It's the Dearly Departed Podcast, featuring your host, historian Scott Michaels and filmmaker
Mike Dorsey. And welcome to the Dearly Departed Podcast. It's our thirtieth episode.
You believe it's Scott, Yeah, what's the thirtieth anniversary. There's a
there's a you know, there's yeah, let's see, let's see what that
is. But yeah, thanks for staring with us. I know it's been
a while and appreciate it's. Yeah. And while Scott looks that up,
I'm Mike Dorsey and I'm Scott Michaels and this is Dearly Departed Podcast. And
what do you what do you get for thirty pearl? You get a pearl
necklace? Mike, oh nice? Oh oh yeah, there's no double entendre
with that at all. I don't know what you mean. I don't know,
all right. So I was going to ask you since it was just
Halloween and we were going to try and do this for Halloween, because news
flash, we were going to talk about the universal monsters of the nineteen thirties
on this episode. Uh. That was It was a good follow up to
Freaks, Todd Browning's Freaks, which was our last episode. So it was
a nice little companion piece with that. But um, I was thinking about
since it was just Halloween, Uh, did you ever have any Halloween traditions
growing up Scott Well, you know, we did the trick or treating thing.
In fact, I was just talking to somebody the other day, I
think most of mine. I could never post pictures of like seventy five percent
of the costumes I watched for Halloween because I'd be destroyed. It's just,
you know it. Yeah, It's just everything has changed and shifted so drastically
that you can't. You can't, you can't. All of it was with
someone who was canceled. Yes, yes, uh so so what would you
do? Just put one of those? Yeah? I did go one time
as a clown police. And this is back in the eighties, this isn't
before there was an internet. But I did go. We had my friend
Bohannan and I we we wore berets. We had uh we put little clown
symbolbozo symbols with slashes through them, and I had Albozo lunchbox and in it
I had clown makeup remover and pins for for for for animals, for balloon
animals and we're just like military with like maglates and stuff. But it was
it was the anti clown police. So that was one of one of the
good one of the good ones, uh, that that I can talk about.
I was an army kid, but yeah, this is a regular trick
or treating business. We did the Devil's Night thing, too, which was
I don't I think that was an exclusive to Detroit thing. That is a
Detroit thing. Yeah, yeah, so was the night before Halloween we called
a Devil's Night and we would go out. It was it was prank fun.
It wasn't nice. It was mean, but it was kids. Like
writing things on windows was soap. You know, it wasn't permanent damage,
but it was vandalism. And in the sixties and seventies it was you know,
it was a little bit more of a nudge nudge, wink wink kind
of a thing. Now, you know, you know, anyone walking around
the night before Halloween is is you couldn't do it anymore. But it was
just a different time and I'm not priord of it, but it was just
one of those things. And then it became a whole different thing in Detroit
where you know, became famous for you know, people lighting cars on Buyer
and stuff like that. That was more. That was after I left Detroit,
it became a whole different thing. And so then they decided to rename
it Angel Night instead, but uh, yeah, it's the fire department.
Were always Yeah, but back when we were kids, it was like throwing
eggs and ringing doorbells and running that's all. So it was it was more
and it's and I'm saying it was innocent. But anyways, right man,
we were hardcore Devil's Night. I mean, when I was a little kid,
I liked the Disney Channel Halloween stuff on Halloween Night was always fun to
watch because you always go trigger treating and then you'd come home and put on
you know, Halloween programming and yeah, you know that's not exactly uh you
know, no Devil's Night for me. I guess. One time in college
one of my more tasteless costumes was I went as Buddy Holly after the plane
crash. Oh and my girlfriend at the time went as the president of the
Buddy Holly Band Club, and she was did they weep stand next to you
just cry? And um, it was pretty dark. I'll just say that
it was pretty dark, but her off it was basically just like a fifties
dress, you know. And uh, and I had like a card again,
and I had a I had a guitar at the time of electric guitar,
so I walked around with the fender, but I put like branches in
the fender. It was, it was, it was. It's one of
those things that seems okay at the time, but when you get older,
your like it's you know, it's funny Halloween. It's like, you know,
Princess Diana with a steering wheel around her neck, that's funny. I'm
sorry, you know, yeah, cancel me. I you know, the
whole thing is that we're inappropriate. It's a life. We're not going hooray
Diana is dead. We're not going hooray buddy Holly's dead. But you know,
for God's sake, just just lighting up. I mean, it's it's
gets a bad taste. It's a whole point. But exactly, it's not
serious. But I would never tell you what I dressed up. News of
the week another thing I wanted to talk about, And I know you wanted
to talk about this too big news. Uh, just uh, whenever you
think you're having like a bad week or a bad month. Robert Durst was
convicted for killing Susan Burman. He got COVID and was also now been charged
with his wife's his former wife's murder from nineteen eighty two, all in the
span of like a couple of weeks. So your life could always go worse,
right, Yeah? Well, yeah, I mean durshboys Um. He
was the subject of the show, the famous documentary The Jinks The Jinks,
and very famously basically confessed while on camera and uh, yeah they could they
could use that, couldn't they? They could use that. He was he
was at a urinal and just talking to himself. Yeah, but he still
still mid Yeah, and he was, and he and he gave permission to
be recorded. So it was fair fair game, wasn't it. Yeah,
And the filmmakers always was a direty. I think he's a filmmaker's name.
I think they've claimed that they didn't they didn't find that footage until much much
later into the editing process. I don't know if I totally believe that,
but whatever, I'll take their word for it makes sense, I mean,
because this is a throwaway. If you're gonna go, you know, you
go to the bathroom. He would just throw that away. It's very unusual
when you cut camera though, for sound to keep rolling. And they did
plan They did show them planning that interview out in detail. They made it
part of the film, like they're planning because it was the second time they
were interviewing him, so they were trying to figure out, you know,
what questions to ask and whatever. I'm just I don't know. I always
wonder, I don't I have no inside information on this, but I always
wonder if it was completely you think it was, it was contrived. It's
possible it could be contrived that they well, they always knew, they all
well, they all they knew. He had been caught mumbling on a hot
mic in the first interview, and I think his lawyer or somebody, a
rapper or somebody was there with him and went over and had to tell him
to shut up because they're, like, you know, they were between they
kind of were taking a break, but he was still sitting in his chair,
and this was the first interview where he didn't confess, but he was
kind of mumbling things, and a woman went over and warned him, Hey,
they can hear what you're saying. You need to be careful what you're
saying. So as a filmmaker, who I mean, just as hypothetical,
as a filmmaker, I would be saying, Okay, we already caught him
on a hot mic once we know he tends to do that, so I
will tell my sound guy, hey, when we cut, you keep rolling
until I come to you and specifically tell you to cut because he might say
some stuff. So let's let's get it. And then they got it.
But then I guess there's somebody I know that knows the filmmakers, and they
in their adamant that it was totally it was a total accident that I guess.
Originally they were going to end the series with the letter with it with
Beverly Hills, but misspelled. Um that was going to be their big reveal
moment at the end. And then somewhere towards the end of the editing they
caught that extra audio, found it and realized they had, like something even
better than the envelope. So I don't know, Yeah, yeah, Durst,
I mean dur Well, he's been convicted, so he could say he
murdered Susan Burman. Who was a basically a mob daughter and lived in Bennedict
Canyon on Bennedict Canyon Boulevard and was shot the back of the head. And
Durst was convicted found guilty of her murder. But there was a two thousand
that that happened, right, yeah, well yeah, and then there was
an anonymous letter sent to the Beverly Hills Police Department, and you know,
the word Beverly Hills, Beverly I think was misspelled and he had spelled as
it was totally traced back to him. So yeah, he was found guilty
and then that that whole what a bizarre story. It was a letter where
he wrote to let them know that there was he he was the word cadaver,
so they called it a cadaver letter, but it was the to let
them know that there was a dead body in Susan Burman's house. So I
guess he was her friend, uh, you know, and he murdered her,
so maybe he felt somewhat bad about it and wanted to make sure that
they found her body. I guess so he sent I mean that would be
pretty ugly. Well, you know, it's like four doors down from where
George Reeves died of a gunshot wounded the head. You know, it's a
crazy fol crazy neighborhood. Yeah, yeah, well we go, we said,
we talked about that before. But there has to be a Manson connection,
doesn't there We always have always, um so, Yeah, so durst
is um So, it's it's wild. I did not. I was surprised
that they are now charging him officially with the murderer or or I think they've
charged or considering charging. I think they did charge him with the murder of
his first wife that has never been found. They've always assumed that she was
murdered. She disappeared under mysterious circumstances, which was you know, also covered
in the jinks. Um so. But they you know, it would be
nice if he would at least, you know, assuming that he was that
he was responsible, It would be nice if he would at least tell them
where he put her, right. I don't know if they'll ever I don't
know if her family ever get that closure. You know. Yeah. Right,
it's uh yeah, what a mess. And he's just this crump,
a little old man now and he's going to die in prison. It's uh,
you know, it's that, it's it's just people are demented anyway,
Uh what else? Man? Well, there was I mean we should touch
on the Alec Baldwin thing that was that was crazy. Um the it's I
mean, it's so sad and so bad that that there was a live weapon
on the set of that movie that and all Alec Baldwin, you know,
really just killed the guy. I mean, it's just it's just the fact
that killed they killed the woman. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's such a
to have that on your conscience and just you know, to have that is
this gun okay, yes, it's okay, Okay, here you are,
you know, and yeah, I mean here's an actor who has handled tons
of firearms throughout his career, and is that you know? All you trust
the people that handed the armor on set and they assistant director have checked it
and for whatever reason, the gun hadn't been checked. And the craziest thing
is they're saying it was a real live bullet, because sometimes when they say
live round that can also mean a blank, but they I guess they've since
specified and it was an actual bullet that came out of the gun. And
what in the world a live bullet was doing on a movie set? Is
you know, there's it's questions on top of questions with this one, and
it, um, it makes me really upset to even think about it.
But you know there's one other thing too, that's that's something that's that that
is you know, it's a terrible situation. And this is not in any
way being accusatory of anything. But anyone that's handled or learned to handle a
firearm, you never pointed at anybody. I know that that's part of the
that's part of the movie. So that's what he was supposed to do it.
