Happy National Gorilla Suit Day ! Janaury 31st 2015

It's that time of year again gang !
As we all know, Mad Magazine legend Don Martin created National Gorilla Suit Day originally as a skit in Mad....Never realizing it would catch on as a real, honest ta gosh holiday !
Now anyone who owns, or can borrow, or rent a gorilla suit can participate !
 Or if you can't get a gorilla suit, you can coat yourself in glue and roll on the floor of a barbershop and celebrate too !
 The thing is to go out into the world, and do something...anything...in a gorilla suit !
Go to a party, hang at a bar, go shopping, yard work, whatever gorilla suits your fancy !
Just be SAFE in what you do ! no driving or anything dangerous wearing a suit ...play safe, and have fun !
That's what Don Martin had in mind when he came up with it, and fun is the name of the game !

Here are some shots of  Movie Monster making Monkey Man Chris Walas and myself celebrating last year....So take photos of yourselves doing your gorilla thing !
You can send your photos to  Hollywoodgorillamen@gmail.com and see them right here !

Now....GO APE !!!!!

ZOOT !!!

Maddening Monkey Mystery....SOLVED !!!...Meet Jack Leonard !

Hiya gang !,
If there's on thing I love, it's solving a mystery !
Especially if the mystery is finding the identities of those hard working guys who toiled long hours in impossibly hot and heavy gorilla suits....and never got credit !!!
For over 6 years we've searched far and wide trying to find the secret Identity of THIS gorilla !

This fellow has appeared in Terry and the Pirates (1940 ) Mickey's Ape Man (1933) and  Tim Tyler's Luck (1937 )
This had not only stumped Gorilla man and myself but also the grand master of gorilla history, Bob Burns.

Thanks to (Charles Gemora) historian Jason Barnett... we have the answer ! While doing research for his upcoming  documentary about Charlie, (more to come on that !) Jason came across this article :

After a quick check into it, Jason also produced this photo :

Here Jack Leonard grapples with big Tom Tyler in "The Jungle Mystery" (1932 )

With that bit of concrete information on Jack Leonard, the members of our sister site on Facebook, Ape Suit Cinema went into action...and the info started growing. As we would compile it, we would find even more clues along the way

 As you can see, Jack Leonard's gorilla was the focal point of at least one chapter of The Jungle Mystery.

You can really see the beautiful hair work on Leonard's suit in this shot ! The proportions are fantastic as well.

Photo courtesy Craig Scott Lamb/ASC

Leonard had a second, more comical head he used with the same body later in his gorilla career.

This head was seen most prominently in Terry and the Pirates 1940.

For Terry, the ears were made more  pronounced by trimming the fur on the head shorter.

As goofy as it was, it did look kind of fun to me.

Leonard's role in Terry was huge by gorilla standards and came very close in screen time to Emil Van Horn's hefty role as "Satan" in Peril's of Nyoka .

Leonard had teamed up with the great Charles Gemora three years earlier in Tim Tyler's Luck (1937) as two rampaging gorillas locked in deadly combat !

Jack Leonard (left) Vs Charles Gemora !

Note the very distinct differences in faces. 

Jack Leonard...another lost gorilla man found !

A very special thanks to Bob Burns, Jason Barnett, Craig Scott Lamb, Chris Walas, and George Chastain, for their invaluable help solving this Monkey Man Mystery !

Was this the first Hollywood Gorilla Man ???

Hey there true believers ! How much excitement are you looking for ?!?!
I just had to borrow Stan Lee's line because it seems so perfect for this great discovery !
My dear friend and brother in arms, Craig Scott Lamb ( the creator of our Facebook sister site Ape Suit Cinema) has gone above and beyond in this exciting discovery !
While researching an exciting new movie project about a gorilla man we know and love (more on this later)
Craig stumbled across this incredible bit of history !
The 20 chapter serial " the Perils of Pauline" (1914) featured this early gorilla suit.
Unfortunately the full 20 chapter version is lost to the ages and we are left with the shorter 9 chapter version.
As bad luck would have it the gorilla does not appear in the shorter version...
All that is left are these few amazing photos, and damned fine ones they are !
With a date of 1914, we can't find any instances of an earlier ape suit in a motion picture....ever!
So it looks like Craig found the one...the only...First ever Hollywood Gorilla Man!

