#Julius Ussy Engelhard

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Lachende Herzen - 1919 by jim goodyear Via Flickr: Monocle Lachende Herzen - Laughing Hearts a poster by Julius Ussy Engelhard. 1919

[artdecoblog]

<strong>What the elegant gentleman wears (c.1920) <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jumborois/">by Susanlenox</a></strong>

Julius Ussy Engelhard (1883 - 1964)

[alwaysalwaysalwaysthesea]

Circa 1920 ad drawn by Julius Ussy Engelhard.

(source: Susanlenox on Flickr)

[derniererondeavantlanuit-blog]

Julius Ussy Engelhard (années 1930)

[doppoggi]

Manoli 'Gold', Allemagne, vers 1930, design by Julius Ussy Engelhard (1883 - 1964) 

[girlflapper]

<strong>Klida. Puderquasten. Zerstäuber. Germany. by Julius Ussy Engelhard, 1927 <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/140428060@N02/">by Colleen O'Eris</a></strong>

[pw-wp]

From Monsters to Icons: Gorillas in Design

Gorillas. We’ve all seen them, we all love them. They appear multiple times a year in films, they fill toy store shelves, comic book pages, editorial cartoons, video games, and of course are often star attractions at zoos. For an endangered species, one could argue that they are almost omnipresent in our cultural lives. How did this start? What twists and turns has this relationship taken? Let’s take a look at some of these apes and see.

It would seem absurd to the modern person, but the gorilla occupied the same cultural space as Big Foot for years. As John Landis notes, in a surprisingly detailed writing on gorillas in the movies, the first stuffed gorilla didn’t arrive in Europe until the 1840s (p. 187, 2011). They arrived on the scene with the cultural impact equivalent to aliens suddenly landing in a modern American city. Books were written, artwork made, and posters printed.

IMAGE ONE: Clockwise from Top: Gorilla enlevant une Femme (Gorilla carrying off a woman) by Fremier, Elend und Untergang folgen der Anarchie  by Engelhard, and Destroy this Mad Brute/Enlist by Hopps

Unlike today, the majority of early representations focused on sensationalist representations of the gorillas. These were wild animals hell-bent on smashing and destroying. Some big examples of this are “Gorilla enlevant une Femme (Gorilla carrying off a woman)”, an 1887 bronze sculpture by Emmanuel Fremier, which Landis notes won the Medal of Honor at the Paris Salon (p.187, 2011) and the infamous poster by Harry Ryle Hopps from 1917, “Destroy this Mad Brute/Enlist” produced to encourage fighting in World War 1. Negovan notes that this portrayal of a hated enemy or idea as a gorilla was also present on the other side of this momentous conflict in the work of Julius Ussy Engelhard (p. 29, 2017). Engelhard presents the gorilla as a representation of anarchy in “Elend und Untergang folgen der Anarchie” produced in 1918. While it’s next to impossible to find positive images of Gorillas at this time, the dynamic would get more complex as time went on, especially with the most famous gorilla in popular culture history.

IMAGE TWO: KING KONG taking on a T-Rex

King Kong opened in theatres in 1933, and the title ape has been the most popular named gorilla character ever since. The story of a thirty foot tall gorilla plucked from and island and taken to his doom in Manhattan is a solid part of American mythology. Morton has written extensively on the impact Kong has had, from multiple sequels and remakes, model kits, toys, shirts, books and more (2005). King Kong is also the first major gorilla representation in popular media to be more than a simple brute. Kong is ferocious, but plays the loving beast to the beauty of heroines like Fay Wray, Jessica Lange and Naomi Watts. Having appeared in various films for several decades, Kong is now set for a round 2 with the second most famous giant monster on earth, Godzilla, in 2020.

