorer. The film claims to show a ritual in which African women are given over to gorillas as sex slaves, but in actuality was mostly filmed in Los Angeles, using American actresses in place of natives. It was produced and distributed by Nat Spitzer's Congo Pictures, which had been formed expressly for this production. Although marketed under the pretense of being ethnographic, the premise was a fabrication, leading the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association to retract any involvement.
Terri Hardin Jackson is an American puppeteer, artist, and former Disney imagineer.
Ray "Crash" Corrigan was an American actor most famous for appearing in many B-Western movies. He also was a stuntman and frequently acted as silver screen gorillas using his own gorilla costumes.
Steve Calvert was a prolific gorilla suit performer in many Hollywood films and television shows from the late 1940s through the 1950s. He took the stage name Calvert from Calvert Whisky.
Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a British-American animation and special effects company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based in Hollywood, California, United States.
Time Piece is a 1965 American independent experimental short film directed, written, produced by and starring Jim Henson. The film depicts an ordinary man living in constant motion, in a desperate attempt to escape the passage of time. Time Piece is notable as one of the few live-action projects Jim Henson produced that did not involve any form of puppetry. The short film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1966.
Creature suits are realistic costumes used to disguise a performer as an animal, monster, or other being. They are used in film, television, or as costumed characters in live events. Unlike mascots, they are often made with a high degree of realism. In contrast with prosthetic makeup, which is applied to an actor's skin, the wearer is not normally visible outside their movements controlling the costume, although in some cases, part of the wearer's body is still visible.
Emil Van Horn was an American stuntman and actor. Together with Charles Gemora, Ray Corrigan, Steve Calvert, and George Barrows, he was known as one of Hollywood's "Gorilla Men" – performers who wore a gorilla suit to portray apes on stage and screen. Among the films he appeared in were The Ape Man (1943) with Bela Lugosi, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) with W.C. Fields, and the adventure serials Jungle Girl (1941) and Perils of Nyoka (1942).