This is truly an amazing find !
Our HGM master gorilla suit builder Chris Walas pointed out that the eye opening for this suit was a single opening rather than two individual eye holes.
Another more famous instance of this configuration was Emil VanHorn's  suit !
 It a damned shame that this gorilla footage was lost with the longer cut of the serial.
Had it survived it would be a great addition to our collection of Simian Cinema !


The Perils of Pauline (1914) was produced by the Electric Film Company and distributed by  Pathe.

Chris Walas's Build-up Gorilla Bash...The FINAL chapter!!!

Wow!
This has been one hell of a great run !
Hopefully we've all gained the skills and know how to, if not build a suit outright, to make pro quality modifications to your existing suit.
To give you his last word, here's Chris Walas...


IN SUMMATION.

It's been a fun little diversion putting this suit together out of leftovers and Craiglist finds. While I didn't wind up with a world class gorilla suit, Mogo will be great for his intended use; intimidating goofy hand puppets in a silly web series. I won't be covering the next phase, Mogo's suit of armor, as that's probably outside the realm of this site and also because I don't think I'll get to it for a while.
I did this suit using these particular techniques and approaches for two reasons: I needed a goofy gorilla suit and I didn't have the money to do it right. A quick glance back tells me that I only spent about $50 out of pocket, but that's only because I had or scrounged almost all the materials. A quick guesstimate of what you would pay if you had to buy all the materials would be around $700 more or less. If you used the materials I mention below, you can probably double that number. Still extremely cheap compared to a film quality construction where the fur alone would likely be $4,000 or more.

For anyone who's actually interested in attempting something like this, a few humble suggestions:

-Make sure you have plenty of good ventilation at all times. Glue fumes are horrible and faux fur sheds fine hairs that go down your throat.

-Have a good heavy duty vacuum on hand and use it often. I was vacuuming at least four to six times a day trying to stay ahead of the shedding fur.

-I glued a lot of this suit together, mostly due to time constraints, but sewing as much as possible is preferable. It's more time consuming but it's also less toxic, lighter and less stiff than gluing.

-Buy the very best fur you can afford. While I think the fur on this suit doesn't look as bad as it probably should, there are much, much better furs out there that will give you a far better look.

-Better padding. If your budget allows, avoid the standard upholstery polyurethane foam that I used. It's hot and tends to be stiff, which can wear you down more quickly when performing in the suit. I did it to prove a point to myself about how cheaply I could do this, but I would much rather have used open cell foam. This is a more expensive foam that can be found under names like Fast-dry Foam, Quick-Dry Foam, Dry-fast Foam, etc. It's used a lot in exterior pillows and such. As it is open cell, it allows more air to move more freely than regular polyfoam. It compresses more easily and is also lighter. Another option is regular polyfill in sewn padding, which is a technique Chris Casteel will be covering in his great "cheap suit conversion".

- Start with a unitard. They're cheap and can be had for as low as $30. The suit will fit better and be easier to do the construction on.

-If possible, use a head cast of the performer and a good duct tape dummy of the same. The more accurate the basic form, the better the suit and head will fit and work.

-Take your time. If you haven't done any build-up before you may want to do a test patch somewhere first to get a feel for it. I find build-up to be fun and relaxing and I think it works exceptionally well for certain purposes, but it does take time.

-Buy or make a chill pack vest. These are available online or you can easily make them yourself with cold-packs. They will allow you to stay in the suit a lot longer and a lot more comfortably.