But yeah, it just seems like I would be very uncomfortable, you
know, doing that. But yeah, just actually it doesn't even matter what
I just said, because it was the whole point was he supposed to shoot
somebody with it, and he's just staying the gun at the camera, so
there's gonna be a person standing there, so he he thinks he's holding an
empty gun and he's showing this is what I'm gonna do, and go have
that on your conscience. It's so it's so sad you would think, you
know, that's happened before with John ere Hexham and Brandy and Lee and um,
you know, granted you know Hexham was was a stupid mistake on his
part. But but yeah, just you know, they're making this big deal
about there should never be a live ammunition on a movie. Well there just
shouldn't, you know, You're just done. Rather they should not, And
I don't see why they don't make fake guns. Why they put real firearms
on the set. You know, fake guns are are pretty convincing, and
that's what prop people do. So I mean I used, uh, I
had a gun on the set of my uh the recreations I shot from Murder
rep. We used an airsoft guns. So it's a gun that does not
even shoot cannot shoot real bullets to begin with. It's just gas powered.
It's made to shoot plastic pellets. So even if it was loaded, which
are made to be shot at people. I mean, it's not supposed to.
It's not. It can't hurt you kind of. It just needs to
demonstrate some kind of kick back, I guess, but it shows that.
But the gas power makes the slide pop back on a semi automatic, so
it looks realistic when you're pulling the trigger and you get a little recoil off
of that. Um, yeah, I don't understand why I don't understand why
they don't have kind of weak to your point, why they don't have guns
that go through all the mechanics of shooting a gun, but don't have a
barrel and a hammer that actually knights around and can fire something down a barrel.
I don't understand why you need that part of it. You can have
a slide that kicks back when you pull the trigger and something come out to
barrel, you know the end of the guns just like pop, like a
you know, a cap or whatever come out. Uh, there's no reason
to have I don't understand a working chamber, barrel, hammer. I don't
understand why you need all that. So Hutchins was the cinematographer's name who passed
away, So rest in peace to her. Yeah, it's and and Gon
bless her family. Man. That's and the Alan Baldwin's family. That's just
awful. Anyway, everybody but everybody was there that day is is going to
be traumatized from it. So well, moving on, what out do you
have any other news or do you want to move on to hate mail?
Let's let's move on to hate mail. Hate mail? All right, you
said you said you had some good ones. It's mostly trolling for trolls I
get. I get feedback on my YouTube videos, and I saved the comments
Troy. Troy's been saving them, and I asked him not to tell me
what they say and just to send him to me for this because you so
you'll what you'll do is you'll hear um. Uh these coming out for the
first time, these these comments have been sent to me, Troy, have
saved them, and I'm going to read them to you. And for the
first time. You have not seen these yet. Yeah, Okay, there's
not as many as I hoped. So somebody I did, oh, I
did a true crime artifact. I was showing some of the things in my
collection and uh, and somebody wrote Alex Alex C wrote, why do you
collect such shit? Why not collect an entire painting that the subject actually looked
at and appreciated the same way you can today, or a car that he
or she drove. What the is this broken handles and pieces of pottery?
Sorry, but collecting scrap of a building material is just sad. It's like,
Okay, well that's that's not that good. Good go find your own
hobby, Alex. Yeah, the David White I did a David White video
about him and his son being in the Panama lockerbeat bombing. David White played
Larry Tates, uh somebody called crazy train who has a Manson icon okay,
as with with the swastika on his forehead, And I said, Dearly Departed
Tours is an old dinosaur. It's like, it's kind of like watching a
one and a half year old toddler squeal with excitement because they picked up a
piece of garbage off the street and think it is a treasure. Boring and
redundant. I don't think it's redundant at all. Maybe boring, but I
don't think. Look, I think we need to I think I think they
need to pick a metaphor and stick with it. You're both a dinosaur and
a coder. How is that possible? That's actually, yeah, a very
good point. Come on, he's just saying, for the for the next,
for the next one, you for the next comment. That guy makes,
you know, just a little writing tip. You know, they'll make
your metaphors up, well, Troy, will you know he's he's kind of
about it because sometimes they're upsetting, because they really I'm upsetting. It's not
the right word for it. But they're annoying because they go after they don't
even be creative. You know, they're just saying you're big and ugly and
stupid. It's like, you know, haha, very funny, and so
you know that gets exhausting because you know, I don't I don't want as
to tell me what I look like. But but uh, anyway, so
let's see what this one. Jackson keep Okay, I didn't even know what
this means and I don't even even remember what video it's from. Jackson.
Oh, Michael Jackson. This is Michael Jackson. I did the thing.
I knew where he's buried. Jackson, keep me keep her jeans Jesus if
she needs a meet her. Jesus did not Jewish have had he has held
ID is just jealous? I different January. I'd keep is sounds like somebody
had their voice to text on and didn't know it. The the Let's see
if I can find another one. I plan on preserving the toilet the museum
owners will overdose on and sending pictures of it to their families. You know,
for history. It's funny. Haven't you commented on that in the past,
though, like you want to be on a death tour or something like
that someday, or you wouldn't mind it or something like that. Have I
am, I replied to them, No, no, no, I'm just
having Haven't you ever talked about that before? Because people have criticized you said,
I hope somebody drives, you know, buy your house after you die,
or something like, yeah, right, yeah, I mean that's that's
that's that goes back to that thing that you know, the people dying two
times. The first time you dies when you physically die and draw your last
breath, and the second time is when someone says your name for the last
time out loud. So it's like, well, shit, drive by my
house. At least you'll be saying my name, you know, right now
mine? With that, I don't want to be here anymore anyways. So
who cares? That's true? That's true. I okay, So that was
that one. Um, somebody was angry about the Cabazon dinosaurs. That doesn't
really matter. Let's see, let's see somebody was mad about the dinosaurs.
Yeah, the Cabazon dinosaurs that I posted a video because they painted them look
like the flintstones. Yeah, and uh so, so dino is purple,
the dinosaurs purple, and the t rexes looking like prey, And I said,
isn't that kind of cool? And they said, I don't think it's
cool at all, just like I don't think it's cool what they did to
Hadley's or that other casino is there. Of fast food chains have littered the
area. What was once an oasis of uniqueness is now just another monument to
greed. You can have it, and it's like or I have to agree
with them, though I do hate what they did with Hadley's. I don't
even know what Hadley's is mic that doesn't that's nothing to me. I don't
what does that mean? Yeah, so Hadley's for for decades and decades was
famous for their dates cakes and it was this cool looking, almost like roadhouse
looking built, freestanding restaurant building that they were in. And now Hadley's is
in like a strip mall and is all like clean and modern and it's still
good. I mean, you still get the day. I still recommend Hadley's
day shakes, but it's not like it. The charm of it is all
gone. I see what they used to have. Yeah, Hadley's I was
big with our family used to stopping at Hadley's a lot. I mean that
the dinosaurs are still cool. I mean that's that's that's just like Americana,
you know, that's that's just something silly on the side of the road and
uh whatever. I mean they were they were all faded out and following apart
a couple of years ago. So um, you know, they embrace it
and they're kitschy and they're fun anyway. By repainting them, they keep generating
new interest in them, so they don't get kind of well, so they
don't turn it. They don't. They don't. They have new things in
their gift shop. So it's it's like a cooler vibe to it than it
used to be. They embraced the kitch and I think it's pretty cool.
Yeah, let's see this one is Oh. I did think about Princess Grace's
hears and it went to the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston, and
I opened up the hearst and I sat in you know, the hearst that
carried Princess Grace's body. So I was rude. It was it was route
in indignant in letter and disgusting of you to open up the hearst in sitting
in it disrespectful to Princess Grace. I was liking the video up to that
point. I will not subscribe sad Bass. So yeah, I said,
I wrote. My comment was, oh no, please don't go please,
I beg you. By the way, speaking of my Princess Grace, I
recently, I guess recently a few months ago, I found like a little
short documentary that was shot back at the time when she got married. It
was all about the wedding preparations and the wedding day, you know, all
this stuff in Monaco. It was interesting. It was very you know,
positive raw ra kind of a doctor about the day. But it was really
entertaining and informative, and it was cool to see all the footage, all
the old like sixteen millimeter footage it look like that they shot of all that
stuff. They Yeah, it's interesting because you know who who was an integral
part of doing that. I think we may have talked about that. But
the documentary the royal family that Prince Philip sort of when the queen, you
know, Queen Elizabeth, he was, he was sort of they featured in
the in the crown quite having anybody. He was he was, you know,
spearheaded this drive to sort of open the doors on the royal family and
show them as normal people or humans, not not normal because they'll never be
normal. Yeah, but yeah, and it's very interesting, so they're kind
of just going on to that that sort of theme is showing them as humans.
And plus she was you know, she was a princess, she was
a movie star and you know the yeah, fascinating interesting story and tragic death.
Um yeah yeah, And I mean Ray Window is my favorite movie and
she was just like iconic level gorgeous in that. Oh so okay, So
I did this other video really recently. The last one I did was this
lady who has a wax museum in her house. She has literally the movie
Land wax museum. She has like the entire Wizard of Oz in her bed
in her living room, like with the Yellowberck groat in the trees. She
has the Phantom of the Opera with the organ like a real organ. This
is in her living room. She has a WC. Fields, She has
there's the Shaggy Day in the absent Minded Professor Fred McMurray in a Car that
flew. She has the car hanging in her living room. I mean it's
a life size car with Fred McMurray's wax statue and the wheel spin and there's
the whole deal. I mean this one. But also the most recent thing
she has is Jimmy Stewart from the movie Land Wax Museum. So she has
Jimmy Stewart there with him in his cast, and she has the entire background
that was there, I mean, like the furniture and everything that was on
the shelves behind him, and and the pictures of Jimmy Stewart there with you
know, with when he unveiled it. And it's, uh, you know,
I love wax museums anyway, it's like a batish of mind and uh
and this but I saw her on YouTube. She's got a channel called The
Weird and Wonderful. Her name is Cynthia Lazaris, and she said, yeah,
come on and visit. And I walked in and I was like,
she's got Linda Blair with her head spinning at the at the atter staircase.
You know, she has she has the entire she has like the giant chariot
from Ben Hurr in her family room, you know. Upstairs she has like
the Marx Brothers. I mean, like the entire Marx Brothers. It's insane.
And she has like a Elvira's wedding dress, like a Sandra Peterson and
oh just I mean like it's unbelieve I wish you could sit It's like it's
unknown, it's unbelievable. Yeah, she's she's she's she's hilarious, she's funny,
she's sweet, and she collects wax museums, literally a wax museum.
So wow. Yeah, So check out that YouTube channel, was it again?
Yeah? Weird, wonderful? Yeah, well you could if you go
to mind Dear lead Departy tours, um, you'll find that's my last video
and you can go it's linked to her and you'll see it. It's just
so cool. She's amazing. Yeah yeah yeah. So is that all the
haymal? I think, Oh yeah, that's all my haymal. That's all
my okay, Um, all right, well do we want to get into
the main feature? I think we should. It's time for the main feature,
all right. It is Universal Monsters is our theme of this episode.
