Episode 30 - Universal Monsters

This episode is ALIVE! ALIVE! as we discuss Universal's classic monsters from the 1930s, including Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, and more! Hollywood figures include Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Charles Laughton, James Whale, and other legends.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
It's the Dearly Departed Podcast, featuringyour host, historian Scott Michaels and filmmaker
Mike Dorsey. And welcome to theDearly Departed Podcast. It's our thirtieth episode.

(00:26):
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 forstaring 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 Michaelsand this is Dearly Departed Podcast. And

(00:50):
what do you what do you getfor thirty pearl? You get a pearl
necklace? Mike, oh nice?Oh oh yeah, there's no double entendre
with that at all. I don'tknow what you mean. I don't know,
all right. So I was goingto ask you since it was just
Halloween and we were going to tryand do this for Halloween, because news

(01:14):
flash, we were going to talkabout the universal monsters of the nineteen thirties
on this episode. Uh. Thatwas It was a good follow up to
Freaks, Todd Browning's Freaks, whichwas 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.

(01:38):
In fact, I was just talkingto somebody the other day, I
think most of mine. I couldnever post pictures of like seventy five percent
of the costumes I watched for Halloweenbecause I'd be destroyed. It's just,
you know it. Yeah, It'sjust everything has changed and shifted so drastically
that you can't. You can't,you can't. All of it was with

(02:01):
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 thisis back in the eighties, this isn't
before there was an internet. ButI did go. We had my friend
Bohannan and I we we wore berets. We had uh we put little clown

(02:23):
symbolbozo symbols with slashes through them,and I had Albozo lunchbox and in it
I had clown makeup remover and pinsfor for for for animals, for balloon
animals and we're just like military withlike maglates and stuff. But it was
it was the anti clown police.So that was one of one of the

(02:44):
good one of the good ones,uh, that that I can talk about.
I was an army kid, butyeah, this is a regular trick
or treating business. We did theDevil's Night thing, too, which was
I don't I think that was anexclusive 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 goout. It was it was prank fun.

(03:05):
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 inthe sixties and seventies it was you know,
it was a little bit more ofa nudge nudge, wink wink kind
of a thing. Now, youknow, you know, anyone walking around
the night before Halloween is is youcouldn't do it anymore. But it was

(03:28):
just a different time and I'm notpriord of it, but it was just
one of those things. And thenit became a whole different thing in Detroit
where you know, became famous foryou know, people lighting cars on Buyer
and stuff like that. That wasmore. 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.

(03:51):
Were always Yeah, but back whenwe were kids, it was like throwing
eggs and ringing doorbells and running that'sall. So it was it was more
and it's and I'm saying it wasinnocent. But anyways, right man,
we were hardcore Devil's Night. Imean, when I was a little kid,
I liked the Disney Channel Halloween stuffon Halloween Night was always fun to

(04:12):
watch because you always go trigger treatingand 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 wasI went as Buddy Holly after the plane
crash. Oh and my girlfriend atthe time went as the president of the

(04:33):
Buddy Holly Band Club, and shewas did they weep stand next to you
just cry? And um, itwas pretty dark. I'll just say that
it was pretty dark, but heroff 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 aguitar at the time of electric guitar,
so I walked around with the fender, but I put like branches in

(04:53):
the fender. It was, itwas, it was. It's one of
those things that seems okay at thetime, but when you get older,
your like it's you know, it'sfunny Halloween. It's like, you know,
Princess Diana with a steering wheel aroundher 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

(05:14):
Diana is dead. We're not goinghooray buddy Holly's dead. But you know,
for God's sake, just just lightingup. I mean, it's it's
gets a bad taste. It's awhole point. But exactly, it's not
serious. But I would never tellyou what I dressed up. News of

(05:35):
the week another thing I wanted totalk 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 weekor a bad month. Robert Durst was
convicted for killing Susan Burman. Hegot COVID and was also now been charged

(05:57):
with his wife's his former wife's murderfrom 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 oncamera and uh, yeah they could they

