Ruth Rose
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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, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...
''.


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 1925, Rose was working as the official historian on a
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(currently the
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) expedition called the ''Arcturus'' mission to the Galapagos Islands, led by
William Beebe Charles William Beebe ( ; July 29, 1877 – June 4, 1962) was an American natural history, naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author. He is remembered for the numerous expeditions he conducted for the New Y ...
. Ernest Schoedsack was working as a
cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...
on that same expedition, just after he had made the film '' Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life'' (1925) with
Merian C. Cooper Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893 – April 21, 1973) was an American filmmaker, actor, producer and air officer. In film, his most famous work was the 1933 movie ''King Kong (1933 film), King Kong'', and he is credited as co-inventor of ...
. Rose and Schoedsack met there and fell in love. In 1926 they were married. She joined Schoedsack and Cooper on 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 of crime and adventure fiction. 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 ...
, died before he could make any significant changes, and the second,
James Ashmore Creelman James Ashmore Creelman (September 21, 1894 – September 9, 1941) was an American screenwriter in Hollywood, known for co-writing ''King Kong'' in 1933. Biography He was born on September 21, 1894, in Marietta, Ohio. He was the second son of jou ...
, 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 pl ...
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 mystery 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 ...
'', ''
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'', ''
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 through the years. She was survived by her husband and her only child, Peter, born in 1929 with cerebral palsy.


Filmography

* ''
King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...
'' (1933) (screenplay) * ''
Blind Adventure ''Blind Adventure'' is a 1933 American Pre-Code mystery 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 ...
'' (1933) (story) * ''
She She or S.H.E. may refer to: Language * She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English Places * She County, Anhui ** She Prefecture, 589-1121 * She County, Hebei * She River, or Sheshui, Hubei * ...
'' (1935) (adaptation and dialogue) * ''
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 ...
'' (1935) (screenplay) * '' Mighty Joe Young'' (1949) (screenplay)


References


External links

* * * {{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