The Great monster Movies of the nineteen thirties from Universal Studios. Frankenstein, um
Bride of Frankenstein, the Dracula, Wolfman, Um, the the other Frankenstein
sequels that came out that decade. Um and we're just a huge, huge,
huge success for Universe. So in the thirties, Yeah, yeah,
a Phantom of the Opera. I mean they're so yeah, it just goes
it's I love the Universal Monsters. I mean, you know, it made
them and it really put them on the map. I think the monsters did.
And as I said in our Patreon episode that we recorded a little bit
earlier, for the people that subscribe to the channel, they you know,
the Universal kind of just blew off the monsters. You know, they didn't
really acknowledge it. When you went to Universal Studios. You never saw it
was all you know, it was all whatever was recent. You know,
they now it's all Harry Potter junk. But now you'll see out of the
go see there and you'll see you know, things like that, whereas before
they really wasn't anything that they ever really thought to embrace. So, um,
well, a few years ago, maybe ten years ago on how long
it was, they tried to reboot the whole their classical monster franchises and they
did a Tom Cruise Movieum, with the Mummy, and it was not good.
It was not and it and yeah, can you believe you that's how
great it did. You don't even remember it that it happened. Yeah,
it was called I think it was just the Mummy. It wasn't like the
Brendan Frasier ones. It was yeah, no, I remember now, Yeah,
I forgot about that. I did see that, and it was twenty
seventeen and Russell Crowe was in it, and it was it was I don't
like the dog other people's movies because I make movies too, and so I
try not to be critical publicly. But it was not good. It was
not good. It was just kind of a mess and it didn't do well.
And that was kind of the end of it. I don't think they're
gonna, I mean, if they do try to get that going again,
and won't be the whatever direction they were going I think at that time.
So, yeah, it was not great. It was weird. It was
like it was like overly serious. I don't know, I don't know.
It wasn't on like the like the Brendan Frasier Mummy movies that were kind of
like you know, Indiana Jones type things. Yeah, it was set in
modern times, and yeah it was weird. Yeah, yeah, something that
Tom Cruise didn't touch. They didn't turn to gold and tell. Yeah,
which normally what I would say what you will about him. He usually picks
really good projects and there's always the screenplays are always good. Um, he's
got a good track record. It doesn't usually make bad stuff. So yeah,
yeah, it was a rare misfire. So what do you want to
start with. Well, let's go into Let's go into Frankenstein. I know
it's not the first, but but Frankenstein is the first on my list.
So that's a director James Whale, I can't Yeah, and produced by Carl
Amley. But yeah, James Whale, who we really we haven't talked about
him before here we were talking about Todd Browning, but not James Whale,
have we? I don't. We may have mentioned him in passing before,
but no, I don't know that we've ever dove dove dove in Okay,
Well, I mean James Whale was a I mean he directed, uh,
he directed Frankenstein, He directed Bride of Frankenstein, he directed, he did
like horror movies, Invisible Man, Yeah, and called the Old Dark House
he was. Yeah, he was something else and he That film that they
made about him was really interesting. If you ever got a chance to see
Peanut Brendan Frasier, it was called Gods and Monsters, a really good film.
Yeah. Ian McKellen his play plays Whale and Uh. Frasier plays a
fictionalized Gardner character working at Wal's house and when Whale is you know, his
career is basically over. As an old man um Uh and Whale was a
very rare bird for his time. He was openly gay and and had a
living companion David Lewis, who lived lived with They lived together for over twenty
years and and it was open. Everybody knew about it, which back then
it was almost unheard of. And David Lewis, his partner, was Irving
Thalberg's assistant. Irving Thalberg one of my favorite people in Hollywood history, who
was the head of production for DM for MGM and one of the early Irving
Thalberg was a major, major, major early force in the film industry,
and the Producer's Guild every year still gives out an Irving Thalberg Award that is
dedicated in his honor. But David Lewis, who was James Whale's partner was
Irving Thalberg's assistant, I mean drove around, would hang out with him at
his house. And then James Whale was, you know, a director.
So and then later on, after Thalberg died, a lot of people that
had been kind of protected by Thalberg were they kind of had to find somewhere
else to go. And David Lewis was one of those guys, I think.
But David Lewis went on to be a producer in his own right and
produced films I think into the sixties. So, or at least some moroblems
so. So. James Whale died in fifty seven May twenty nine, ninety
fifty seven, by drowning in his swimming pool. And and it was a
suicide, it was, they said it was accidental. But shortly before his
boyfriend died said he stumbled on a note and said that basically, you know,
it was he didn't stumble, and he'd had it the whole time.
He just didn't release what the note said. But I think it asked not
to be released until he was dead or something like that. Yeah, it
was. It was kept secret for a long time. Yeah, So it
was funny because I was. I was watching the Academy Awards about twenty years
ago now, and uh, and Goldie Hawn was giving out a reward or
an award or receiving one. I think she was. I think she was
presenting an award and the subject of Frankenstein came up, and James Whale came
up, and she was, Oh, I've lived in his house. He
drowned in my swimming pool, and it was yeah, it was Goldie haunting.
Kurt Russell ended up buying James Whale's house that he drowned in. It's
just kind of a it was this kind of a it wasn't thing something.
Actually she didn't say he drowned in her pool, but I just but she
did say I live in the house where he lived, and I just I
just knew it. But it was kind Yeah. I think that the house
is still around too. I believe too. Yeah, it's nice. It's
in the Palisades. Yeah, but it was. It was a cool little
house and uh, yeah, it's just I don't think they still live in
it, but they did. Basically, what's wild with Whale is He's a
good example of it seemed to be especially true in the early days of Hollywood.
He was red hot for like five or six years with the Universal and
then and then the bottom just falls out. You know, he has like
kind of one not good film, and you know there's old saying in Hollywood
You're only as good as the last thing you did. And it's crazy how
fast you can kind of fall off that wagon and not be hot anymore.
And his career was basically over by you know, uh, you know,
by the by the forties. Uh so, yeah, it's really wild.
And then he, I guess it had a series of love of serious health
issues and that's what his suicide note referenced. It was just that he was
in almost constant agony basically because all his health issues. So and only sixty
seven years old. That's sad. It's um. Yeah, yeah. It
was a fascinating movie, that was and it was really well done. Yeah
yeah, I'd love to like Elsa Lanchester's character was in there, Charles Lawton
character and it was just I you know, that whole thirties movie horror movie
people just being normal people. It was not cool. I like that,
right, Um. But yeah, so James. He passed away on May
twenty ninth, nineteen fifty seven. By then he and Lewis had separated,
and um he he dated several other young men, which is kind of what
Brendan Fraser. I think it's kind of an amalgamation of the kind of twenty
something, you know, young guys that were around Wale toward the end.
I didn't realize they broke up. I didn't know that. Yeah, because
Whale, I guess went after his career kind of created. He went to
France for a while and came back to the US with the French waiter.
I think that he met over there and Leis. Lewis obviously was not okay
with that, and so that was Lewis moved out and that was kind of
the end of it. But I think he and Lewis stayed close. I
remained close friends for years afterwards, but yeah, we weren't together anymore.
I also thought this was very interesting. Whale. One of his early gigs
he worked on Hell's Angels, the Howard Hughes' film. He was Jeanjean Harlowe's
dialogue coach. Oh interesting, and it's kind of an uncredited director because Hell's
Angels famously was They started making it when they were still doing silent films,
and then all of a sudden talkies became the rage, and they were still
working on the movie and they were like, we gotta make this thing into
a sound movie, and so they needed a guy. They suddenly they needed
directors who had stage directing experience, which is where James Wild come from.
He had directed plays in London and on Broadway. So he came in as
a quote dialogue coach to basically direct all the new scenes that they were doing
that had dialogue in them. And so that's that was. They needed people
that had experienced tea directing actors who were actually speaking I guess, which most
film directors at the time didn't never had to deal with. Yeah, all
pantomime, you know. Was he from Was he from England? Originally?
I believe he was British? Yeah, because I wonder what kind of dialogue
he taught. He had a good British weird British duh. Yeah at that
actor land accent. I think it was I think it was him. I
think he had um he had fought in World War One and had been captured
and was ah, was it him? I think it had been captured.
It had been a pow for a number of years or for whatever cover time
during World War one broke World War one broke out in August nighty fourteen had
little interest in politics, realizing since it stationed in Bristol. Subsequently commissioned second
lieutenant in Worcestershire. Taken prisoner of war in battle at the Western Front in
Flanders in nineteen seventeen. It was held at the Officers camp and he stayed
there until the end of the war, like a little over a year,
huh. And it was while he was a pow that he became interested in
drama because they, you know, the POWs to pass the time would do,
you know, stage productions and stuff. And I think that's where he
discovered that he liked to do that, and that started his career. And
I think Carl Lamley wanted Whale right away. Didn't need to do the to
do the directing for for for the horror movies. I'm pretty sure that Lamley
is the one ninety thirty one Universal Chief Carl Emilely offered Whale his choice of
any property, so and Whale chose Frankenstein. So um, interesting but but
great. And it was ninety thirty one. It was made those movies.
I was watching we I think you watched him too. I watched Dracula,
watched Frankenstein. I watched Fanom of the Opera. It was like hour ten
minutes, hour long. You know. It was like, yeah, they're
they're so short. They're like seventy minutes, seventy five minutes. I love
it. Yeah. I went to see that James Bond movie. It was
like almost it was two hours forty minutes. That new James Bond movie was
like, oh my god. I'm not gonna say it was bored, but
it's like, oh my god, you could say a lot in a lot
less time, you know, right, and they did bag well. You
know, film was expensive, so you want to keep it short back then
when you could, right. Although the Silent era there was some crazy like
four hour long plus long epics. That's true. I've alwaysn't it wasn't that
that original one that was done by intolerance and greed and intolerance creed. That's
what it was. It wasn't like ten hours or something, which you want
to talk about things going slow, a movie that's not long with no dialogue,
you know. And also it's funny because nos Farratto is uh, you
know, go, you know, ripping on the Dracula thing a little bit.
Um. I found that really hard to sit here. I well,
we've talked about that. Silent movies are a little bit rough for me.
But if you watch nos Farratto on fast forward, it's perfect. You know,
you could read all the cards and uh and you know I'm missing any
of the action and it was it's great. So just watch it on fast
forward half the time you get the movie and um, it works. Yeah.
