Monkey Around with Dietrich and Grant

 Monkey Around with Dietrich and Grant:
Are you going ape?

Blonde Venus is a 1932 pre-code drama which starred Marlene Dietrich and Herbert Marshall. It was one of the first big roles for the young Cary Grant. At one point we see her on stage in a gorilla suit. She peels off the gorilla hands, mask and the rest of the furry costume and adds a flamboyant wig before singing Hot Voodoo. Cary Grant is part of her audience. A striptease that starts off with a gorilla suit. Where else do you see that?

Dietrich in Blonde Venus
Hot Voodoo



Marlene Dietrich alternative simian dance costume tutorial



Marlene Dietrich began making silent films in 1919. Another famous film was The Blue Angel, 1930 as Lola Lola, with Emil Jannings and Kurt Gerron.

One of her last films was Judgment at Nuremberg a 1961 Stanley Kramer film. Costars were Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Judy Garland.

There was a cameo in Paris When It Sizzles, 1964 with Audrey Hepburn and William Holden. Then Just a Gigolo 1979 with David Bowie, Kim Novak and Sydne Rome.

Her manner, the critic Kenneth Tynan wrote, was that of "a serpentine lasso whereby her voice casually winds itself around our most vulnerable fantasies."
"She has sex but no positive gender," Tynan wrote. "Her masculinity appeals to women and her sexuality to men." .... "Glamour," she observed, "is assurance. It is a kind of knowing that you are all right in every way, mentally and physically and in appearance, and that, whatever the occasion or the situation, you are equal to it."

In clothes, she was a trend setter. Both on screen and off, she often wore trousers and mannish costumes. By proving that a woman could still look feminine in such clothes, she established "the Dietrich silhouette," emphasizing trimness and inconspicuous hips and bust. from her New York Times obituary. Ms. Dietrich lived December 1901 - May 1992.

Marlene Dietrich The Glamour Collection 5 Movies:
Blonde Venus/ Morocco/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings


Phil Collins - Gorilla Drummer - Cadbury Advert (Dairy Milk)

"I Feel like a Hairy Ape"
Cary Grant to Gail Patrick
My Favorite Wife 1940 

Cary Grant calls Joan Fontaine Monkey Face in Suspicion

Tips to Choose, Customize Your Costume for your Event, Gorilla Run Charity Races, Fun Runs

When will you wear it? Weather, Heat: Think about how hot it will be in your suit. Some runs appear to stay out of the summer months. Weather can be hot, humid, windy and rainy anywhere. What costume will you wear in the mud run?!

Costumes, including wigs & hats are usually hotter to run in than a track suit, but folks who make it to the finish line are excited that they made it. Consider a cooling vest to wear under the gorilla suit? 

Is it for something special like a proposal or a similar surprise? The groom-to-be fights off the gorilla before the proposal. Add a top hat. Any day that includes a sudden, unexpected gorilla is usually remembered.

If you're hosting a Planet of the Apes watch-a-thon at your house would you give prizes for those who come in costume? 

For Business? Are you going into a Gorillagram business? Can you sing while wearing it? Maybe it will be just one costume of several that you have. People want experiences these days. It's not enough to send flowers or candy to the office on her birthday. Make it an event. Do you want a realistic gorilla costume or something more cartoonish, maybe something along the lines of King Kong, comic book?

Choose separate parts, a snout, hat, makeup, etc? Your kids can create parts

Little Boys' Gorilla Costume

DIY with crayons, construction paper and glue sticks at a birthday party or on a rainy day.

It's your gorilla suit! Jazz it up! Add your business logo? A sash or tiara? (Tack it down!) 

Add a zipper? Make it easier to use the portable toilets if necessary? I've read about people's getting costumes early and altering them if need be with zippers for quicker pit-stops! Always on the lookout for animal costumes and the like that have zippers. A very clever friend with a sewing machine and/or needle and thread may be able to make it a two-piece.

Try it out, Make it work: Try out the costume before the race. Do a practice run in it and see how it goes. What does it need? Add a zipper? Have a backpack, pocket, pouch? Remove something? Make it just right for you. This is what will make it really fun and functional. If you're trying to get attention for yourself, your cause, your business, determine how you might add to the costume in ways that won't impede your ability to run.

Are you on a team? Easier to find one another if you add something lightweight and colorful, visible like a hat (pinned on!) or tank top? A logo or great team name emblazoned on it makes it all the better. Come up with the best team chant to outdo that group next to you.... If you want a couples costume, I guess she could be Fay Wray, fun idea.

Order early and Do a fur test & mask eye test: Many of the costumes I saw across the merchants had reviews saying that they shed their fur to some extent. Also people had to make the eye holes on masks work for them. Give a good shake out when testing them. Read the directions and instructions. Decide for yourself. Lots of clever and industrious ideas made the costumes, masks work perfectly. How will you wear your hair?


Just love the Adidas Jeremy Scott designer sneakers whether it's the gorilla, the

Aadidas Originals by Jeremy Scott

bear, poodle... You'll probably have more luck running in way better than running in gorilla feet. Go psychedelic if that's more to your personality.

Fun Run? If you're going for a mud run, a gorilla suit or anything with fur may not be what you want. Mud will add weight to the costume. Will the elements damage the costume? This includes your wig, hat, etc. A popular mud run is the Devil Dash, where people dress as angels and devils. That leaves interpretation of the costumes wide open.

Pink Gorilla Costumes

Show your true colors: Be a Snow Beast in white.  Practice that Rawr. Color up for an Awareness Event or wild pre-wedding video, Rage on as a Red Gorilla? Swap with a pal and put your pink gorilla head on his black gorilla suit body and vice versa.... It's all up to you. We found different shades of pink gorilla suits. Which one suits you best?

Don't forget other times to wear the Gorilla Costume. When you've run out of uses for the costume and it's still in good shape, pass it along. 

Donate the suit to someone or a cause who'd like to have it. Be green and try a costume swap locally, with friends and family.

"Would you ask your wife to hook up with that ape?!" Jean Harlow. 

“Uh, The Ape objects,”
William Powell 

Libeled Lady 1936

Groucho Marx talks about monkey suits on the Dick Cavett Show (about 5:35) [Groucho talks about the gorilla suit & the orangutan suit that were used in At the Circus]

"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"
Charlton Heston

Planet of the Apes 1968

Wonder Woman, yes, Wonder Woman wrestled with a gorilla in the 1970s.  Those were the days.
Curious? Check it out below...

 

Related Articles of Interest:

1930s films Dressing Gable, Rathbone, Dietrich

Dietrich was on that 1938 list with Katharine Hepburn as being Box Office Poison

Throw a Hollywood Fancy Dress Party: 10 Tips for your costume party success
Marlene Dietrich wore a swan costume to the party in 1935, while an actress friend beside her was dressed as Marlene Dietrich.

Have a Mermaid Movie Party 

"Fling him to the ape!
Let him be torn to pieces!"
Brandon Hurst/The Caliph
Thief of Bagdad 1924