How did that theory come into play? There was never any evidence. Was it all speculation? King Kong wins in both the Japanese and US release and Toho confirmed it, so why the speculation? Godzilla is clearly the villain in this film so of course he is supposed to lose.
shareMaybe decades ago before Toho confirmed, Americans probably thought the Japanese version made Godzilla win, because he's "their monster."
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True, but Godzilla represents the US nuclear weapons arsenal. He is a clear danger to Japan. King Kong represents an island caught in the crossfire. It seems that King Kong is more Japanese than Godzilla.
shareWell the US didn't want it to get out much that their nuclear weapons probably created Godzilla.
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I think the 'two endings' rumor probably followed from the fact that the American version of the film was extensively altered for a US release. American scenes were inserted and certain original scenes were deleted. I imagine diehard fans of Godzilla were disappointed by the ending which seemed to indicate a Kong victory, and therefore it was comforting to imagine that one of the many replaced scenes was the ending.
shareActually, I read about the "two endings" in a book when I
was younger. Never having seen the Japanese version, I
didn't know there was only one official ending. The book
was part of a series, the Crestwood Monster Books.
Here is a link about them:
http://blog.paxholley.net/2008/10/30/awesome-tober-fest-a-look-back-at-the-crestwood-monster-books/
Nice books, but apparently inaccurate...
Perhaps many of the confused also read these books?
The two endings rumor was started by Forrest Ackerman's "Famous Monster of Filmland", which would really just make stuff up as they went along. This was one of them, which sadly, caught on.
shareThat was issue 30 of Famous Monsters which came out in summer of 1964.
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me
Here its the Full True Story
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/godzilla.asp
I think it may have stemmed from the fact that in the original Japanese version, Godzilla's roar can be heard right after Kong's. This may hint that Godzilla survived (which he obviously did as the sequels proved) but still lost the battle. I'm pretty sure that's what started the confusion over who won in what version.
HorrorSexMetal
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ghost_hat , thank you for giving me back a piece of my childhood! I remember the Crestwood Monster books! I used to always check these out from my grade school library! I probably took the Godzilla one out a dozen times or more. And I remember that book falsely indicating the different endings as well!
"Inside my heart is breaking, my makeup may be faking, but my smile still stays on!"
I had read there were two endings to the film but I had never seen the Japanese version so I just accepted this. Thanks for clearing that up, I guess it was just a rumour. I thought it was just left up to interpretation but after watching it again Kong does seem to be the clear winner.
shareThe first time I learned of the "two endings" legend was in a TV GUIDE interview with Ron and Clint Howard, when Ron(nie) was still playing "Opie" on "The Andy Griffith Show" (lets you know how ancient I am, doesn't it?) The brothers loved this movie, and Ron stated emphatically that there was a "Japanese ending" in addition to the "American ending." TV GUIDE was the largest selling magazine in the nation at that time, so I would imagine that this interview greatly helped in spreading the fallacy. Steve V.
shareYou know, you’re 100% right! THAT’S where I read it & had that idea for most of my life. FMOFL was my bible as a monster loving child back then. When you look back at it, you can see how it was actually a crappy magazine with its black & white monochrome type & the feel of the pages. But nothing made me happier back then.
shareAs a kid, I remembered the rumor was that Godzilla won in the Japanese version, but in the American version it was changed to have King Kong win because the filmmakers did not want to offend American audiences, apparently believing we took our monsters extremely seriously. It would have been kind of funny if that had actually occurred.
shareBecause in later years after this movies release, Godzilla became a good guy in the films. So many people, especially kids watching the movie in syndication still viewed Godzilla as a good guy
shareI started the rumor on my youtube channel that there was 2 endings.
share