(06:23):
could use that, couldn't they?They could use that. He was he
was at a urinal and just talkingto himself. Yeah, but he still
still mid Yeah, and he was, and he and he gave permission to
be recorded. So it was fairfair 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'tthey didn't find that footage until much much

(06:46):
later into the editing process. Idon't know if I totally believe that,
but whatever, I'll take their wordfor it makes sense, I mean,
because this is a throwaway. Ifyou're gonna go, you know, you
go to the bathroom. He wouldjust throw that away. It's very unusual
when you cut camera though, forsound to keep rolling. And they did
plan They did show them planning thatinterview out in detail. They made it
part of the film, like they'replanning because it was the second time they

(07:10):
were interviewing him, so they weretrying 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 noinside information on this, but I always
wonder if it was completely you thinkit was, it was contrived. It's
possible it could be contrived that theywell, they always knew, they all
well, they all they knew.He had been caught mumbling on a hot
mic in the first interview, andI think his lawyer or somebody, a

(07:30):
rapper or somebody was there with himand 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 wherehe didn't confess, but he was
kind of mumbling things, and awoman 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,

(07:51):
as a filmmaker, I would besaying, Okay, we already caught him
on a hot mic once we knowhe tends to do that, so I
will tell my sound guy, hey, when we cut, you keep rolling
until I come to you and specificallytell you to cut because he might say
some stuff. So let's let's getit. And then they got it.
But then I guess there's somebody Iknow that knows the filmmakers, and they

(08:11):
in their adamant that it was totallyit was a total accident that I guess.
Originally they were going to end theseries with the letter with it with
Beverly Hills, but misspelled. Umthat was going to be their big reveal
moment at the end. And thensomewhere towards the end of the editing they
caught that extra audio, found itand realized they had, like something even

(08:31):
better than the envelope. So Idon't know, Yeah, yeah, Durst,
I mean dur Well, he's beenconvicted, so he could say he
murdered Susan Burman. Who was abasically a mob daughter and lived in Bennedict
Canyon on Bennedict Canyon Boulevard and wasshot the back of the head. And
Durst was convicted found guilty of hermurder. But there was a two thousand

(08:54):
that that happened, right, yeah, well yeah, and then there was
an anonymous letter sent to the BeverlyHills Police Department, and you know,
the word Beverly Hills, Beverly Ithink 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 abizarre story. It was a letter where

(09:15):
he wrote to let them know thatthere 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 deadbody 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 aboutit and wanted to make sure that
they found her body. I guessso he sent I mean that would be
pretty ugly. Well, you know, it's like four doors down from where

(09:37):
George Reeves died of a gunshot woundedthe head. You know, it's a
crazy fol crazy neighborhood. Yeah,yeah, well we go, we said,
we talked about that before. Butthere 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

(10:01):
that they are now charging him officiallywith the murderer or or I think they've
charged or considering charging. I thinkthey did charge him with the murder of
his first wife that has never beenfound. 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

(10:22):
nice if he would at least,you know, assuming that he was that
he was responsible, It would benice 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 thatclosure. You know. Yeah. Right,
it's uh yeah, what a mess. And he's just this crump,
a little old man now and he'sgoing to die in prison. It's uh,

(10:43):
you know, it's that, it'sit's just people are demented anyway,
Uh what else? Man? Well, there was I mean we should touch
on the Alec Baldwin thing that wasthat was crazy. Um the it's I

(11:03):
mean, it's so sad and sobad that that there was a live weapon
on the set of that movie thatand all Alec Baldwin, you know,
really just killed the guy. Imean, 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 andjust you know, to have that is

(11:24):
this gun okay, yes, it'sokay, Okay, here you are,
you know, and yeah, Imean here's an actor who has handled tons
of firearms throughout his career, andis that you know? All you trust
the people that handed the armor onset and they assistant director have checked it
and for whatever reason, the gunhadn't been checked. And the craziest thing
is they're saying it was a reallive bullet, because sometimes when they say

(11:46):
live round that can also mean ablank, but they I guess they've since
specified and it was an actual bulletthat came out of the gun. And
what in the world a live bulletwas doing on a movie set? Is
you know, there's it's questions ontop of questions with this one, and
it, um, it makes mereally upset to even think about it.
But you know there's one other thingtoo, that's that's something that's that that

