The Laser Age: ‘Mighty Joe Young’ with Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa

Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa, a film studies professor at Seattle University and author of The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life joins The Laser Age to discuss the 1949 film Mighty Joe Young, A kind of companion piece to King Kong made by most of the same team, the film features a far gentler giant ape hero, a depiction that reflects the different era in which it appeared, one in which many of the blank spots on the map had been filled. Schultz-Figueroa is an expert on the subject of animals on film. The Celluloid Specimen, which is available to read for free, explores the films made by mid-century scientists, specifically the animal research films of Robert Mearns Yerkes, Neal E. Miller and B.F. Skinner. Yerkes is particularly relevant as his primate studies were informed by and helped inform ideas about eugenics and the notion of nature consisting of a hierarchy of species, notions you can see in the film. It's not all grim talk about misguided 20th century science and racial politics: we also talk about what a nice fella Mr. Joe Young is and the craft of Ray Harryhausen. (This is the second in a five-episode season devoted to giant animals.)