No, Faratto was a good movie too, but better when it's fast
forward it in my mind. Also, what was really interesting about these if
you're a film nerd, what was really interesting about the universal horror films was
the influence of German expressionism on the look, the severe you know, the
strong shadows, the severe um contrast between dark and light images on the screen.
You know, just severe lighting, really expressionistic and interesting. Guy.
I mean, if you want like a more modern example, you know,
early Tim Burton, stuff like Tim Burton's Batman movies for a good example of
that. Just really wild shapes and yeah, contrasting and moody and well,
I mean really well done. Because you know that a lot of it was
Matt, you know, the background were Matt. But but considering the time
period they did it in, I mean there's something I noticed, like,
Wow, these sets, you know, everything is really good at Granted,
you know, black and white is an art form because of the lighting,
et cetera, and you have to say so much more with less information as
far as color goes, because you know, it doesn't translate as well.
And I was really, you do have an appreciation for the artistry for something
like that, because it is they were stunning movies, practical in camera effects
as they say. Yeah, you know. One thing that I was speaking
of that one thing that jumped out to me was I watched The Pride of
Frankis nine this week and there's a scene where there's like little miniature people in
glass jars. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, I
don't totally know how they did that back then, because I was like nineteen
thirty six or thirty five. I'm not I know how they did it,
but I don't know how they did it. Like today, you could do
it in a day. It would be easy. You just green screen it.
Um. But I it was very it was so well done. It
was really well done. So I don't I know how that it didn't look
it looked very real for its time, the way they did that it was.
I just kept watching it like it was very impressed. It was mesmerizing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also loved The Bride of Frankenstein.
I think I liked it more than the original film because it was like fun
Yeah, it was campy. It was campy. Um. Yeah. I
was surprised at how campy it was actually, you know they were. It
was a lot more lighthearted and uh yeah, less sinister. I mean,
the guy the Frankenstein a full biologue, I mean, you know, and
he was just, you know, within the span of like a day,
he learned, you know, how to have conversations, and I learned how
to smoke and all this kind of silly stuff. So it's it's funny people
talk about camp and obviously that's part of it. But I also wonder if
it wasn't the fact that screwball comedies took off in the early thirties, you
know, after after the you know, the first Frankenstein came out. I
wonder if that didn't play some part in it, because it was kind of
like over the top comedy a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you're right, it was. It was broad some of it. Yeah,
and uh and it's funny, I thought when I thought about it, like
Young Frankenstein, the film, the mel Brooks film is much more Bride of
Frankenstein than the Frankenstein and the original film, you know. And uh it
was. And you know, another one was The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
You know, that's that's the Frankenstein story basically, and uh and and it's
more Bride than it is frank Frankenstein was a serious movie. It was a
horrifying movie. And Bride, you know, it was a bit it was
a bit more. It was like probably the first sequel they ever did,
you know. And uh yeah, it's almost like what they did with Gremlins
too. They just went for it on the second movie, you know what
I mean, like, let's just have fun and any crazy crazy stuff with
it. Yeah. So um okay. So it was based on the novel
by by Mary Shelley and Mary Shelley. It was. It was interesting in
the credits they built her as missus Percy Shelley, not Mary Shelley, so
it was she went by her husband's name. She was married to Percy the
philosopher and the poet. Um and he um he died of a he was
he was like drowned in a and a and a ship and accident as a
good body washed up like ten days later and uh and like rome or something
and uh and they ended up cremating him there, but his heart didn't burn,
so they left his body in Italy, I believe is where he washed
up and gave his heart to Mary Shelley. They said it was causel fight
or something like that. So Mary Shelley's buried in Bournemouth in England with her
husband's heart just as hard because they it's interesting because she was so you know,
you know, Frankenstein came out of this woman's brain. You know,
she's clearly thinking pretty in a pretty bizarre, you know manner. So so
then she died in an eighteen fifty one of a brain tumor. But uh,
it's just it's interesting. And they didn't even give her her name when
she you know, when in the movie it is missus, you know,
Percy B. Shelley, not Mary Shelley. Just fascinanding for that time period
we're talking about Frankenstein. You want to talk about Boris Karloff. Yeah,
yea, yeah, not a single line at dialogue, just a lot of
grunts and a lot of couldn't even tell, you know, couldn't even know
it was who I was. Didn't even get a credit, did he,
Yeah, it said it's just in the opening credits. It just says the
monster and with a question mark next to it, whereas, of course all
the other actors were credited next to their names their character names. UM and
then. I also thought it was interesting that in the Bride of Frankenstein four
years later, UM, they credited the monsters just Karloff's last name only,
and then for the for the monster's mate, they did the same thing with
the question mark. They didn't give Elsa um Leanchester a credit, I think.
Oh, but she did get one because she played Mary Shelley at the
beginning. I totally yeah, she was. It was her and Percy,
her husband, and someone else sitting around in a parlor and she was doing
needle point or something and talking about, you know, come on, you
know, Mary, You've got some story or you know, and then she
goes into the bride. They goes into it, and they did this weird
UM and they did a weird like recap kind of like what today would be
like, you know, in the last episode, just to catch audience.
Yeah, in the first movie, just in case he didn't see the first
movie, you'd know what was going on kind of deal. Yeah, it
was really funny. Yeah. I think it was five years from the original
one that they did, uh. I believe it was Frankenstein Briden. Frankenstein
was done in thirty five, so for one was the original. So it's
about it for you. And they still had I think they still had the
original props laying around, so they were still able to use the sets from
that. And speaking of Karlov, his apparently each of one of his shoes
for Frankenstein's monsters, I think they had like four inch souls on him,
each one. I think weighed like eleven pounds and it took him hours and
hours and hours to get into makeup. And I think he ended up later
in his career being a real advocate. You know, we talked earlier about,
you know, on the set and how Cruise retreated and stuff. I
think he became an advocate later on for you know, hours because he had
to spend so many hours in makeup to get all that stuff put on him,
and it was just like it was a lot to ask of a person.
I think it's what it came down to. So he kind of became
an act advocate for actors rights in time, how much time they spend on
sets and how you know you go through six seven hours of makeup before you
even start acting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's interesting
he got he became famous for not having a single line. Of course.
You know when Briden Frankenstein came about, he had complete you know, dialogue.
I mean he learned that in a day. You know, he could
talk about everything, wife, smoke, you know. And what's really what
I find ironic is that, uh, you know, we're gonna talk about
Bella Legosi in a bit. You know, Bella Legosi had the thick Hungarian
accent, which actually kept him from getting a lot of roles, other roles
in his career because he was a lot of times he was difficult to understand
his English. And and yet he gets all the speaking parts with the Dracula
character, and Boris Karloff, who's British and has excellent addiction, gets a
monster that doesn't talk. Yeah, those of odd. It is funny,
and I don't know how realistic that rivalry was between the two of them.
You know, I think that Battle wanted more parts. I think they say
bettele was u was offered or refused. It was refused m Frankenstein. Um,
I think that's what it was. That Bettle of the ghosts he claimed
he had had was offered to it. But but yeah, Battle of the
Ghostie. But they say that Betta and Boris Carlov had a feud because they're
both you know, horror film stars. But the universal Frankenstein and Dracula came
out the same year, so yeah, you can kind of see how where
it come from. And I guess they got along more or less, uh
okay, at least for a time. I don't know. But you know,
Carlov ended up having a far better career in the long run than Legos
he did. I think, yes, certainly. Yeah. And and there
was the way it was represented in in the movie ed Wood was quite funny.
The way that he referred to you know, Karloff, that cocksucker was
there. It was pretty funny. I love that. But yeah, so
Carlopp good on him. So he he and Bella were you know, we're
sort of neck and neck. He was into Walking Dead in thirty six.
He was in The Invisible Ray in thirty six. He ended up both of
them ended up doing like spoofy Abbot and Costello movies. You know, I
just I'll meet Frankenstein, which is a connection to the murder of Robert Leaves.
You know that got the little screenwriter that got murdered in Hollywood, got
his head cut off by the hustler. Um, he was a screenwriter for
Abant. Costello Meet Frankenstein. Yeah, and um and Legosti and Carlo were
both together in Son of Frankenstein, right, I think so yeah both I
think so yeah. Yeah, they let's put him together. There's so many
of those those outrageous you know comedy. After a while, they just didn't
care. You know, They're like, put the Wolfman in there. You
know, it was a teenage wolf man, you know, do that.
Um, you know Godzilla versus Frankenstein. Yeah, do that, and um,
it just didn't matter. After a while. They just went and did
their thing. And then he went on to have quite a success in as
a voice actor too. Yeah. Yeah, The Grinch still Christmas and uh.
He ended up doing a lot of silly movies too. He wasn't the
Ghost Indivisible Bikini where he had his character name was like the Ghoul or something
like that. And it's interesting because we talked about in the Patreon episode Tommy
Kirk, the Disney Kid was in that movie as well, the one had
just died not that long ago. But um grinstall Christmas. Yeah, he
was, he was. He was here. Throw Ravens. Yeah, throw
Ravens. Croff sang the song. He was the guy who was Tony the
Tiger, which is which is the great? Yeah throw throw Ravens Croft.
I think he was Captain Crunch too. I love that. But yeah,
he was doing some kind of silly movies towards the and you know, beach
movies because a lot of them were remember that Buster Keaton, he was doing
him too, beach movies, you know, just kind of trash throwaway,
I got a week to kill movies. But anyway, he ended up Boris
Carlof ended up passing away in sixty nine February of sixty nine. He was
eighty one, and he apparently was a heavy smoker and he only had like
half of a functioning lung yet left at the end, and so he got
heat and died from pneumonia. Basically, okay, when you have half of
a functioning lung, you don't want to get pneumonia. And that was no,
no, yeah, he's so he was cremated and he's his ashes,
well, there are certainly there's a plaque for him at the Actors Church in
London and Covent Garden, and I think that that's where his ashes are in
a wall, because there's a wall outside. But there's also a bench with
his name on it. So so, but that's where his creamines are in
the Actor's Church in Covent Garden in London. And he was eighty eighty one
years old. But it's interesting we're talking about just a second ago. Richard
O'Brian. I wrote a book about the Rocky Horror Picture Show several years ago.
I interviewed, you know, most everyone that was involved with him,
and Richard O'Brien, who wrote the basically the story, you know, made
it. Of course, his own was sued for by a woman who claims
that he stole her idea of I don't know, a transvestite that comes from
outer space and you know, I guess, but she sued him, and
he ended up not having to go to court because it's like, well,
we both ripped off Mary Shelley. You get you know, if you if
you wrote the story, we both owe you know, owe our careers to
Mary Shelley. So what are you even saying? But but yeah, I
thought that was it was a clever way to put it, because I never
really thought of it that way. But there was some sort of um,
you know, providence or or you know, how you can get away with
a lot of stuff with like we talked about about Elf, you know,
how they did the rank and bass stuff. It wasn't even just it was
just straight up, here are your props. You're basically remaking the props.
