Wow........love King Kong,don't remember him myself though
denise
A little tale just for you. So that you will know a little of the history of one of Birmingham's forgotten.
The Ballad of King Kong.
In the early 1972 The Peter Stuyvesant Foundation commissioned Nicholas Munroe to design a statue of King Kong the giant ape of movie fame from 1933. This being a commission for The City of Birmingham Sculpture Project.
On completion it was displayed to the public in Manzoni Gardens at the back of the Bull Ring for some six months, but after the original sponsorship ran out the City with its usual courage of conviction couldn't get rid of it quick enough and sold it on. The buyer was a Mr Carl Racey owner of the Camp Car Company at Camp Hill, his business was car sales.
Mr Racey changed the name of his pitch to the King Kong Kar Ko and displayed King Kong sometimes dressed in different apparel as an advertising gimmick. After some time at this car sales pitch and another in Lady pool Rd, Sparkbrook. He was again sold on.
This time he was purchased by Spook Erections a company that ran markets in Scotland and was to spend the next 30 years standing in a market at Ingleston Edinburgh where he was used as a meeting point for people who got separated, and sometime during his sojourn in Scotland he acquired a pink coat. When the market finally closed down in 2005 he was last seen being taken away on the back of a low loader lorry. Though lots of people enquired and there were even rumours of enquiries being made by Birmingham City Council. Nobody was able to find any trace of him. There were even rumours that because he had been damaged beyond repair he had been melted down (is that possible).
So although I do not know how true this is, but I am glad to report that there have been rumours this year of him reappearing at a market in Penrith, Cumberland sporting a new white coat. He's getting closer, perhaps he is returning to Birmingham.
Phil