‘Mighty Joe Young’ gorilla puppet could fetch $3M at auction

By Alexandra Snow

A gorilla puppet from the 1949 classic "Mighty Joe Young" could fetch $3 million at auction.

The 15-inch model from the Oscar-winning film is the only puppet known to survive from the 1949 classic.

It could go for anything between $1 million to $3 million when it is sold by entertainment memorabilia auction house Propstore in Los Angeles on Aug. 26.

The movie, starring Terry Moore and Robert Armstrong, is about Joe, a gorilla who is taken away from Africa to perform in a Hollywood nightclub.

It was produced by the same creative team responsible for King Kong and won the Academy Award® for Best Special Effects.

The stop-motion animation gorilla puppet was created by Marcel Delgado under the direction of visual effects pioneer Willis O'Brien.

It retains its original armature, latex skin, fur, internal articulated armature and recent X-ray examination confirmed the survival of its original mechanical skeleton.

The puppet has had just three known owners, Mighty Joe Young co-producer and co-director Ernest B. Schoedsack, then puppeteer Lyle Conway, where it remained for approximately 50 years before being offered publicly.

Brandon Alinger, Propstore's chief operating officer, said: "Original stop-motion puppets are among the rarest surviving artifacts from the early history of filmmaking because they were working production tools, manipulated thousands of times during animation and rarely survived intact.

"Propstore is thrilled to bring this remarkable piece to public auction.

"As the only complete Mighty Joe Young puppet known to exist, with its original skin, fur, armature and documented provenance, this is one of the most significant stop-motion artifacts ever to come to public auction."

The auction will also feature the white three-piece suit worn by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever which could fetch as much as $400,000 and an original Golden Snitch from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, valued at between $25,000 and $50,000.

The original scissor hands worn by Johnny Depp in the Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, which could earn between $60,000 and $120,000, are also going to auction.

Among the other notable items is the first time sale of Frank the Rabbit's costume from the 2001 film Donnie Darko, expected to reach between $100,000 and $200,000.