H And that's what they were doing. So that's interesting. Interesting, But
I guess Frankenstein's probably public domain now anyway then not. Yeah, that's and
that's and that's I think why a lot of those why they went back and
dove dove into those books from the eighteen hundreds because they were they were public
domain and you didn't have there was no one to pay for the right.
Yeah. Yeah, um, I mean Disney kind of did the same thing
with some of their early movies similar situations. Oh yeah, like doing like
old fairytale stuff. Well, since we're talking about Frankenstein, might as well
mentioned Elsa Lanchester, right sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
So she was the bride and in Bride of Frankenstein. Um, I
thought she was great in it. I also I have to mention she is
in my favorite Christmas movie that I mentioned. It seems like every other episode
she was the housekeeper and the bishop's wife with David and Lauretta Young and Carrie
Grant. Yep, it's sizable, you know, a fascinating lady. I
know, I love her because she the choices she made, you know,
granted maybe she didn't have a lot of choices, and she you know,
she ended up taking a lot of horror movie roles after after the Bride Franklin,
that's clearly not but she was. She played housekeeper roles too. You
know. It's another one of those British you know, sturdy uh women you
know, for lack of a better term, well it's the only term I
could think of that were often cash She was a Mary Poppins as as a
housekeeper and housekeeper. Yeah, well, you know, it's like the butler
thing. You know, it's it's just that they're British and you know,
stick in the kitchen. But uh, but yeah, so and she and
she was married to Charles Lawton, who famously played the hunchback of Notre Dunk
Does Your Dame? And uh and yeah, and so I was in I
think ninety twenty seven that that was made well or was he in he was
even the nineteen thirty nine version, or is in the thirty nine No,
you're right, you're right, it's um thirty nine. He played Quasimodo.
It was twenty seven. Was the first time it was done, the silent
version. Apparently. Elsa and Charles Lawton were in twelve films together that many
eh okay and also um Latton is also famous for he basically helped launch the
career of Marine O'Hara he um he I guess because she was in a Hitchcock
film, I think Jamaica in and Latton was impressed by her. And basically
when Lawton came over to to do the Hunchback, he kind of insisted that
they cast Marine O'Hara, who was like eighteen or nineteen as as Maeralda.
And that's that was it. The rest of his history here. Stardom took
off from there. That's that. Yeah, I like Charles Lawton's a fascinating
character he was. And uh, and my god, The Night of the
Hunter. You know, that movie is probably the most visually insane movie ever
made. It's the only movie I think he ever directed. I believe he
was and he was sort of laughed out of the theater when it was kind
of overlooked when it came out. Now it's considered a total classic. Yeah,
it was a disaster. I think as far as long as as long
as he lived, it was a disastrous movie. But oh my god,
it's so scary as hell. It is a really good movie. And it
looks amazing. You know, it looks like Tim Burton's probably borrowed a lot
of that too, because but it's all live action. But the imagery those
little kids running away from that sinister preacher. And oh, that was a
good movie. That's scary as hell movie. That thing. Did we talk
about this before, Yeah, we did with with the Prosiety Adventure episode.
We're talking about Shelley Winters in the movie how he know She's killed and she's
at the bottom of the lake in a car tied up and then they showed
her at the bottom of the lake with the with the seaweed and her hair.
Oh man, it was and then you see a fish fishook go by.
It was insane. That was a great movie. But um, anyway
back, so that was Charles Lawton, but he also Lanchester, and he
had an acting school in Hollywood and they taught Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe took
acting lessons. Oh wow, I did not know that. This is kind
of interesting. Yeah. They they their house was right off of where that
old abandoned house was off Sierra Benita where the James Dean houses. That that
just across that park. Um is where their house was. But anyway,
yeah, well uh. Also Lanchester passed away on January fifth, nineteen eighty
seven. She was eighty four, and Charles and her husband had passed away
two decades earlier. He died December fifteenth, nineteen sixty two. He was
only sixty three. He died from renal cancer. There was a story that
came out on him with with Well, Scottie Bowers wrote that book Full Service
is really trashy book. He kind he said he was like a pimp,
what he said about Charles Lawton. It was it was insane. It was
stuff about you know, like Ntella. I'll leave it at that stuff.
But she, you know, he was famously he was gay, and she
found out about it. Apparently the story is, or the legend is that,
uh, they she caught, she walked home, she came home and
found him on a sofa with a young man, and she threw the sofa
out the window. I never spoke about it again. That's that's the legend
now there. I think she wrote an autobiography and mentions it there about his
homosexuality. So well. I read and I read some that she she tried
in her books. She tried to blame the fact that she never had kids
on the fact that he was gay, but then other people that were close
with him said, no, he was actually by and the reason that she
didn't have kids was either because she didn't want to or because of medical issues
that she had. So I don't know what the real issue was. But
yeah, there's an interesting marriage for sure, and she had and I loved
that her choices though she you know, at she did the movie, Um,
she's an amazing episode of The Night Gallery that Rod Serling Show where she
you know, with green literally like fingers that were plants, and Willard she
played the crazy uh a mother and Willard Um the rap movie. I love
that. She was a murder by Death which if you haven't seen Murder by
Death that was made in seventy six and it has all these uh old you
know now like Maggie Smith and David Niven play hum old type. Peter Laurie
played Sam Spade, I mean Peter um, Peter Falk played Sam Spade,
and um Charlie Chan was played by Peter Sellers, all these you know.
She played um miss Marple. I think it was I think it was like
a nagg of the Christy thing too. Anyway, it was a great movie,
this very very funny movie, true mca Pody, Nancy Walker, one
of those all star casts. Anyway, the point that I think you probably
just delete all that shit. What I found what was interesting This was something
I found about Elsa Lanchester and her hair in Brida Frankenston, the famous hostess
Cupcake too, you know, yeah yeah, And I found a couple of
quotes about it and she said ship Alexa, stop Alexa. I found a
couple of stop Alexa no stop. She Uh. I found a couple of
quotes about her and her hair, and she said it was accomplished by combing
it over a wire mesh cage. And she said it was it was extremely
painful, and her eyes were kept taped wide open for the long takes.
I always assumed it was a wig. Why would they do that to her
real hair? Well, I would imagine it was hair pieces, but it
was like you know, it was, but it was all it was a
It was a cage basically together. Yeah, yeah, yeah wow. But
she said, the most memorable thing I did in that film, I believe
was my screaming. In all my movies since I've been called upon to scream,
I don't know if it's by chance, but I'd like to think that
I'm not hired for that talent alone. And she says it annoys me when
mothers dragged their poor DearS to me and demand the children say something to Frankenstein's
bride. Can you imagine an actress being overexposed by a picture she meet forty
years ago? Okay, some people would would would kill for that and uh
and literally kill for that. And on her marriage to Charles Lawton she said,
we both needed other company. I met his young man. This is
something I guess, she said. So I met her, I met his
young men, and I had a young man around that. Charles didn't even
argue about interesting. Apparently it was well known to them both. Eventually,
you know you're just gonna whatever, or you know that's that's I guess,
but um, but yeah, she's the back to Charles, Lawton said,
I have a face that would stop a sun dial. That's funny, that's
very funny. He did have an an odd, an odd face, that
is for sure. Yeah. Um, so you want to move on to
Dracula. I want. Oh sure, it's kind of interesting to talk about.
This is something that should be and I think it relates to Dracula.
Well, so it's a good it's a good segu Dwight Fry, who played
who played Fritz in Frankenstein was the guy who played Renfield in Dracula. Both
kind of sidekicks to villain lish like characters, but very very physically, very
different performances, which is and it's in the same year he did those two
movies Crazy he's in both. Yeah, it's very interesting. So he was
Oh and also I'm sure we're going to get flack because we call Boris Carlo
Frankenstein. But it's actually the Frankenstein Monster. It was doctor Frankenstein, although
if you ever watched the movie, there is at least one instance where they
refer to him as Frankenstein. I believe not just okay, well, but
that is a common mistake that people make. The doctor Frankenstein is the doctor
who created Frankenstein's monster, which is yeah monster, Yeah, but everybody just
called it was now known as Frankenstein's. Just accept that we all call the
monster frank Instein. Just everybody. If you look it up, Google Frankenstein.
You're not gonna get Colin Clive. You're gonna get Boris Karlov. Right,
you're not gonna get You're not gonna get a Colin Clive Halloween mask.
You're gonna get a Boris Carla Halloween mask. All right, damn right,
damn right. So so Dwight Fry He played Renfield and Dracula played Fritz and
Frankenstein. He was also in The Invisible Man and in the Bride of Frankenstein.
And he was never called Igor. There was never Igor was a was
a word. I think they came out of the Shelley novel. It was
never used ever in any of the film so, you know, it's always
an Igor name. But that was Mary Shelley Buck, not in any movies.
That's interesting. Yeah, I noticed they called him Fritz, and I
thought that was odd because he seemed like the Igor type character, but they
didn't call him. Yeah, and then then young Frankis signed its Igor.
So why wouldn't they, Why wouldn't they Why would he changed that? I
wonder? But apparently apparently Dwight Fry died on a bus in Hollywood. Yeah,
I believe he was writing he had been to the movies with I think
his son maybe or something, and they were riding a bus coming home and
yeah, he had a heart attack. See I would I know, went
on a deep dive looking for that and I couldn't find anything. It was.
It said that he died in the bus, and I went through all
the nineteen forty three papers, and it mentions that he died, you know,
of a heart attack, but it doesn't tell you where. He doesn't
tell you that it was on a you know, he's pronounced dad. I
believe at the Hollywood Hospital which is now the Wilcox Police Station. That's where
That's where it was the same place Fred Murch was pronounced Dad. Yeah,
he was only forty four and he had a heart apparently had a heart condition
and he just had a heart attack. Man. You know. And this
is like a recurring theme and it's going to come up again in this episode.
Is young people, especially young actors, young ish at least, you
know, twenties, thirties, forties, who you would think, are you
know, in fit condition, and just I think it's just the result of
the era that they were in. Just so many like serious heart and health
issues. Um that a lot of these actors had um that they seem I
mean, they're probably taking mercury cocktails. And you know, the costumes there
was, Yeah, the costumes were horrible for them to make up. I
mean there's the of course, all the famous makeup from the Wizard of Oz,
the incidents they had with that. But also just there was really no
health and fitness science, at least not in the way that we know it
today, and people just drank heavily and smoked heavily, and their bodies were
just ripped up like they used like they aged faster because the way they lived.