IMAGE THREE: Clockwise from Left: Congorilla, Solovar and Gorilla Grodd

The success of King Kong jump started a massive influx of gorilla goodness and goofiness in pop culture for the rest of the 20th century. Nameless gorillas (well, men in suits) invaded movie and tv screens from the ‘40’s to the ‘70s. Even RankinBass, the makers of the classic Rudolph holiday specials, got into the act in 1967 with a King Kong ripoff called “It” in their “Mad Monster Party” movie (1967). Regardless, the real action in ape appearances was in comic books. DC comics and Marvel comics both got into the act, with characters that have lasted for decades. Irvine notes that DC had heroes like Congorilla and Solavar, the king of an actual Gorilla City (comics are a weird medium) and villains like Titano, the Ultra-Humanite and the infamous Gorilla Grodd (p. 71, 2014). Grodd, a popular Flash nemesis who, Irvine notes, debuted in 1959 during the Silver Age of comics (p.94, 2014) and never left, has appeared appeared in toys, live-action tv and even the Superfriends cartoon show! He can also control minds.

Marvel didn’t have quite as deep a roster of gorilla characters, but they did have the distinction of copyrighting the name “Gorilla-Man” and have reused the character sparingly over the years (Dougall, p. 152, 2014).

IMAGE FOUR: Donkey Kong fleeing Mario! SOURCE

While Planet of the Apes would come out in the late 1960s, jumpstarting a general fascination with great apes for the 1970’s, the next big cultural landmark reserved just for gorillas would occur in the early 1980’s when illustrator Shigeru Miyamoto would create Donkey Kong- the progenitor of the billion dollar Mario franchise. Ryan (2012) notes that Miyamoto was originally pegged to make a Popeye game, but when licensing rights fell apart, adapted the game to be based around a carpenter's quest to save his girlfriend from his own escaped gorilla (pp.23-27). Donkey Kong, the game and the gorilla, became iconic, spawning a cartoon, sequels, toys, a relaunched game series that dominated the 1990s, and even a lawsuit from Universal arguing he was a King Kong ripoff. Nintendo won the court case (Ryan, pp. 40-44) and Donkey Kong runs across screens to this day. While starting as a villain, the character has fully taken on the hero mantle nowadays.

Gorillas have come a long way from being the legendary mountain men of the 1840’s. Thanks to an ongoing evolution in the culture, they are more likely to be seen as noble creatures nowadays, a far cry from the mindless brutes of yore. They have also established a firm niche in western culture, so one can only imagine what the next pop culture gorilla fad will entail.

Some of the sources used for this blogpost include:

Bass, J. (Producer & Director). (1967). Mad Monster Party [Motion picture]. United States: RankinBass.

Dougall, A. (Editor). (2014). Marvel encyclopedia: The definitive guide to the marvel universe (4th ed.). New York, NY: DK Publishing.

Irvine, A. (2014). 1950s. In L. Gilbert (Senior Ed.), Dc comics a visual history: Updated edition (62-95). New York, NY: DK Publishing.

Lapetino, T. (2016). Art of Atari (1st ed.). Mt. Laurel, NJ: Dynamite Entertainment

Landis, J. (2011). Monsters in the movies: 100 Years of cinematic nightmares (1st ed.). New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley Limited.

Morton, R. (2005). King Kong: The history of a movie icon: From Fay Wray to Peter Jackson (1st ed.). New York, NY: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books

Negovan, T. (2017). Beautiful macabre: Rare & peculiar posters 1862-1973 (1st ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Century Guild Museum of Art.

Ryan, J. (2012). Super Mario: How Nintendo conquered america (1st ed.). New York, NY: the Penguin Group

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Quodlibet masquerade (1912) by Susanlenox Via Flickr: Artist : F. GYGI

[vintagepromotions]

Poster advertising the German bicycles by Victoria Räder - Victoria Werke AG Nürnberg (1921). Artwork by Julius Ussy Engelhard.

[karlrodrique]

Preysing Palais München (1937). Artist: Julius Ussy Engelhard (1883 - 1964). (flickr.com/photos/jumborois).

[coololdthings]

Julius Ussy Engelhard

Vintage Advertising and Poster Art

[ein-bleistift-und-radiergummi]

Julius Ussy Engelhard ’Süpräka, das KIno im Haus’ 

The cinema in the house (1920)

[mudwerks]

(via Flickr: Susanlenox's Photostream)

Lucy Doraine (1924)

Artist : Julius Ussy Engelhard (1883-1964)

[onceagarden]

Spring Garden Restaurant by Julius Ussy Engelhard, 1925.