MAN-MONKEYS: From Regency Pantomime to King Kong

This is the first and only book about the man-monkey phenomenon and its major stars. From the first stage play to feature a chimpanzee as a character back in 1801 to the present-day popular film franchises of ‘King Kong’ and ‘The Planet of the Apes’, many actors have played apes and gorillas – some rising to stardom earning top money, others coming to a sadder and more tragic end. Men-in-fur like the ill-fated Parsloe who fell from fame in London to suffer an early and lonely death in America, the irascible almost legless trouble-maker Hervio Nano, Teasdale who found God in prison after stabbing his wife, and the simpleton East End potboy who was transformed into Monsieur Gouffe attracting the bon ton of London and making a fortune. Within these pages you will find some of the oddest, most unfortunate, ill-requited, and doomed performers who ever chose to tread the boards – the artistes known as ‘man-monkeys’.