-Have fun. Really. Just have fun. Build-up is very forgiving if you make mistakes. Just cut away what you don't like and try again. You'll love it.

So ends my Gorilla build-up suit series. I hope some of you enjoyed it and I hope that maybe one or two of you out there might actually find it helpful in building your own suits.
Here's a few shots of Mogo in the back yard this morning;

Oh, and one more thing. I can't remember if I mentioned it earlier or not, but amidst Mogo's construction I got so "gorilla mad" with all the great conversation on the FaceBook Ape Suit Cinema page and emails between Chris Casteel and myself I decided to do a quick sculpted gorilla mask as a sort of more regular head for the Mogo suit. It's inspired by my gorilla man hero, Charlie Gemora, and while it's not a copy of any specific Gemora head, I was definitely going for some of the great feel he had in his designs.

And while the suit doesn't really fit with the head all that much, I think it still looks just fine and I'm amazed at how decent this really bad fur can look!

I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I did and thanks for tagging along.

On behalf of Gorilla Man and myself (Bongo), Thank you so much for your amazing work Chris !

As a member of our Hollywood Gorilla Men family, your amazing simian exploits will be followed intently on this humble blog...Thanks again my awesome gorilla brother!

Chris Walas's Build-Up Gorilla Bash !!! Part 10.....Body Building !

Now that we've got a foot in the door, next we'll work up our best Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation, and tackle a little "Body Building."

Back to Chris Walas !....

Now that we have a head, a pair of hands and a pair of feet, all we need is a body to attach them to. I should make it quite clear here that I would not normally make a suit of any kind in this manner. I'm doing it this way as an illustration and a personal exercise. I've challenged myself to use was much of the Craigslist foam as I can and I committed to making use of the two cheap Halloween gorilla suits I found. Even if I was to do this as a build-up again, I wouldn't use polyfoam or pre-existing suits. I would use open cell foam and buy higher quality faux fur by the yard. The open cell foam (known as Quick-dry, Dry-Fast, Fast-Dry, etc.) is used in upholstery for outdoor cushions and such. It's lighter and stronger than polyfoam and lets much more air move through it. It's harder to shape and cut, but it's worth it.
Also, normally the suit would be carefully planned out and I would be working off of patterns to match side-to-side, etc. But I'm racing through this thing as I'm under the gun on other things, so I'm really just winging my way through it all!
Let's forge ahead with the body-building!

Here I've sewn the t-shirt to the sweatpants and sliced the T-shirt down the back. I was planning on putting two zippers on this suit: one on the T-shirt and one on the fur. But I decided that one strong zipper on the fur should be enough and make the suit easier to get in and out of. We'll see.

For now, I'm just pinning the back closed until I glue foam over it to hold it solidly.

I'm starting with a 2" thick former seat cushion as the chest piece. I've cut darts to shape it before gluing it in place.

Next, I added a belly piece lower down with open vents to help take up movement after the fur is applied. The mid section of foam between the top and bottom pieces is only 1" thick and glued to the outer edges of the other pieces. Hopefully this will also allow a little more movement. A simple collar ring was added as well.

In this next photo you can see that I've added another section to the belly to build it out further. I have to be careful as I have a limited amount of usable fur, so I can't make this guy too huge! I've added pectoral muscles, sliced a gap for movement under them and added shoulders. The shoulders work like epaulets and are only attached along the top of the shoulder, again to allow as much movement as possible.

After that, I blocked in the upper arms and upper legs. The foam on the thighs extends just beyond the knee. Hopefully, combined with the lower belly, this will help suggest shorter legs.

Once I felt comfortable with the front, I blocked in the back. I would have built this out thicker, but again, I'm concerned about being able to cover it with the fur I have. Note that I have attempted to leave open sections uncovered by foam between areas wherever possible. Foam gets noticeably stiffer after it's been glued to cloth and fur, so any option for increasing movement should be taken.

