Ruth Rose (January 16, 1896 – June 8, 1978) was a writer who worked on several films in the 1930s and the 1940s, most famously the original 1933 classic ''

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

''.

Early life

Rose was born on January 16, 1896 to a playwright, Edward E. Rose. At age 14 she first appeared on the Broadway stage doing various ingenue parts. In 1926, Rose was working as the official historian on a

New York Zoological Society New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

expedition to the Galapagos Islands, led by

William Beebe Charles William Beebe ( ; July 29, 1877 – June 4, 1962) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author. He is remembered for the numerous expeditions he conducted for the New York Zoological ...

Ernest Schoedsack Ernest Beaumont Schoedsack (June 8, 1893 – December 23, 1979) was an American motion picture cinematographer, producer, and director. Schoedsack worked as a cameraman in World War I, where he served in the Signal Corps. At the conclusion o ...

was working as a

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

on that same expedition, just after he had made the film '' Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life'' (1925) with Merian C. Cooper. Rose and Schoedsack met there and fell in love. In 1926 they were married. She joined Schoedsack and Cooper in some of their other adventures and productions, including the film '' Chang'' (1927).

''King Kong''

In the early 1930s, Cooper began development for his film ''King Kong''. He had already gotten two other writers to work on ''Kong''. The first one,

Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during th ...

, died before he could make any significant changes, and the second,

James Ashmore Creelman James Ashmore Creelman (September 21, 1894 – September 9, 1941) was a film writer in Hollywood. Biography He was born on September 21, 1894, in Marietta, Ohio. He was the second son of James Creelman, the journalist and Alice Leffingwell Buel ...

, wrote a screenplay that was too slow-paced, descriptive, and had too much flowery dialogue according to Cooper. So he hired Rose to rework it. Rose cut out many of the long, unimportant scenes that Creelman had written, in order to make it more fast-paced. She is credited with writing such famous lines as "Oh, no. It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast." She also based the character of

Carl Denham Carl Denham is a fictional character in the films ''King Kong'' and ''The Son of Kong'' (both released in 1933), as well as in the 2005 remake of ''King Kong'', and a 2004 illustrated novel titled ''Kong: King of Skull Island''. The role was p ...

on Merian Cooper and Jack Driscoll she based on her husband, Ernest Schoedsack. It was now more like one of the earlier Cooper-Schoedsack adventures.

Later life

After the success of ''King Kong'', Rose wrote several other movies including ''

Blind Adventure ''Blind Adventure'' is a 1933 American Pre-Code film directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and starring Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack, Ralph Bellamy, and Roland Young. It was released by RKO Radio Pictures.Son of Kong ''The Son of Kong'' (also known and publicized simply as ''Son of Kong'') is a 1933 American Pre-Code adventure monster film produced by RKO Pictures. Directed by Ernest Schoedsack and featuring special effects by Willis O'Brien and Buzz Gibson ...

'', ''

She She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

'', ''

The Last Days of Pompeii ''The Last Days of Pompeii'' is a novel written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. The novel was inspired by the painting ''The Last Day of Pompeii'' by the Russian painter Karl Briullov, which Bulwer-Lytton had seen in Milan. It culminates in ...

'', and '' Mighty Joe Young'', another giant ape adventure. Her ''Kong'' screenplay was the basis for two remakes of ''King Kong'', one in 1976 and one in 2005. Rose did not write any more films before her death on June 8, 1978, although she did many rewrites and dialogue changes down through the years. She was survived by her husband and her only child, Peter, born in 1929 with cerebral palsy.

Filmography

* ''

'' (1933) (screenplay) * ''

'' (1933) (story) * ''

'' (1935) (adpatation and dialogue) * ''

'' (1935) (screenplay) * '' Mighty Joe Young'' (1949) (screenplay)

References

External links

* * *
Image
of Ruth Rose undertaking official historian duties during the

expedition to the Galapagos Islands. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, Ruth 1896 births 1978 deaths American women screenwriters Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American screenwriters