Like most iconic sounds in movie history, Godzilla's fearsome roar has a surprisingly humble origin. The film's sound department created those reptilian vocals by rubbing a resin-coasted leather glove up and down the strings of a contrabass. As for the monster's footsteps, that resounding gait came courtesy of beating a kettle drum with a knotted rope. (Source)

There's a legend of a man so burly that the King of Monsters took its name from him. According to several of the filmmakers, a stagehand who worked at Toho was nicknamed Gojira because his huge physique reminded people of a gorilla and a kujira (read: whale). Director Ishirō then named his giant monster after this giant man, and the rest is cinematic history. Or is it cinematic folklore? No one's ever come forward claiming to be Gojira. And details of the story, such as the man's job at Toho, have changed with subsequent retellings. Honda's widow, Kimi Honda, has said that the guys at Toho sure enjoy their tall tales. (Source)

Think it's horrible being attacked by Godzilla? Try being Godzilla. Temperatures inside the 200-pound rubber suit were so hot that actor Haruo Nakajima could reportedly wring out half a bucket's worth of sweat from his shirt after a day's shoot. That's one gross way to achieve cinematic stardom. (Source)

Godzilla took inspiration from those once and terrible lizards, the dinosaurs. In turn, the King of the Monsters inspired paleontologist Kenneth Carpenter to name a dinosaur after it. Carpenter christened his discovery Gojirasaurus quayi, a combination of "Gojira" and "sauros." The name literally means "the lizard Godzilla." The dinosaur is a theropod from the Triassic period, and like its namesake, it is not something you'd want to find cruising your neighborhood. (Source)

Godzilla has played basketball with Charles Barkley. It was for a Nike commercial, and the whole thing feels like a forty-second fever dream. (Source)

America's Godzilla (1998) proved such an embarrassment that producer Shogo Tomiyama renamed the American creature Zilla. His reasoning was that "they took the God out of Godzilla." To further cement Zilla's status as a lesser monster, Toho included her in Godzilla: Final Wars and had her fight the original Godzilla in Australia. Zilla was KO'ed in ten seconds flat.