Ken Holt Vs Gorgo!

Following our recent radio show discussing Godzilla and his British cousin Gorgo, I was pleased to receive a brief email from Ken Holt, regarding the film.

Prior to joining Century 21 studios, Ken worked at MGM studios and was part of the SFX team for the 1961 release of Gorgo.

"Hi Bill, hope you enjoy Gorgo,  we were the SFX dept. producing all the model and water tank shots and also the photographIc effects.We did not get the Oscar but l am sure it was nominated. It was produced by two US brothers who actually built their own film studio later just down the road from Elstree it was called DANZIGER STUDIOS. They shot quite a few TV shows. 

During a Tank shot of Gorgo comlng up the Thames destroylng Tower Bridge, the stunt man in the costume had to be a  jockey because of the size, unfortunately due to the weight of the mask with all the electronic eyes etc' It became too heavy and the poor guy collapsed in the tank!

 He came round ok, but it was decided he would have to  wear a crash helmet  to take the weight, this worked so we carried on. I hope you enjoy it, in the credits it should show our SFX boss Tom Howard, as you probably know only the Head of Departments got a credit, not like today but this is because most of the crew are Freelance. 

Much later, while filming Doppelganger (Journey To The Far Side of the Sun)  We had to shoot a rocket take off so Derek Meddings decided to make it really big; so big it could only be done as an exterior set on the Slough premises, even scaled down he still wanted it  at least 25 feet high, knowing Derek that meant the firing gear was pretty impressive!

I had to notify Local Council for permission, but they knew us  and my gift of the gab, so we got permission. The whole rig was set up between 2 of the Stages, it looked great an everything was set for the shoot, the  director, Bob Parrish was impressed and so we were ready to turn over, director yelled "Action" !

Derek set his lads to fire and the guys holding the ropes to pull to let the Rocket  begin to rise when a stupid pigeon landed on top of the Rocket which totally ruined the scale! Director yelled cut and everything had to be reset. Half an hour later all was set up again, We were all waited for action when the Director burst out laughing and yelled:

"I thought we were shooting Doppelganger not High Chapperal!"

  - and sitting on the roof with a shotgun was Norman our A P!  We all collapsed with laughter  .  Tough game making movies. "

Best wishes, Ken