750. King Kong photoplay edition signed by the cast of King Kong including Merian C. Cooper, Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot, Marcel Delgado, Ray Harryhausen and others. (RKO, 1933) Wallace, Edgar and Merian Cooper. King Kong. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, (1932). First Edition. Published in December, 1932 to publicize the movie which premiered in April, 1933. Octavo. 249 pages. Bright green cloth stamped in black. Small chip at the upper corner of the front board, light smudging. Housed in a bright dust jacket with discrete professional restoration at the spine edges and flap edges. Originally Ray Bradbury's copy with his ownership signature dated August, 1935 on the half title, he traded it in his early years to Forrest Ackerman and it became the Ackerman copy. Over the years this copy has been enhanced with inscriptions and signatures from several of the key players in the film and several giants in the visual effects technology that was born with Kong. Someone has written "Edgar Wallace" on the front flyleaf, perhaps to include his name in the group of Kong luminaries who added their signatures to the book, but this is not Wallace's signature. Wallace was brought to Los Angeles in January of 1932 to write the screenplay for the film, and while he wrote an initial draft in January of 1932, he took ill and died suddenly in February of 1932. The screenplay was taken over by Merian Cooper who had the original idea for the story and who made significant changes to the screenplay prior to filming. The bulk of the final screenplay was done by Ruth Rose and the book was written by Delos Lovelance. The text of the book was taken from an early iteration of the screenplay and it differs in several respects from the film. Ackerman was literary agent for such sci-fi authors as Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, A.E. van Vogt, Curt Siodmak and L. Ron Hubbard and as a result of these and other connections, this copy of King Kong acquired the following signatures: Merian C. Cooper, Zoe Porter (assistant to Mr. Cooper), Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot, Mrs. Max Steiner, Darlyne O'Brien, Marcel Delgado, Orville Goldner and Ray Harryhausen. A beautiful example of this scarce book. It is hard to imagine obtaining a more fascinating group of geniuses and collaborators on one of the greatest films of all time.