Um. And then there are also I think a lot of just there
were a lot of like serious health conditions that aren't as big of a deal
now that we've kind of learned to deal with that they had no answer to
you back then too. That so yeah, and mental health issues too that
were just you know, get over it kind of thing. Like Colin Clive.
You know, Colin Clive was a guy that was just destroyed by you
know, by drinking. And if we want to talk about Colin Clive,
let's sure. Yeah, I know, I mean I don't have a lot
of information about I really wanted to talk about him because he was he was
kind of a fascinating character. Of course, he's doctor Frankenstein. He's famous
for the you know, it's alive, it's alive. Uh, you know
a famous quote when Frankenstein monster you know, comes alive. You know,
he's talking about how he now he knows what it's like to be a god.
Um, which is what Frankenstein's kind of all about, right man pretending
to be God and then you know, turning backfiring on him. Um.
So, he apparently had tuberculosis and then was a pretty bad alcoholic and it
was what. His alcohol issues were well known. I guess he was.
It was always passing out on set, you know, when they weren't rolling,
And I even caught it. Saw. I don't know if this is
true, but I saw one claim that like when they would go to do
over the shoulder shots on him, there were times when he had to be
held up practically to stand in the shot because he's just yeah, he's just
a kind of a fall down drunk alcoholic unfortunately. Um and they had tuberculosis
on top of that, so that's a bad combination. And he passed away
in nineteen thirty seven, which was just two years after Bright of Frankenstein,
so he was only thirty seven years old himself. And I guess Peter Laurie
was one of his pallbearers. Yeah. I think he was at at Edar
McKinley on Hollywood Boulevard, which is where Bala, which is where the Fritz
guy, Um, Dwight Fry and you know Criswell and all those guys were
all buried out of that mortuary. So here's what I I correct me if
I'm wrong, But he was cremated at Chapel of the Pines. Oh was
okay, Well he's okay. So I don't know where the memorial was held
though, I mean, I don't think the memorial was held at the crematorium,
but um so it might have been, right, I don't know.
But what's Here's what's weird. So three hundred people show up at his funeral,
and then he wasn't buried, he was cremated, and apparently his cremains
sat in the basement of the crematorium for forty years, and it wasn't until
nineteen seventy eight that they were finally like, we should do something with this
guy, and they went scattered him at sea. But he sat there for
over forty years. And apparently the reason that I read is, or the
speculation is that he was married back in England before he moved to the US,
and when he came to Hollywood, he left his wife behind and they
I think were separated by this point, and then I think he had,
you know, he had girlfriends or whatever out here, and so the only
person that could legally take possession of his cremains was his wife, and they
were separated into strange and I guess she didn't want him or didn't want to
go through the hassle bringing him back to England or whatever, and so no
one claimed him or could legally claim them for her, and that was it.
And you've run into those situations when you do the headstones for people trying
to get permission, right, yeah, so yeah, a chapel of the
Pines that was mostly a crematorium. You know. Now they have burials or
columbariums is when they bury ashes, you know, so they have a lot
of that around there now. But underneath it is storage and there are thousands
of people underneath their in boxes with names on them and to get you know,
there are a lot of actors down there. One of the people we
were looking for was Stephen Stucker, who played Johnny in Airplane. You know,
I can make a broach, I can make a pterodactyl. Yeah,
he was down there for many years too. And you have to go through
a legal process to get them out because you have to prove there's no next
of kin. And Sheridan there's another actress, my friend Kara McHale went through
that whole legal process. They did find someone that was a next of kin
to sign the paperwork to have that person removed from basically a shelf in the
basement and then presented to this family member who then they buried or put her
in a columbarrium in Hollywood Cemetery. So yeah, there's a long, exhausting
process that you have to go through legally to get somebody's creamins. And I
guess you know it's it's once you do it, if you scatter someone at
sea, you can't undo that. So if they get it wrong, yeah,
that's a big lawsuit, I'm sure. So they got to make sure
that, you know, they got their eyes and crossed their teas um.
And apparently at the chapel of the Pines Crematorium there's a cenotaph to Colin Clive
that there's a marker, but he's not buried there. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, I mean coincidentally, coincidentally in the in the cemetery that's kind of
next door as I think where Todd Browning is buried, there's like a mausoleum,
that's right, Angelus Rosedale. Yeah, and we didn't talk about James
Whale, the Frankenstein I mean, yeah, Frankenstein director. He's buried at
Forest Lawn, Glendale. Uh. Dwight Fry, who played Renfield and Fritz.
He's buried at Forest Lawn, Glendale. Elsa Lanchester, who played the
b I, died at the Motion Picture Country Home and was scattered at sea.
Charles Lawton, the hunchback of Notre Dame or Notre Dame, is buried
full burial at Force on Hollywood Hills. So they're they're all over the place.
And Colin Clive scattered. You said, oh, he's in the basement,
but he has a cenotap. Is that what you're saying, You're still
in storage. No, he was. Clive was finally scattered at sea in
the seventies, but there's a cenotaph for him at the crematorium. Okay,
yeah, interesting now okay, yeah, wild right, yeah, very very
very I just it's amazing that three hundred people show up at his funeral and
then but then no one is there to take his ashes and actually bury him.
It's like they all were just just like, well, I guess that's
getting taken care of. I'll go home now. Some people, yeah,
I guess they just don't care. Some people just don't care. Or you
look, when you go to a funeral, the family is handling all of
that. So you don't think you're not thinking about it, I guess,
And yeah, I'm somebody paying for the cremation. Yeah, unless that's the
reason that he's there, because there's a lot of people that just haven't paid
the bill and they're in storage. So that might be part of it too,
because it was thirty seven and those people were not making a whole lot
of money. I think Elsa Lanchester. I looked it up. She got
paid for bright of Frankstein's twenty five hundred dollars. That was it. Now
today's money. I did a comparison. It's fifty two thousand today. But
that's with no royalties, no residuals, nothing, just fifty two k one,
you know. And that's and she's typecaster for the rest of her life.
And that's why a lot of interesting that's why a lot of them,
like Bella Legosi, could get destitute pretty fast. Yea. Even though you
think they're these huge stars raking in all this money, they weren't. You
know, if you weren't at that top top top A list level, you
were just making enough to live comfortably, but not enough to I guess unless
you were really smart with your money to save it. Up so that you
could survive the lean years, you know, yeah, unless you got a
piece of the production, you know, for sure. Yep, because um,
yeah Bella especially I mean having no really other careers aide from Dracula.
Um, you know, he couldn't look at him and Nazi Dracula. So
yeah, it really it ruined him. It really ruined him. So Legosi
was both not only ruined by being typecasted, but also just we talked about
this earlier. His accent and his you know, his his English wasn't always
very clear. It hindered his career going forward, the speaking parts he wanted
to get. Um. In fact, one of his later films they actually
dubbed over him, which was very bad for his career. And uh,
because he had the Hungarian accent. He had immigrated to the US through from
Hungary by way of I think Germany en route and kind of was run out
of Hungary and was married at a Hungarian woman and she they kind of fled
the country together because the political situation changed in the country. But then she
didn't want to leave her parents behind, so she they ended up divorcing and
she moved back to hung gree So again like so many of these stars from
that era. I think he was married in a multiple times over the years
to various people. Yeah, he, I mean he he had a lot
of success. I mean, he was a really wealthy man at one point,
right, you know, but they ended up dying in this crappy little
apartment building, one bedroom, you know, off of Western with parts and
Edward movies, you know, except that. Yeah, but his role as
Dracula, I I mean, go watch that movie today. It is what
we think of as Dracula is what he did. Like he almost like created
the mold of the Dracula character with the accent and the hair and makeup and
every I mean, it's when when kids dress up as Dracula for Halloween,
they're dressing up as Bello Legosi's Dracula. Basically his interpretation for sure. And
there was I mean some of that was pretty some of it was pretty pretty
laughable, you know, some of it. I mean, you know,
I mean I didn't want to just you know, it wasn't it wasn't even
just acting. It was just him staring, that's all it was. He
moved lighting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that
German expression as a man. Yeah, it was pretty campy. I think
in that regard there, it's kind of funny when he when he has this
that that kind of just staring for thirty seconds. You know, it's I
understand the intensity of it in the cinema when you shop at the very first
time. It's just in retrospect, when you're watching it down your television and
your living room, you're kind of it's a little bit of a you know,
snort when you see it. You know. And when we when we
did our Freaks episode, we mentioned that, Um, you know, Todd
Browning when he wanted to do Dracula, but he um, he didn't.
He wanted Lon Cheney to play Dracula, and that was the plan. But
then the year before they made Dracula, Cheney died unexpectedly. He was only
forty seven years old. I had a throat hemorrhage after getting a lung cancer
diagnosis. Um, And so Cheney, really Leghosie was not Chaney or was
not Todd Browning's first choice. Um, but he went with him anyways,
And of course, you know it became the role to define the rest of
Legosi's life. Yeah, and he lived it too. I mean, he
did that whole, you know, live in a castle kind of house thing
and had the big oil painting and he was very grand, and uh,
yeah, it was very I went to Uh I was. I worked with
a guy briefly in at the cemetery at Hollywood Cemetery back and when I worked
there for like five weeks in two thousand and five, they were Yeah,
they wanted me to go door to door selling funerals and it was awful.
It was awful. I went to their whole. Yeah, you probably heard
the story. So then the guy says, oh, yeah, I lived
in I live in Bella's old house up and outlook and uh and he says,
I read a biography that he he had like panthers buried in the backyard.
So I went out, idn't found him. It doesn't go up Bella's
panthers. It was in this biography. And he went out inside because yeah,
I found him in the backyard, actual panthers. Yeah. I think
it wasn't what I was either, big panthers, but but that was the
way they were back then. Yeah, may West had a monkey. I
know it's not the same thing, but uh, theda bearer I think had
one too. But a leopard or something like that. Right, Well,
I mean were Randolph ruling? Randolp Hirst had an entire zoo at yea castle?
So yeah, I guess that was it was. It was a flex,
a financial flex. I guess um I thought it was. Were you
speaking of well, you know Edward and everything? Um? Uh the Edward
film? Um, the one that Burton did, Tim Burton did. I
guess Legosi's family took issue with some of the creative liberties that were taken without
like saying that Legosi slept in a coffin, no kind of that kind of
stuff. Yeah, they're like, he did. I got to I get
a chance to talk to Martin Landau one time, who won the m playing
Bella. Yeah, yeah, I got him photographed my Edward post or two?
