Revisiting History: The King has Arrived…King Kong

by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA

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I was reading my email and perusing the news articles when I came across a piece on the opening of the new King Kong movie “Skull Island”. The nostalgia bug bit me and I started to read. There have been several Kong movies over the years, but the U.S. opening of this new movie coincides with the 84th anniversary of the original. The Astrologer within me sat straight up in my chair!  A Uranus return! Time to go to work…

As you can imagine, there is a plethora of material on King Kong. I started with Wikipedia and wended my way through several sources, enough to give me a natal chart. King Kong was the brainchild of author Merian C. Cooper who, at age 6, discovered the world of intrepid explorers. He had an unusually active life that developed that interest and the skills to tell the story of an imaginary giant ape. He was joined in this effort by literally a cast of thousands. Merian Cooper was born on October 24, 1893 in Jacksonville, Florida. For most of his life, he fought for the rights to his own storyline and died April 21, 1973 in San Diego, CA, still fighting. Due to space limitations, I choose to focus on the first and current movies only. I did not say last because there is another one on the back burner at time of the release of this new movie (hint: Godzilla in the title).

Throughout 1929 and 1930, Cooper worked on the script, pitching the concept in December, 1931, but the screenplay was not complete. The delivery of the actual screenplay occurred in January, 1932, and the title was copyrighted February, 1933. The original RKO film: “King Kong” starred Faye Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot. It was produced and directed by Messrs. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, with story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. With overture, the running time was 104 minutes. There were four releases for this movie and I found an original ad… timed.

  • March 2, 1933, 10:00 AM was the first showing at the recently opened Radio City Music Hall and nearby sister theater RKO Roxy in Manhattan, New York, a combined 9,900 seats, with 50,000 viewings the first day. In the first four days, with ten shows a day, all seats were sold out. The film itself was preceded by a stage show called “Jungle Rhythms”, and tickets were 35 cents or 75 cents each. Radio City Music Hall: 40N45’35” / 73W58’45”
  • March 23, 1933, the official World Premier was held at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Hollywood, California. A seventeen-act show preceded – a troupe of African American dancers performed “The Dance of the Sacred Ape”. It was a star-studded opening.
  • On April 10, 1933, the film opened nationwide.
  • On Easter, the film opened in London, England, for the worldwide audience.

When was the official opening? I chose the first release: March 2, 1933, 10:00 AM, Manhattan, New York. All other showings were subsequent and probably significant to the movie, but its birth moment to me is the first public audience. Everything that came before was the equivalent of beta-testing. It is important to remember that 1933 had the world recovering from the 1929 stock market crash and the subsequent depression that devastated economies everywhere. The presidential election in November, 1932 selected Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who took office March 4, 1933. This tremendously successful film turnout occurred when the world economy had tanked and the rescuer had just arrived on the scene. He had his work cut out for him! The low cost of the tickets would have been a hardship at that time, but still they came…in droves! Now, what does that chart look like?

  • Start with 8 Aquarius 32 on the Midheaven, tightly conjunct Saturn in the tenth at 11 Aquarius 06. Saturn in the tenth can signify hard-earned success. Born in 1893, the idea started to form when Cooper was six years old (1899) and was brought to fruition in 1933. I would say that success was hard-earned.
  • Ascendant 1 Gemini 56 has chart ruler Mercury 28 Pisces 51 in the eleventh of groups and associations and results of goal and career (the second of the tenth). While Mercury is in a separating trine to Pluto 21 Cancer 27R in the third house of communication, it is also about to be sextiled by the Moon before it leaves the sign and the Moon does rule the public. The Moon will then quickly pass from the twelfth house to the first and there were four days of sold-out seating that set a record for that day and time. The public ate it up!
  • Look to the Virgo stellium of Neptune, Mars, Jupiter and South Node in the fifth house of fun, speculation and artistic expression opposing the North Node, Sun and Mercury in Pisces, almost a stellium, wide, not conjunct . When you read the story of Cooper’s lifelong battle for ownership of his own creation, you will see that massive opposition at work, bearing out the specific promise of the Sun/Neptune opposition. Also, whenever lunar nodes are prominent, the issue or event will have strong, even international, impact.
  • Uranus…where is it? Co-ruler of the Midheaven along with the conjunct Saturn given, Uranus is 21 Aries 05 in the twelfth house of hidden enemies and self-sabotage. Cooper was not paying enough attention to contractual details and verbal promises, which do not stand up in court without proof and which conveniently went missing from his personal property as time progressed. A very interesting story.