I'm stopping the foam work at this point because it is the end of the day and I want to do the finish work on the chest so that the latex has time to dry overnight.
The top of the belly foam had an edge that I couldn't quite trim down enough with scissors, so I wound up having to sand it smoother. Yes, foam can be sanded, but it's not easy. Use very rough sandpaper and light strokes.

When it looked like it was good enough, I went ahead and added the batting/latex work.

Note that this covers the gap I cut between pecs and belly. In effect, this skin is loose over an open gap and should flex and fold a little when worn.

This morning I finished up the foam work, adding lower legs, more rear end and making sure that edges were glued down.

The black line up the back shows where the back will be sliced open and where the zipper will go. I'll probably fiddle with the foam a little here and there a bit more, but this is where we'll stop for now. Next time, we move on to my greatest fear on this whole project: making those crummy costumes fit this much larger form!

Chris Walas's Build-Up Gorilla Bash !!!.. Part 9...Time to face...Da Feet !

Holy Ape suit Gorilla Gang !
If you've been following along thus far, Academy Award Winning, Special Effects Make-up Artist Chris Walas has taken us through a step by step process of constructing a build-up gorilla suit.
With the head, Hands, and lower Arms out of the way, it only makes sense to take the next steps into some gorilla feet !

Now, without further ado...Mr. Chris Walas !!!

The Foots.

The feet are pretty straightforward and if you are attempting to try this yourself, you should be at a point that you feel fairly comfortable with the build-up technique by now. I won't be adding much detail of the bottoms of the the feet as I really want the base of the shoe to be hitting the floor, not a layer of foam padding.

I start with a rough outline of where I want to go with the feet. Normally, a gorilla stands and walks with his/her "thumb toe" straight out, or perpendicular to the side of the foot. This gets a bit clunky when wearing big rubber feet so I'm making the concession of angling the toe in a bit.

I'm cutting the toes out in blocks rather than build them up individually as I did with the fingers. Chances are there won't be a lot of close-ups of these feet. In fact, they'll likely never been seen in the intended use. I draw out the basic approach on a block of foam for the toes;

I trimmed this out and made sure it roughly fit around the front of the shoe.

I'm doing both feet at the same time, largely because I'm in a rush to get these done to clear space for other projects! But also to keep better tabs on matching them. Both sets of toes are formed to the same level of finish.

Once they are glued on, I add a piece of 1/2" foam to fill in the top of the foot.

Here's what they look like from the bottom, I've already added a coat of contact cement to the sole of the shoe so that the next coat will adhere even better.

On to the batting. I'm trying to cover as much as possible on the bottom in one piece. This is to keep it even. Lumps in the batting will be felt when wearing the feet, so I'm working from the bottom tot the top.

For the sake of speed, I'm covering the entire foot with batting so I can speed up the latexing.

First coat of latex goes on and some detail is drawn in;

Most of this will actually disappear under subsequent layers of latex. Feet get a lot of wear and abuse , so it's going to take a number of coats of latex to get these soles thick enough.

The top will take a bit more detail and I'll be adding toenails later.

Once the feet are dry. I simply use some batting to form cuticles for the nails.

Once they've been latexed and dried, I add some batting cut to shape for the nails.

I used a spatula to apply and smooth the latex for the nails, then drew in a crack or two.

I've been adding many layers of latex to the bottoms all along and now it's time to do the furring.

I like to use two overlapping pieces of fur on feet like this. The first piece covers the back of the foot.

While the second, larger piece covers the front half of the foot and overlaps (but is not glued to) the back section of fur.

This technique allows non-stretch fur like this to be brought up higher and closer to the ankle than you can normally do. And it also allows the fur to be folded over to make putting the feet on quite a bit easier;

SO… now we have a head, a pair of unpainted hands/forearms and a pair of unpainted feet for this gorilla.

So much for the easy stuff. While doing the mouth is the most demanding in many ways, the main body of the suit is certainly the most cumbersome and awkward to do.
So that's what we'll do… next time.