(12:07):
is you know, it's a terriblesituation. And this is not in any
way being accusatory of anything. Butanyone 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. Sothat's what he was supposed to do it.
But yeah, it just seems likeI would be very uncomfortable, you
know, doing that. But yeah, just actually it doesn't even matter what

(12:30):
I just said, because it wasthe whole point was he supposed to shoot
somebody with it, and he's juststaying 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 iswhat I'm gonna do, and go have
that on your conscience. It's soit's so sad you would think, you
know, that's happened before with Johnere Hexham and Brandy and Lee and um,

(12:50):
you know, granted you know Hexhamwas was a stupid mistake on his
part. But but yeah, justyou know, they're making this big deal
about there should never be a liveammunition on a movie. Well there just
shouldn't, you know, You're justdone. Rather they should not, And
I don't see why they don't makefake guns. Why they put real firearms
on the set. You know,fake guns are are pretty convincing, and

(13:11):
that's what prop people do. SoI mean I used, uh, I
had a gun on the set ofmy 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 tobegin with. It's just gas powered.
It's made to shoot plastic pellets.So even if it was loaded, which

(13:31):
are made to be shot at people. I mean, it's not supposed to.
It's not. It can't hurt youkind of. It just needs to
demonstrate some kind of kick back,I guess, but it shows that.
But the gas power makes the slidepop back on a semi automatic, so
it looks realistic when you're pulling thetrigger 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 toyour point, why they don't have guns

(13:54):
that go through all the mechanics ofshooting a gun, but don't have a
barrel and a hammer that actually knightsaround and can fire something down a barrel.
I don't understand why you need thatpart of it. You can have
a slide that kicks back when youpull the trigger and something come out to
barrel, you know the end ofthe guns just like pop, like a
you know, a cap or whatevercome out. Uh, there's no reason

(14:16):
to have I don't understand a workingchamber, 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 toher. Yeah, it's and and Gon
bless her family. Man. That'sand the Alan Baldwin's family. That's just
awful. Anyway, everybody but everybodywas there that day is is going to

(14:37):
be traumatized from it. So well, moving on, what out do you
have any other news or do youwant 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 goodones. It's mostly trolling for trolls I

(14:58):
get. I get feedback on myYouTube 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 sendhim to me for this because you so
you'll what you'll do is you'll hearum. Uh these coming out for the
first time, these these comments havebeen sent to me, Troy, have

(15:20):
saved them, and I'm going toread them to you. And for the
first time. You have not seenthese yet. Yeah, Okay, there's
not as many as I hoped.So somebody I did, oh, I
did a true crime artifact. Iwas showing some of the things in my
collection and uh, and somebody wroteAlex Alex C wrote, why do you

(15:43):
collect such shit? Why not collectan entire painting that the subject actually looked
at and appreciated the same way youcan today, or a car that he
or she drove. What the isthis broken handles and pieces of pottery?
Sorry, but collecting scrap of abuilding material is just sad. It's like,
Okay, well that's that's not thatgood. Good go find your own

(16:07):
hobby, Alex. Yeah, theDavid White I did a David White video
about him and his son being inthe Panama lockerbeat bombing. David White played
Larry Tates, uh somebody called crazytrain who has a Manson icon okay,
as with with the swastika on hisforehead, And I said, Dearly Departed
Tours is an old dinosaur. It'slike, it's kind of like watching a

(16:30):
one and a half year old toddlersqueal with excitement because they picked up a
piece of garbage off the street andthink it is a treasure. Boring and
redundant. I don't think it's redundantat all. Maybe boring, but I
don't think. Look, I thinkwe need to I think I think they
need to pick a metaphor and stickwith it. You're both a dinosaur and
a coder. How is that possible? That's actually, yeah, a very

(16:51):
good point. Come on, he'sjust saying, for the for the next,
for the next one, you forthe next comment. That guy makes,
you know, just a little writingtip. 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. Butthey're annoying because they go after they don't

(17:11):
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 youknow, 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. Jacksonkeep Okay, I didn't even know what
this means and I don't even evenremember what video it's from. Jackson.

