Sunday, June 28, 2020

South of the border Simian!!!

For those kids who were born in the early late 40's and early 50's TV was still a relatively new thing in their lives....especially COLOR programing !
Yet in 1954, when there were very few color television sets around, there were a few high profile shows that stood out from the crowd by being shot in color.
One such show was " The Cisco Kid" a heroic Mexican "Robin Hood" of sorts, who rode through the old West, stealing from corrupt wealthy villains, and giving to the poor and downtrodden.
Cisco Kid has the distinction of being the very first TV series to be shot in color...Though most fans saw him in black and white until the 60's when color TV was much more commonplace.
Cisco was played by the heroic and dashing Duncan Renaldo, with his faithful and comedic sidekick
Pancho, played by the great character actor Leo Carillo.
The series was even immortalized in the 70's by the rock group WAR in their hit song " Cisco Kid" !

By now you are likely scratching your head wondering what in the heck this has to do with Gorilla Men...Well, oddly enough, Cisco featured a gorilla .. Not just any gorilla, it was Steve Calvert in
one of the suits he bought from Crash Corrigan. This suit had a new face, distinctive to Calvert.
Not only do we see it in action as a gorilla...in color!...but we also get a fantastic glimpse of the suit
AS a gorilla suit !!! You guessed it, the gorilla was a fake, used to scare people off in the finest tradition of Scooby Doo ! I won't spoil the fun, but you'll be asking yourself how much adventure can you cram into a half hour show!
You can find the episode online if you'd like to give it a watch, the episode is called " Cisco Meets
The Gorilla" .
A huge thanks goes out to Craig Scott Lamb, founder of the Facebook
Ape Suit Cinema group for the following screen captures !!!





Until next time Ape Amigos !