Explorer, war hero, filmmaker, and cinema pioneer, Merian C. Cooper, the adventurer who created King Kong, was truly larger than life. Spellbound since boyhood by tales of life-threatening adventure and exotic locales, Cooper plunged into harrowing expeditions to places not yet civilized by modern man. One of the first bomber pilots during World War I, he would return to military service during World War II, flying missions into the heart of enemy territory. In addition to producing King Kong, he teamed Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers, arranged Katharine Hepburn's screen test, collaborated with John Ford on his greatest Westerns, and changed the face of film forever with Cinerama. Here is a stunning tribute to a two-fisted visionary who packed a multitude of lifetimes into eighty remarkable years and whose greatest desire was always to live dangerously. Introduction
Chapter One - The Man Who Cheated Death
Chapter Two - Tales of Exploration and Adventure
Chapter Three - The Road to War
Chapter Four - The Test of Steel and Blood
Chapter Five - The Ceaușescu Squadron
Chapter Six - Prisoner of War
Chapter Seven - Mysterious Islands
Chapter Eight - The Golden Prince
Chapter Nine - The Last Landfall
Chapter Ten - Journey to the Land of Grass and Life
Chapter Eleven - The Jungle Story
Chapter Twelve - Mr. Cooked and the Chang
Chapter Thirteen - Wandering Souls
Chapter Fourteen - Flying High
Chapter Fifteen - Sigh for the Wilderness
Chapter Sixteen - Creation
Chapter Seventeen - The Dangerous Game
Chapter Eighteen - The Homunculus
Chapter Nineteen - Kong, Kong, Kong
Chapter Twenty - The Executive
Chapter Twenty-One - The Producer
Chapter Twenty-Two - The Pioneer
Chapter Twenty-Three - War Eagles
Chapter Twenty-Four - Strike Force
Chapter Twenty-Five - The Flying Tiger
Chapter Twenty-Six - The Way of a Fighter
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Cold Warrior
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Argosy
Chapter Twenty-Nine - This is Cinerama
Chapter Thirty - The Return of King Kong
Chapter Thirty-One - Journey to the Undiscovered Country
Chapter Thirty-Two - Distant, Difficult, and Dangerous
Chapter Thirty-Three - Mythic Vision
"Merian C. Cooper's life reads like an adventure novel, as Mark Vaz proves perfectly with Living Dangerously."
"Living Dangerously is a wonderful addition to the literature of movies and popular culture but, on a personal level, it allowed me to understand the man who made the movie that had such a powerful effect upon me…Now finally…the legend comes out of the shadows."
"Mark Cotta Vaz's account of Cooper's adventures as soldier, prisoner of war, explorer, documentarian, mogul, and director is breathtaking. We all know the ape was big. But the man behind the ape? Even bigger."
"Mark Cotta Vaz has drawn on an impressive amount of research…Cooper was lucky enough to live in an age when dreamers could inflict their fantasies upon the world, and smart enough to make indelible use of that privilege."
"[A] boisterous, chest-thumping biography…Vaz captures the mythic magic of Cooper's cinematic creations…The charismatic Cooper, 'a man living his own movie,' is no longer an obscure, remote figure, thanks to Vaz's exhaustive research and skillful writing."
"[Cooper's] life rivaled that of any cinematic hero…readers will enjoy the ride. Recommended for all cinema collections."
"[A] readable, frequently gripping biography. An altogether appealing addition for film-history collections."