(17:33):
Oh, Michael Jackson. This isMichael Jackson. I did the thing.
I knew where he's buried. Jackson, keep me keep her jeans Jesus if
she needs a meet her. Jesusdid not Jewish have had he has held
ID is just jealous? I differentJanuary. I'd keep is sounds like somebody

(17:56):
had their voice to text on anddidn'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 picturesof it to their families. You know,
for history. It's funny. Haven'tyou commented on that in the past,

(18:17):
though, like you want to beon a death tour or something like
that someday, or you wouldn't mindit or something like that. Have I
am, I replied to them,No, no, no, I'm just
having Haven't you ever talked about thatbefore? 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

(18:40):
that's that goes back to that thingthat you know, the people dying two
times. The first time you dieswhen you physically die and draw your last
breath, and the second time iswhen 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 sayingmy name, you know, right now
mine? With that, I don'twant to be here anymore anyways. So

(19:02):
who cares? That's true? That'strue. I okay, So that was
that one. Um, somebody wasangry about the Cabazon dinosaurs. That doesn't
really matter. Let's see, let'ssee somebody was mad about the dinosaurs.
Yeah, the Cabazon dinosaurs that Iposted a video because they painted them look
like the flintstones. Yeah, anduh so, so dino is purple,

(19:26):
the dinosaurs purple, and the trexes looking like prey, And I said,
isn't that kind of cool? Andthey said, I don't think it's
cool at all, just like Idon'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 oasisof uniqueness is now just another monument to
greed. You can have it,and it's like or I have to agree

(19:48):
with them, though I do hatewhat they did with Hadley's. I don't
even know what Hadley's is mic thatdoesn'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 itwas this cool looking, almost like roadhouse
looking built, freestanding restaurant building thatthey were in. And now Hadley's is
in like a strip mall and isall like clean and modern and it's still

(20:12):
good. I mean, you stillget the day. I still recommend Hadley's
day shakes, but it's not likeit. The charm of it is all
gone. I see what they usedto have. Yeah, Hadley's I was
big with our family used to stoppingat Hadley's a lot. I mean that
the dinosaurs are still cool. Imean that's that's that's just like Americana,
you know, that's that's just somethingsilly on the side of the road and

(20:33):
uh whatever. I mean they werethey were all faded out and following apart
a couple of years ago. Soum, 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 theydon'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'slike a cooler vibe to it than it

(20:53):
used to be. They embraced thekitch and I think it's pretty cool.
Yeah, let's see this one isOh. I did think about Princess Grace's
hears and it went to the NationalMuseum of Funeral History in Houston, and
I opened up the hearst and Isat in you know, the hearst that
carried Princess Grace's body. So Iwas rude. It was it was route

(21:15):
in indignant in letter and disgusting ofyou 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 sadBass. 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

(21:37):
recently, I guess recently a fewmonths ago, I found like a little
short documentary that was shot back atthe time when she got married. It
was all about the wedding preparations andthe wedding day, you know, all
this stuff in Monaco. It wasinteresting. It was very you know,
positive raw ra kind of a doctorabout the day. But it was really
entertaining and informative, and it wascool to see all the footage, all

(22:00):
the old like sixteen millimeter footage itlook like that they shot of all that
stuff. They Yeah, it's interestingbecause you know who who was an integral
part of doing that. I thinkwe may have talked about that. But
the documentary the royal family that PrincePhilip sort of when the queen, you
know, Queen Elizabeth, he was, he was sort of they featured in

(22:21):
the in the crown quite having anybody. He was he was, you know,
spearheaded this drive to sort of openthe 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 thatsort of theme is showing them as humans.
And plus she was you know,she was a princess, she was

(22:42):
a movie star and you know theyeah, fascinating interesting story and tragic death.
Um yeah yeah, And I meanRay Window is my favorite movie and
she was just like iconic level gorgeousin that. Oh so okay, So
I did this other video really recently. The last one I did was this

