The Star of This Famous Movie Came from What Michigan Town?

Bay City is known throughout Michigan as the birthplace of pop star Madonna...but did you know another celebrity was from Bay City? A man who starred in probably the most famous monster movie of all time back in the 1930s? Tell ya who in a few minutes...

First, some backstory on Bay City.

Leon Trombley was the first person to settle in the area now known as Bay City. He built a log cabin along the Saginaw River in 1831.

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FAST FACTS:
1834: John Trudell becomes the first permanent resident of (what would be) Bay County
1837: The town is originally called ‘Lower Saginaw’
1857: Bay County is organized
1860: Lower Saginaw has 2,000 residents
1865: Incorporated as a city, name changed to ‘Bay City’
1905: Bay City (located on the east bank of the Saginaw River) bonds with West Bay City (across the river) and becomes one unified city.

Bay City ended up becoming the largest community in the county and the county seat as well.

Okay, so who’s the famous person (actor) who starred in one of the all-time greatest monster movies of all time?

1) The film came out in 1933.
2) His most famous line in the movie was "It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."

That is from the 1933 original film version of King Kong. The Actor was Robert Armstrong, who played Carl Denham, who sets sail to Skull Island, searching for ‘Kong’ - The Eight Wonder of the World.

Armstrong was born in Saginaw in 1889 and spent his childhood in Bay City. Once hitting his teens, he moved to Seattle, Washington, went to college, started acting on stage in 1919, and appeared in his first film in 1927 titled The Main Event.

The gallery below depicts old images of Bay City, from 1900 to the 1920s – and one of Robert Armstrong in King Kong as well.