When is National Gorilla Suit Day?

The gorilla suit is a type of creature suit resembling a gorilla. It is a popular party costume and is also used as a source of humour; more realistic suits have been used both to represent real gorillas in film and on stage.

In film, gorillas were often portrayed by actors in gorilla suits. The 1918 silent film “Tarzan of the Apes” has the first known instance of an ape suit. The early history of the art of gorilla impersonation saw the rise of Charles Gemora in the late 1920s, an early practitioner of the art in such short films as “Circus Lady” and “Bear Shooters.” Other noted Hollywood gorilla performers were George Barrows, Steve Calvert, Ray Corrigan, Emil Van Horn and Janos Prohaska. Marlene Dietrich famously donned a gorilla suit in the film “Blonde Venus” (1932), when making a stage entrance to sing "Hot Voodoo".

In 1963, the "Mad Magazine" cartoonist Don Martin published “National Gorilla Suit Day” in a collection “Don Martin Bounces Back,” in which the lead character mocks the (fictitious at the time) concept of a National Gorilla Suit Day, and suffers a series of incredible assaults from gorillas and other beasts in various suits. Martin and his collaborator E. Solomon Rosenblum wrote the story as a satire of the greeting card industry. Subsequently, Don Martin fans celebrated National Gorilla Suit Day on 31 January.

The picture is a montage of the "Gorilla Men" of Hollywood, published on 31 January 2024 in honour of National Gorilla Suit Day.