(23:03):
lady who has a wax museum inher house. She has literally the movie
Land wax museum. She has likethe entire Wizard of Oz in her bed
in her living room, like withthe Yellowberck groat in the trees. She
has the Phantom of the Opera withthe organ like a real organ. This
is in her living room. Shehas a WC. Fields, She has

(23:26):
there's the Shaggy Day in the absentMinded Professor Fred McMurray in a Car that
flew. She has the car hangingin her living room. I mean it's
a life size car with Fred McMurray'swax statue and the wheel spin and there's
the whole deal. I mean thisone. But also the most recent thing
she has is Jimmy Stewart from themovie Land Wax Museum. So she has

(23:49):
Jimmy Stewart there with him in hiscast, and she has the entire background
that was there, I mean,like the furniture and everything that was on
the shelves behind him, and andthe 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'slike a batish of mind and uh
and this but I saw her onYouTube. She's got a channel called The

(24:11):
Weird and Wonderful. Her name isCynthia Lazaris, and she said, yeah,
come on and visit. And Iwalked in and I was like,
she's got Linda Blair with her headspinning at the at the atter staircase.
You know, she has she hasthe 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.

(24:36):
And she has like a Elvira's weddingdress, like a Sandra Peterson and
oh just I mean like it's unbelieveI 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 waxmuseums, literally a wax museum.
So wow. Yeah, So checkout that YouTube channel, was it again?

(24:59):
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 toher and you'll see it. It's just
so cool. She's amazing. Yeahyeah 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

(25:22):
the main feature? I think weshould. It's time for the main feature,
all right. It is Universal Monstersis our theme of this episode.
The Great monster Movies of the nineteenthirties from Universal Studios. Frankenstein, um

(25:47):
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 inthe thirties, Yeah, yeah,
a Phantom of the Opera. Imean they're so yeah, it just goes
it's I love the Universal Monsters.I mean, you know, it made

(26:10):
them and it really put them onthe map. I think the monsters did.
And as I said in our Patreonepisode that we recorded a little bit
earlier, for the people that subscribeto the channel, they you know,
the Universal kind of just blew offthe monsters. You know, they didn't
really acknowledge it. When you wentto Universal Studios. You never saw it

(26:33):
was all you know, it wasall 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 youknow, things like that, whereas before
they really wasn't anything that they everreally thought to embrace. So, um,
well, a few years ago,maybe ten years ago on how long

(26:56):
it was, they tried to rebootthe whole their classical monster franchises and they
did a Tom Cruise Movieum, withthe 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 evenremember it that it happened. Yeah,

(27:17):
it was called I think it wasjust the Mummy. It wasn't like the
Brendan Frasier ones. It was yeah, no, I remember now, Yeah,
I forgot about that. I didsee 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 becauseI make movies too, and so I
try not to be critical publicly.But it was not good. It was

(27:40):
not good. It was just kindof a mess and it didn't do well.
And that was kind of the endof it. I don't think they're
gonna, I mean, if theydo try to get that going again,
and won't be the whatever direction theywere going I think at that time.
So, yeah, it was notgreat. 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 theBrendan Frasier Mummy movies that were kind of

(28:03):
like you know, Indiana Jones typethings. Yeah, it was set in
modern times, and yeah it wasweird. Yeah, yeah, something that
Tom Cruise didn't touch. They didn'tturn to gold and tell. Yeah,
which normally what I would say whatyou will about him. He usually picks
really good projects and there's always thescreenplays are always good. Um, he's

(28:23):
got a good track record. Itdoesn't usually make bad stuff. So yeah,
yeah, it was a rare misfire. So what do you want to
start with. Well, let's gointo Let's go into Frankenstein. I know
it's not the first, but butFrankenstein is the first on my list.
So that's a director James Whale,I can't Yeah, and produced by Carl

(28:48):
Amley. But yeah, James Whale, who we really we haven't talked about
him before here we were talking aboutTodd Browning, but not James Whale,
have we? I don't. Wemay have mentioned him in passing before,
but no, I don't know thatwe've ever dove dove dove in Okay,
Well, I mean James Whale wasa I mean he directed, uh,
he directed Frankenstein, He directed Brideof Frankenstein, he directed, he did