Did I just say Uranus square Pluto? How is that possible? Uranus has been squaring Pluto the last few years in our current time frame. Uranus takes 84 years to do one reasonably round orbit. Pluto takes about 248 years to complete one eccentric, elongated elliptical orbit. In this instance the opposition took place not in 124 years as might be guessed, but in 80 to 84 years in real motion. How close does the March 10, 2017 “Kong: Skull Island” U.S. movie release compare to our 1933 U.S. release chart? This is the fun part… I did progressed and diurnal charts for the 1933 movie. The diurnal has current transits for the new movie within it but will be personally birth timed from the release of movie #1.

  • Progressed Midheaven 6 Taurus 06 is sextile the natal North Node and square the natal Midheaven / Saturn conjunction.
  • Progressed Mercury 00 Gemini 06 and Sun 03 Gemini 57 are conjunct the natal Ascendant. The Sun is the progressed chart ruler conjunct Mercury which is the natal chart ruler.
  • Progressed Moon 17 Gemini 20 is trine progressed Saturn 16 Aquarius 23 conjunct Descendant 15 Aquarius 45.
  • The natal S Node/Neptune/Mars/Jupiter is still intact, squaring the progressed Gemini stellium.
  • Progressed Uranus is 25 Aries 37 widely square both the natal and progressed Pluto, which has only completed 18 minutes of forward motion in 84 years elapsed time; still square one another.
  • Diurnal Midheaven 17 Aquarius 03 conjunct that progressed Saturn/ Descendant conjunction.
  • Diurnal Ascendant 11 Gemini 35 square natal Sun and conjunct progressed Venus 12 Gemini 57, square progressed Jupiter 13 Virgo 38.
  • Diurnal Mercury 23 Pisces 36 conjunct diurnal Sun 20 Pisces 14, opposed natal Jupiter at 19 Virgo 13R.
  • Diurnal lunar nodes are 3 Pisces/Virgo 24 conjunct progressed lunar nodes 2 Virgo/Pisces 56R, square the progressed Sun.
  • What about Uranus, the light bulb of this whole search? The release of “Kong-Skull Island” (diurnal) Uranus is 22 Aries 34, again square diurnal Pluto 18 Capricorn 59, with diurnal Jupiter thrown in for good measure at 21 Libra 33R, a T-square.

In checking the time for the release of “Kong, Skull Island”, I found that it first premiered on February 28, 2017 at Cineworld, Leicester Square, London and that the March 10 date was its U.S. release, which is being listed as the primary release date. The new film runs 118 minutes. I would still use the time of the first theater viewing. Photos from the London opening show a lot of rain and darkness on the street. Searching… I just found the answer on the Facebook page: answer: 5:00 PM UTC.

  • Midheaven 25 Taurus 52, enter a new player, square movie #1 diurnal Moon 26 Leo 03. The Midheaven is conjunct malefic fixed star Caput Algol, pay attention.
  • Ascendant 4 Virgo 21, N Node 3 Virgo 23R opposition Mercury 4 Pisces 54, Sun 10 Pisces 18, Neptune 11 Pisces 39 (a stellium), triggering the Virgo/Pisces natal and progressed placements already given.
  • “Kong Skull Island” Uranus / Pluto / Jupiter T-square includes Mars 23 Aries 14 (conjunct Uranus).

A search for the U.S. opening looks like the “reveal” was simultaneously done in multiple U.S. theaters, an IMAX version. I could not locate a definitive time. The only items that can change between the movie #1 diurnal and the actual time of the first U.S. showing of “Kong: Skull Island” would be the Midheaven, Ascendant and Moon. That shall remain an unanswered question.

The interplay between the charts 84 years apart is amazing… and they say this stuff does not work! Think of what the world was experiencing in 1933 and look at what is happening today…looks surprisingly the same. You don’t suppose humanity has learned anything do you?

Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_(1933_film)         Has link for Merian C. Cooper

“King Kong” was re-released in 1938, 1942, 1946, 1952 and 1956 followed by: “Son of Kong, “King Kong vs. Godzilla, “King Kong Escapes”, remake of “King Kong, “Kong: Skull Island

http://immortalephemera.com/58216/king-kong-1933/          First release, first showing 10 AM

https://www.facebook.com/events/205932649882806/  “Kong: Skull Island” first show 5PM UTC

“Kong: Skull Island” opening (photos): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4268818/Brie-Larson-Kong-Skull-Island-premiere-London.html

Published in AFA Today’s Astrologer Apr 2017, vol 79#4, republished with slight editing.

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