Did you lead Departed? But that was cool? But anyway, he
u I asked him about that. So did you what you know Bella Junior?
You obviously Bela used to say, Beila, it's not Bella, but
everyone says Bella. Uh you know what did he have to say about it?
And Bella Legosi Junior. Bela's son said, I like everything about what
you did, except Bella never had little dogs and he never swore. So
that was because he you know, he was pretty raunchy with the with the
with the language. Not raunchy asn't you know, just use some colorful words.
Sure, he said, Bella would never do that, and he never
had little chihuahuas or something like that. That was the only issues he took
with it. But u but he won an Oscar for playing Bella Legosi and
Betta Legos. He never came with an Amila one. It's gonna fun,
poor Bella. So he was. I mean, also he was the first
per to go you know, really the first famous person to go into rehab.
You know that for coke was a morphine addiction. You know, he
apparently he apparently had a sky attica sciatica, which is I've I had some
issues with that, um I think uh last year, extremely painful to nerve
down. That goes through your your hip bones and into your leg, your
whole leg um. It's really sharp, really sharp, terrible pain. So
he he was he was given kind of stronger and stronger treatments for it until
they got him on opiates. And then yeah, I became an addict.
I didn't know about the rehab part though. Yeah, there's pictures of him
being checked into rehab on a hospital bad looking very old and gaunt. But
yeah, he I think it was a sanitarium was what they called it back
then. But yeah, he admitted himself to it and it was in all
the papers, so he was like he went in public. Well that's probably
why I know him would touch him after that, and that's how he got
into Edwood movies, you know, because I had met him on Hollywood Boulevard.
You know, that's that Bella's old stuff. So talk about that.
Let's go, let's go into the Edwood stuff because you kind of know a
lot about that. And when didn't we um when we did Dearly Departed Volume
one, didn't we go into the cigar shop that he used to go to,
yeah, which is gone. Oh yeah, it's all bordered up and
gone. So that's historic footage that we uh yeah, that's cool. It
is, it really is. I mean that was such a neat place.
They had the cigar in the Toronto out in front of it and as a
neat the Hollywood smoke shop. So yeah, Bela lived over on Western and
and interestingly not very far from Vampira where she ended up dying, like literally
like three blocks from there. But but Bella every day of his life would
walk down Hollywood Boulevard to this cigar store and buy himself a cigar. And
that's about the time he met up with Edwood and the funeral home where Bella
was laid out in his Dracula costume. And not because he chose it,
because that's the nicest thing they had. His wife and his son shows it.
Not in his case though, just the just the suit. The cape
actually got auctioned off a few years ago and it's going to go in the
Academy Museum next year. I think they're they're gonna show that. But anyway,
so at his funeral utter McKinley Mortuary, which was across from the Pantagious
Theater and the Hollywood Smoke Shop now is the w Hotel. The other McKinley
mortuary who handled peg end Twistle, who jumped up to the Hollywood sign,
handled Bella, handled Dwight Fry, We talked about the guy that played Fritz,
handled Criswell, handled a lot of a lot of you know those people.
The supposedly the mortuary had an agreement with Hollywood Boulevard and that they would
not or with the Chamber of Commerce, so they wouldn't drive funeral processions down
Hollywood Boulevard. So Bella's funeral was at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills,
and he's buried a Holy Cross cemetery and they had to get from Hollywood
to Beverly Hills. So the legend is that that Bella was in the back
of the hearse and the hearse driver was pulling out of the drive why and
his and he lost control of the hearse. He said the wheel was not
literally ripped from his hand, but he could not control it, and the
wheel took them onto Hollywood Boulevard, and he said he struggled with the wheel,
could not get it under control until they passed the Hollywood Smoke Shop.
So they said it was Bella's final farewell to Hollywood Boulevard. That is really
interesting. It's a good story. Yeah, yeah, And so the Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce didn't want funeral processions ruining the vibe, Yeah right, the
classy vibe of Hollywood Boulevard. Poor Bella. But yeah, so he's buried
Holy Cross in a Dracula suit. But not the cape. And yeah,
so the end of the I gain the legend is he's buried in the cape.
So you're saying that's not true, that's right. Yeah, he was.
I think he was good friends with Forrest Ackerman. And Ackerman was that
guy who had everything. He was mister sci Fi they called him. He
had a house, and he had a museum, and he was friends with
Bella with all these guys he had. He had the original cape, and
he had the original Dracula ring and all that business. And when Forrest Ackerman
died, it all kind of went up into the into the sky and all
landed all over the place. But Belos Cape did go up for auction.
I think Julian's. I'm not sure it's sold, but the Academy has it
and they're going to put it in the museum. That's what they say.
That's fantastic. I need to go to the museum. It opened recently,
by the way, it finally opened. I have friends who have gone.
I have not gone. I have friends who don't live in LA who have
gone, and I haven't gone. Here. Well, if you go to
my YouTube channel, Mike, I walked through the whole museum with my camera.
Yeah, like I'm actually the entire museum. So how'd you like it?
Yeah? I enjoyed it. I was expecting. I was hoping for
a little bit more clutter, you know. I like it to be a
little bit more silly and hodgepodge. I don't need it to be designed within
an inch of its life. And there was a lot of that. But
that's that's the deal. That's what they did. They hired, they had
gajillions of dollars to do it, and they hired, you know, all
these people to do it. So I would have liked to see more stuff.
The Hollywood Museum, Hollywood History Museum on Highland. I love because it's
so it's just all wacky, you know, it's everywhere something amazing. You
know, the seldom science of the Lambs. So there's Maywest's uh you know,
doors and it's it's the kind of stuff I like. I liked it
a lot. And that's the one that's in the old the old barn that
was was this This one's the old Max Factor Museum. That's right. Hollywood
History Museum is across from the Bowl, Hollywood Bowl in the old barn.
You're right, and uh and uh the Hollywood Museum. I guess they just
call it is on Hollywood and Highland in the old Max Factor building, and
they just have a cool collection of stuff. But to say, I love
the Academy. It was wonderful. I was love seeing the ruby slippers and
and uh and as a filmmaker, you'll lose your mind in there, you
know, with the cameras and etc. It was very in and seeing R
two D two and see three po one of the five hundred of them.
You know, it was interesting. But but I liked it. I enjoyed
it. I definitely glad. And and I'm sure you know, this is
the opening. This is his first iteration. I'm sure over it. Over
the years they'll acquire more things and I think they'll have rotating exhibits. I'm
also really, really, really excited about the movie theater that they built,
which was somewhat divisive though the way it was. The design. It looks
like I think it looks like a big egg. It's like a ball yum.
But I think it's freaking really cool and I can't wait to see a
film in it. I think it'll be really excited. Yeah, it'll be.
I hope it's um, you know the way they had it set up
because I was one of the don donating members, so I got like to
see the preview before it opened open and um, so it was awesome because
you had to book it, you had a certain period of time to go.
I don't know what it's going to be like otherwise. It was great
because there's elbow room up like crazy, and there was you know, you
could go up to see the ruby slippers. There weren't ten thousand people there.
You walk away and they're all by themselves and no one's there and you
can go back. You know, you could really take it all in if
you want to. So I don't know if they're going to have a free
for all a policy after this, and you know there's going to be a
thousand people at time in each room. But when the way I experience it
was really nice. I really enjoyed it. I'm planning on joining it as
like a member, and I got like the I think I did do like
the early contributor. I I donated like twenty five bucks or something like that,
you know when they were first doing like their fundraising, right, But
I do plan on joining as a member. I'm a LACMA member and that's
next door, so it kind of makes sense to just join both of them,
right, And I like supporting that kind of stuff, So I did
like forty bucks or fifty bucks, and yay, I got I got the
invitation out of that, so I was like, cool, you know,
all right, I'll go for free. Sure. I think I did look
into it early on. I looked into how much he would need to contribute
to get your name like on the wall. Oh my gosh, the thing.
And I think don't quote me on this, but I think it was
like two hundred and fifty grand was the minimum to get up there. Yeah,
you know, I'm tauntcy, freaking you know, pretentious. I hate
these people. Okay, I want to tell these something. These people didn't
give a crap about any of this stuff before the academy. Yeah, I'm
talking about this. This goes back to Debbie Reynolds again. Debbie Reynolds hard
ass. She wore all those costumes, all those props from classic MGM movie.
She spent her entire life. She mortgaged her house to get these things,
to save these costumes, sing seven year rich dress. She had,
you know, she she had you know costumes. She had the witch's hat,
she had all these amazing costumes, and not a single person would give
her the time of day. The academy said, go to help. They
didn't say that. Steven Spielberg, she had a meeting with him personally.
No sell it, David Geffen, no, get rid of it. The
academy, go get rid of it. We don't want it. And all
of a sudden, Debbie Reynolds, you know, it's close to death.
She says, I gotta sell this shit, and she, you know,
put off on auction. And then they come to Todd Fisher, Debbie's son,
and said, we want to use these costumes of your mother's and he's
like what he says, tell you what, I'll do it, but I
want you to name, you know, something like the Debbie Reynolds Pavilion in
there, because she deserves that. It just it just really, oh,
it just rubs me the wrong way. These people didn't you know, she
knew what they had her literally, her heart was in it and and it
mattered to her. And when she died, nobody cared. And now you
know, now they're all about, you know, we're gonna put I love
what I saw I just fight. I have a real chip on my shoulder
when it comes to that. I guess it the better better late than never.
But yeah, it would have been nice if she could have got the
glory while she was still around. And yeah, I mean she was,
she worked her but she she had like four deals. She had. Hollywood
and Highland was built specifically with her museum in mind, and it fell through.
Another one at the corner of Hollywood and Vine was supposed to happen.
That didn't go through. Dollywood was supposed to happen. All these investors were
like bugging out and uh and you know, so now you're gonna pay two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars to get your name on a wall. You know,
it's like, oh, screw you. You know, Debbie Reynolds's mortgage
or house to buy this stuff and you're gonna get your little name on the
wall and feel good about that? Eat me well off, I'm sorry.
How do you really feel about it? Though? I just I think I'm
just I really do. I think I'm just in that. I find that
to be really shitty. So um yeah, so yeah, but again,
better late than never at least exists Finally, Hollywood finally has like a big
budget, fully funded history museum dedicated to the film industry. Yeah, so
hopefully it'll only get better and growth go from here. Yeah. Bella da
Goosie. I don't know if we mentioned this. Bella Gosie passed away from
a heart attack on August sixteenth, nineteen fifty six, and he was seventy
three years old. And then he hijacked his hearse from beyond the grave.