(29:11):
like horror movies, Invisible Man,Yeah, and called the Old Dark House
he was. Yeah, he wassomething 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 calledGods and Monsters, a really good film.
Yeah. Ian McKellen his play playsWhale and Uh. Frasier plays a

(29:36):
fictionalized Gardner character working at Wal's houseand when Whale is you know, his
career is basically over. As anold 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 livedlived with They lived together for over twenty

(29:59):
years and and it was open.Everybody knew about it, which back then
it was almost unheard of. AndDavid Lewis, his partner, was Irving
Thalberg's assistant. Irving Thalberg one ofmy favorite people in Hollywood history, who
was the head of production for DMfor MGM and one of the early Irving
Thalberg was a major, major,major early force in the film industry,

(30:22):
and the Producer's Guild every year stillgives out an Irving Thalberg Award that is
dedicated in his honor. But DavidLewis, who was James Whale's partner was
Irving Thalberg's assistant, I mean drovearound, would hang out with him at
his house. And then James Whalewas, you know, a director.
So and then later on, afterThalberg died, a lot of people that

(30:45):
had been kind of protected by Thalbergwere they kind of had to find somewhere
else to go. And David Lewiswas one of those guys, I think.
But David Lewis went on to bea producer in his own right and
produced films I think into the sixties. So, or at least some moroblems
so. So. James Whale diedin fifty seven May twenty nine, ninety

(31:07):
fifty seven, by drowning in hisswimming pool. And and it was a
suicide, it was, they saidit was accidental. But shortly before his
boyfriend died said he stumbled on anote and said that basically, you know,
it was he didn't stumble, andhe'd had it the whole time.
He just didn't release what the notesaid. But I think it asked not
to be released until he was deador something like that. Yeah, it

(31:30):
was. It was kept secret fora long time. Yeah, So it
was funny because I was. Iwas watching the Academy Awards about twenty years
ago now, and uh, andGoldie Hawn was giving out a reward or
an award or receiving one. Ithink she was. I think she was

(31:51):
presenting an award and the subject ofFrankenstein came up, and James Whale came
up, and she was, Oh, I've lived in his house. He
drowned in my swimming pool, andit was yeah, it was Goldie haunting.
Kurt Russell ended up buying James Whale'shouse that he drowned in. It's
just kind of a it was thiskind of a it wasn't thing something.
Actually she didn't say he drowned inher pool, but I just but she

(32:13):
did say I live in the housewhere he lived, and I just I
just knew it. But it waskind Yeah. I think that the house
is still around too. I believetoo. Yeah, it's nice. It's
in the Palisades. Yeah, butit was. It was a cool little
house and uh, yeah, it'sjust I don't think they still live in
it, but they did. Basically, what's wild with Whale is He's a

(32:34):
good example of it seemed to beespecially true in the early days of Hollywood.
He was red hot for like fiveor six years with the Universal and
then and then the bottom just fallsout. 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 lastthing you did. And it's crazy how

(32:55):
fast you can kind of fall offthat wagon and not be hot anymore.
And his career was basically over byyou know, uh, you know,
by the by the forties. Uhso, yeah, it's really wild.
And then he, I guess ithad a series of love of serious health
issues and that's what his suicide notereferenced. It was just that he was
in almost constant agony basically because allhis health issues. So and only sixty

(33:19):
seven years old. That's sad.It's um. Yeah, yeah. It
was a fascinating movie, that wasand it was really well done. Yeah
yeah, I'd love to like ElsaLanchester's character was in there, Charles Lawton
character and it was just I youknow, that whole thirties movie horror movie
people just being normal people. Itwas not cool. I like that,

(33:42):
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 otheryoung men, which is kind of what
Brendan Fraser. I think it's kindof an amalgamation of the kind of twenty
something, you know, young guysthat were around Wale toward the end.

