Japanese movie studio best known for the
Godzilla films. Toho's
cash cow (or cash monster, I guess) was created by
producer Tomoyuki Tanaka,
special effects director
Eiji Tsuburaya, and
screenwriter Takeo Murata. Impressed with the success of "
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," Tanaka envisioned an even larger
monster that would attack
Tokyo. Tsuburaya pitched his idea of a
giant octopus, but Murata wrote up a
giant radioactive dinosaur with
fiery breath. They named the creature "
Gojira" (it sounds like "
Godzilla" to
Westerners) after a
chubby technician who worked for the
studio -- the name
translates as "
Gorilla-Whale."
The finished
film (with a
million dollar budget, it was ten times more
expensive than the average
Japanese film) was a huge
success and
American rights to the film were quickly sold. "
Godzilla, King of the Monsters,"
redubbed and with extra
footage of
Raymond Burr as a
reporter, was as
successful in
America as it was in
Japan, and Toho's future
success and its place in
film history was assured...