Oh you know what, I met the woman who had the first line in
Dracula. She's she's in the carriage in Dracula and she plays these a little
girl with glasses on. I think she has the first line in the movie
when the guy's on his way to the little village, yeah next to the
castle. Yeah uh so Yeah. Her name is Carla Lamilee, and she
was the niece of Carl Lamily, the producer. I had a Universal Studios
who found it h and she was doing she she died just a couple of
years ago. She was like one hundred and four, but but she was
doing a thing at the Hollywood History Museum one night. So I went up
there and got to take a picture with her. That was really cool.
I met a woman who was in Dracula thirty one, was really really neat,
and I got another story. I saw Bram's Stoker's skull. What Bram
Stoker, who wrote Dracula, was cremated and in London, and he's a
Golders Green crematorium and he's in a locked area. So this is back in
the nineties, early nineties, before there was the internet. So find a
grave. None of that ship was around and I was doing some research.
So I went to Golders Green and I was peaking. Actually in this locked
area. Anna Pavlola, the Ballerinas in their Sigmund Freud is in there.
Conrad Bite, the actor, he hadn't been moved there yet, but he
was in there, and he ultimately was in there. But anyway, I
talked to a guy who worked there and he goes, i'll show you.
So we came on and he unlocked the door and we go up this weird
staircase and on the staircase is this little box. This is Bram Stoker on
it and I got to peek in and he lift up and this when they
didn't pulverize, they cremated, but they didn't pulverize yet so their bones and
bits of skull in there that I saw, So I saw bram Stoker's skull
in real life. And then they let me watch a cremation, which was
crazy. They just you know, they're showing me around and I got to
go to the different you know, ovens or retorts and see the whole process.
It was really They're so nice. I'm sure they wouldn't do it now.
But that's where Amy Winehouse was cremated, and and and Keith Moon and
uh and uh the Mark Boland and Peter Sellers and all these. George Michaels
was done there and pretty mercury. So everyone's been done at Golders Green.
But uh, but yeah, yeah, wow, did you want to talk
about Lon Cheney Jr. No, we can skip that actually and yeah,
well, I mean, well just as a as a mention, you know.
And then not to be dismissive because Fanom of the Opera is a great
movie. It's a silent movie about opera, which is interesting to mode.
I'm just saying. I'm not saying it it's lacking anything. I'm just saying
it was a silent movie. Who greenlit this? You know? Although it's
a classic. It's a classic story. And lan Cheney, who who was
also played the Hunch Hunchback of Notes Are Dawn before Uh played, played the
Phantom and it was really it was really interesting and really very interesting. Actually,
what was important to me to mention was that on a sound stage at
Universal Studios for decades was the original wall from the Paris Opera House from Phantom
of the Opera by lan Cheney. So it was it was still in the
sound stage that they used, and it was covered, you know, obviously
while they were filming other things, but it was there and if he went
to the tour sometimes if they weren't filming in that particular sound stage Stage twenty
eight, it was also the stage where a film bride at Frankenstein and Frankenstein
and Uh. And also it should be noted that the same guy that did
the props for Frankenstein was the guy that helped on Young Frankenstein and the Munsters,
Uh, because that we're that Universal, that that was the Universal had
the rights to the Munsters because it was Dracula and Frankenstein, etc. But
anyway, Stage twenty eight had the original wall from the Paris Opera House with
the booth that the phantom sat in and they tore it that. I'm we're
talking about like five years ago. They tore it the right right. Yeah,
so uh so that that is kind of kind of there you are,
there you are. That's Hollywood. So um, you know what I did
want to mention. I know we're close to wrapping this up, but we
were talking about Launchiny and lun Cheney's junior, of course, was the Wolfman
in Universal and all the sequels, the original Wolfman in forty one and in
the sequels. Um. I thought it was interesting, you know, he
could obviously in the shadow of his father, who who had died young himself
and originally wasn't going into acting. It didn't really pursue acting until after his
father died. And I did not know anything really about lon Chiny junior,
but apparently his mother attempted suicide in La in nineteen thirteen. She entered the
theater which is no longer there. It was a theater in downtown LA where
lun Cheney, the father was working. She entered the theater and swallowed a
vial of poison but didn't die, but she was no longer a part of
Chan No longer a part of lun Cheney Junior's life, and he apparently was
led to believe that she was dead and did not know that she was still
alive until after his father died in nineteen thirty. Wow, that's something.
There's some drama. So she went, she committed suicide in the theater.
She tried, she tempted, but didn't succeed. And then I don't know
what. I don't know if she was committed after that or what happened.
But he was apparently estranged from her from then on and was led to believe
that she was dead and didn't know it until he until his father died.
She was interesting, YEP. I knew that that Lon Chaney Junior wasn't called
Lon Chaney Junior until his father died. He changed his own name from M
Creighton. I think it was his was his name so and then he became
the Wolfman and H yeah, and then then was that weird? I just
read it and I just saw something like they're the only father's son. US
postage stamp people. They both when they did the Universal Monsters, both Lon
Cheney Junior and Lon Cheney ended up on the stamps. The US postal stamps
different ones. So I think it's the only time that's happened. But the
other thing about Lon Chaney Senior is a defended He made like almost one hundred
and sixty films, and of those one hundred and sixty films, over one
hundred of them are lost, you know, I mean just never found.
They're just missing. Something like like there's something like ninety plus percent of films
from the Silent era are gone forever. Yeah, so only fifty of his
films out of almost one hundred and sixty are here, you know, still
survive. It's that's that's really interesting. Again, it says a lot about
well, you know, it was a disposable time. Nobody knew was going
to have the longevity. That's also that there just wasn't a way. There
wasn't a good way to store it because film itself is extremely brittle and hard
to store a long term, and it's extremely flammable, and a lot of
these old films were lost to fires and also they just lost because the film
fell apart, and to your point, because they were disposable, and you
know, theater houses just threw them away when they were done running them.
Did we ever talk about the Silent Movie Theater murder. I don't know if
you've ever gone into that, No, not on the show. We should.
That's a great story. It's probably it's for a different time. But
the the irony of that being that the mother, the husband and wife that
created at the Silent Movie Theater, the only American movie theater devoted just to
silent movies of around Fairfax, you know, places where Charlie Chapman would slip
in or Clara bow would slip in during a screening to see their own movies
for the hell of it, you know. And the man and the woman
who created this place, he died from cancer from the chemicals of preserving the
films, you know. And and also but I mean the story about the
guy who inherited it getting murdered in the you know, we should talk about
this sometimes it's so much to take on. But his name was Lawrence Austin,
and he was murdered in at the box office of this this movie theater.
But he was a film historian, and they saved, like they have
a lot of prints of movies that were long gone, thought to be gone.
So there is a there's a real underground um sort of industry and that
kind of thing. A lot of collectors have these things, and you know,
you don't know about it, and that's really interesting because why would you
want to keep something like that to yourself? But so cool that the whole
reason you have a movie is to watch it, and what do you know,
what would you do with it? They're just gonna have it by yourself,
watch it over and over again. It's an ego thing, I guess.
And what also happens is, because you know, the Library of Congress
and these other film preservation organizations, what will happen is they will sometimes they'll
find these old films and pieces they'll turn up, you know, a new
a few seconds of footage will show up in an old trailer that was in
the you know, the attic of a movie theater for a hundred years.
Did someone dug up And they realize, oh my god, it's in the
missing minute of this movie where we've only had you know, ten minutes of
it in the past. And they'll find a way to kind of stitch different
pieces together, or sometimes because of the way censorship work back in the early
days of film, different cities would have different cuts of the movie because they'd
make their own censored cuts to things. So it's really wild how they pieced
together these films try and preserve them. And yeah, who knows what is
in people's private collections too that they may not even realize or considered lost films
or probably that's the whole point. It's like people they have, you know,
dinosaurs in their in their houses. You know, they spent like twenty
five million dollars on the torontosaurs. Rax. It's like, well, sure
there's an underground you know, Ivory and you know peep, there is a
whole industry. I'm sure like that, but it just seems it's like we
talked about James Dean's car. You know, it's like, okay, I
have the car. Now what I'm just sitting in my house and not telling
anybody you have it. It's like the whole point of having that something that
interesting is that you want to show people. So it's it's it's also very
interesting. But Slan Cheney, interestingly enough, what he was the is Paul
Bearers. That was an interesting list of people. Did you see that.
It's like Paul Burne, Paul burn who was murdered. You know, there's
another Manson connection that Jean Harlowe murdered in the house that are suicide officially whatever.
Yeah, Jacbring ended up buying the house. LB Mayor, Louis Mayer,
Lionel Barrymore, Todd Browning, and Ramon Navarro. We're all Paul bearers
at launch his funeral. Yeah, and he's buried in an unmarked grave and
uh at Enforced Line Glendale, in the same mausoleum as James Whale. Na
Navarro is another one. We should do a show on yeah one, Yeah,
yep, there's gotta be a Yeah, there's gotta be like a heart
throb or something. There's not more silent movies. I can't more silent movies.
I can't do the research. Oh my god. Oh it's hard.
It's hard. It's hard to sit through those. I didn't mind. We'll
see fanom of the Opera. There was like fifty five minutes. It's like,
yeah, sign me up, I'm good, that's all right. But
also, I love I love um the comedies. You know, it's like
chaplain there there because there's so the physical comedy is so entertaining you don't even
notice the last But like the stunts, I mean that crazy stuff with their
hanging over buildings, Buster Keaton, you know, and our Harold Lloyd and
all the crazy stun stunts that they did, Yeah, jumping off trains and
things. Yeah, yeah, why not speaking of film safety. Yeah yeah,
right, all right, good way to end this thing. Actually we
brought it all the way around to full circle, full circle unfortunately. Um,
all right, well thanks to everybody. Uh, it's the end of
our thirtieth episode. So we went with the nineteen thirties with the Universal monsters,
and yeah, it was it was a lot of it was a lot
of a lot of information. But thank you. Yeah, thanks for watching.
I'm glad that you and uh like to spend the time with us,
and we enjoyed doing this, so thank you very much. Yeah, and
check out our patreon We're Dearly Departed pod over on Patreon, And um we
uh five dollars subscribers get it asked, um, these are these episodes a
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yeah, and they end up being like hour long episodes too. It's pretty
long, yeah, so uh, and that's where we talk about kind of
more recent occurrences, deaths, you know, recent death stuff and and personal
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amazing and belated Happy Halloween, and h have a good November. Blah blah
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