(34:05):
I didn't realize they broke up.I didn't know that. Yeah, because
Whale, I guess went after hiscareer kind of created. He went to
France for a while and came backto the US with the French waiter.
I think that he met over thereand Leis. Lewis obviously was not okay
with that, and so that wasLewis moved out and that was kind of
the end of it. But Ithink he and Lewis stayed close. I

(34:27):
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, theHoward Hughes' film. He was Jeanjean Harlowe's
dialogue coach. Oh interesting, andit's kind of an uncredited director because Hell's

(34:54):
Angels famously was They started making itwhen they were still doing silent films,
and then all of a sudden talkiesbecame the rage, and they were still
working on the movie and they werelike, we gotta make this thing into
a sound movie, and so theyneeded 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 andon Broadway. So he came in as

(35:16):
a quote dialogue coach to basically directall the new scenes that they were doing
that had dialogue in them. Andso that's that was. They needed people
that had experienced tea directing actors whowere actually speaking I guess, which most
film directors at the time didn't neverhad to deal with. Yeah, all
pantomime, you know. Was hefrom Was he from England? Originally?

(35:38):
I believe he was British? Yeah, because I wonder what kind of dialogue
he taught. He had a goodBritish weird British duh. Yeah at that
actor land accent. I think itwas I think it was him. I
think he had um he had foughtin World War One and had been captured
and was ah, was it him? I think it had been captured.

(36:00):
It had been a pow for anumber of years or for whatever cover time
during World War one broke World Warone broke out in August nighty fourteen had
little interest in politics, realizing sinceit stationed in Bristol. Subsequently commissioned second
lieutenant in Worcestershire. Taken prisoner ofwar in battle at the Western Front in

(36:21):
Flanders in nineteen seventeen. It washeld 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 hewas 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

(36:47):
I think Carl Lamley wanted Whale rightaway. Didn't need to do the to
do the directing for for for thehorror movies. I'm pretty sure that Lamley
is the one ninety thirty one UniversalChief Carl Emilely offered Whale his choice of
any property, so and Whale choseFrankenstein. So um, interesting but but

(37:08):
great. And it was ninety thirtyone. It was made those movies.
I was watching we I think youwatched him too. I watched Dracula,
watched Frankenstein. I watched Fanom ofthe Opera. It was like hour ten
minutes, hour long. You know. It was like, yeah, they're
they're so short. They're like seventyminutes, seventy five minutes. I love
it. Yeah. I went tosee that James Bond movie. It was
like almost it was two hours fortyminutes. That new James Bond movie was

(37:30):
like, oh my god. I'mnot 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, soyou want to keep it short back then
when you could, right. Althoughthe Silent era there was some crazy like
four hour long plus long epics.That's true. I've alwaysn't it wasn't that

(37:51):
that original one that was done byintolerance and greed and intolerance creed. That's
what it was. It wasn't liketen 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 funnybecause nos Farratto is uh, you

(38:12):
know, go, you know,ripping on the Dracula thing a little bit.
Um. I found that really hardto sit here. I well,
we've talked about that. Silent moviesare a little bit rough for me.
But if you watch nos Farratto onfast forward, it's perfect. You know,
you could read all the cards anduh and you know I'm missing any
of the action and it was it'sgreat. So just watch it on fast
forward half the time you get themovie and um, it works. Yeah.

(38:37):
No, Faratto was a good movietoo, 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 wasreally interesting about the universal horror films was
the influence of German expressionism on thelook, the severe you know, the
strong shadows, the severe um contrastbetween dark and light images on the screen.

(39:02):
You know, just severe lighting,really expressionistic and interesting. Guy.
I mean, if you want likea more modern example, you know,
early Tim Burton, stuff like TimBurton's Batman movies for a good example of
that. Just really wild shapes andyeah, contrasting and moody and well,
I mean really well done. Becauseyou know that a lot of it was

(39:23):
Matt, you know, the backgroundwere Matt. But but considering the time
period they did it in, Imean there's something I noticed, like,
Wow, these sets, you know, everything is really good at Granted,
you know, black and white isan art form because of the lighting,
et cetera, and you have tosay so much more with less information as
far as color goes, because youknow, it doesn't translate as well.

