The face-spanning grin of Hugh Mongous was a last-minute addition by artist Ernie Coulson.

Hugh Mongous: Beach Dude Gorilla Giant

Virginia Beach, Virginia

In early 1977 Charles G. Meyst of Richmond, Virginia, saw the Hollywood remake of King Kong and decided, oddly, that a giant gorilla would be good publicity for his regional magazine, New Dominion Lifestyle.

1982: The original ape.

Charles paid $10,000 to have a big ape built out of fiberglass-covered styrofoam. The artist was Demetrios Mavroudis, a University of Virginia fine arts instructor. The gorilla, 37 feet tall and 4,200 pounds, was raised atop the magazine's downtown Richmond office building.

He stood for only two days before angry city officials had him taken down.

A waterpark in Virginia Beach named Jungle Rapids heard about the gorilla and bought him for $5,000. He was trucked from Richmond with a police escort, then erected at the park entrance and named Hu-Mungus.

Hugh Mongous as he looked in 1988, before his incineration.

The simian sentinel greeted visitors until Spring 1985, when new owners of the waterpark announced that they were changing its name to Wild Water Rapids and dumping the big ape. Suggestions were made that he be moved to an open public space named Mount Trashmore (built on a former landfill) or to a toll plaza on the Virginia Beach Expressway. Local citizens, however, rallied to his defense; a radio station even campaigned for Hu-Mungus by handing out free bananas.

The owners bowed to the will of the people and kept Hu-Mungus (or "Hughie"), whose name gradually changed to Hugh Mongous. Demetrios Mavroudis was summoned from Richmond to give the naked ape a makeover and a pair of painted-on red swim trunks.

Then, in the pre-dawn hours of January 3, 1989, Hugh Mongous was incinerated. Flames soared 50 feet into the night sky; the Virginia Beach fire captain described the burning gorilla as "a fully involved ape." He'd been shot in his combustable fiberglass belly with a flaming arrow by a 33-year-old restaurant manager. To avoid prison, the arsonist -- who reportedly liked Hugh Mongous -- agreed to pay $60,000 for a replacement gorilla.

Big plans were announced by the waterpark: Demetrios Mavroudis would be brought back from Richmond and the new ape would have blinking eyes and moving lips that would talk (Like the Paul Bunyan in Brainerd, Minnesota).

Instead, the owners used their money to build more waterslides. The blackened, barely recognizable hulk of Hugh Mongous lay in a weedy back corner of the park, a grisly relic for those who knew where to look.

Hugh Mongous sporting his repainted waterpark attire in 2024.

Finally, in 1994, construction began on a replacement ape. He did not blink or talk, but he was even bigger than the original: 45 feet tall, more than twice the height of a typical Muffler Man. Demetrios Mavroudis was bypassed in favor of Kevin Gallup, a graduate student in the Old Dominion University art department. Gallup salvaged some of Hugh Mongous's original plastic foam and symbolically incorporated it into the new gorilla, which looked nothing like its predecessor. Its transformation was complete when Gallup abruptly left the project and was replaced by freelance artist Ernie Coulson, who gave the ape a toothy smile. This prompted Gallup to gripe in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper that Coulson had put "a stupid grin on his face." The gorilla also had glasses and glowing red eyes.

Hugh is one happy gorilla.

He was unveiled on May 17, 1996. His official name was Hugh Mongous 2, but the public -- which by now had mostly forgotten what the original looked like -- just called him Hugh Mongous, as if nothing had changed.

The only part of Hugh Mongous carried over from the old to the new was his red swim trunks, and even they would eventually be modified. In 2002, thanks to the promptings of local resident Alexandra Parsons, Hugh Mongous was outfitted with proper summertime attire: a waterpark tee, board shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt. These accessories are sometimes repainted in different colors -- and the big ape's eyes have been switched from red to green -- but Hugh Mongous has for over 20 years remained otherwise unaltered. And, after a turbulent youth, unscorched.