(39:43):
And I was really, you dohave an appreciation for the artistry for something
like that, because it is theywere stunning movies, practical in camera effects
as they say. Yeah, youknow. One thing that I was speaking
of that one thing that jumped outto me was I watched The Pride of
Frankis nine this week and there's ascene where there's like little miniature people in
glass jars. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, I

(40:07):
don't totally know how they did thatback then, because I was like nineteen
thirty six or thirty five. I'mnot I know how they did it,
but I don't know how they didit. Like today, you could do
it in a day. It wouldbe easy. You just green screen it.
Um. But I it was veryit was so well done. It
was really well done. So Idon't I know how that it didn't look
it looked very real for its time, the way they did that it was.

(40:30):
I just kept watching it like itwas very impressed. It was mesmerizing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ialso loved The Bride of Frankenstein.
I think I liked it more thanthe original film because it was like fun
Yeah, it was campy. Itwas campy. Um. Yeah. I
was surprised at how campy it wasactually, you know they were. It

(40:52):
was a lot more lighthearted and uhyeah, 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, howto have conversations, and I learned how
to smoke and all this kind ofsilly stuff. So it's it's funny people

(41:12):
talk about camp and obviously that's partof it. But I also wonder if
it wasn't the fact that screwball comediestook 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 partin it, because it was kind of
like over the top comedy a littlebit. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you're right, it was. Itwas broad some of it. Yeah,

(41:34):
and uh and it's funny, Ithought when I thought about it, like
Young Frankenstein, the film, themel Brooks film is much more Bride of
Frankenstein than the Frankenstein and the originalfilm, you know. And uh it
was. And you know, anotherone was The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
You know, that's that's the Frankensteinstory basically, and uh and and it's

(41:58):
more Bride than it is frank Frankensteinwas a serious movie. It was a
horrifying movie. And Bride, youknow, it was a bit it was
a bit more. It was likeprobably 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 iton the second movie, you know what
I mean, like, let's justhave fun and any crazy crazy stuff with

(42:21):
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 missusPercy Shelley, not Mary Shelley, so
it was she went by her husband'sname. She was married to Percy the
philosopher and the poet. Um andhe um he died of a he was

(42:44):
he was like drowned in a anda and a ship and accident as a
good body washed up like ten dayslater and uh and like rome or something
and uh and they ended up crematinghim there, but his heart didn't burn,
so they left his body in Italy, I believe is where he washed

(43:04):
up and gave his heart to MaryShelley. They said it was causel fight
or something like that. So MaryShelley's buried in Bournemouth in England with her
husband's heart just as hard because theyit's interesting because she was so you know,
you know, Frankenstein came out ofthis woman's brain. You know,

(43:25):
she's clearly thinking pretty in a prettybizarre, you know manner. So so
then she died in an eighteen fiftyone of a brain tumor. But uh,
it's just it's interesting. And theydidn't even give her her name when
she you know, when in themovie it is missus, you know,
Percy B. Shelley, not MaryShelley. Just fascinanding for that time period

(43:45):
we're talking about Frankenstein. You wantto talk about Boris Karloff. Yeah,
yea, yeah, not a singleline at dialogue, just a lot of
grunts and a lot of couldn't eventell, you know, couldn't even know
it was who I was. Didn'teven get a credit, did he,
Yeah, it said it's just inthe opening credits. It just says the
monster and with a question mark nextto it, whereas, of course all

(44:06):
the other actors were credited next totheir names their character names. UM and
then. I also thought it wasinteresting that in the Bride of Frankenstein four
years later, UM, they creditedthe monsters just Karloff's last name only,
and then for the for the monster'smate, they did the same thing with
the question mark. They didn't giveElsa um Leanchester a credit, I think.

(44:30):
Oh, but she did get onebecause she played Mary Shelley at the
beginning. I totally yeah, shewas. It was her and Percy,
her husband, and someone else sittingaround in a parlor and she was doing
needle point or something and talking about, you know, come on, you
know, Mary, You've got somestory or you know, and then she
goes into the bride. They goesinto it, and they did this weird

(44:52):
UM and they did a weird likerecap kind of like what today would be
like, you know, in thelast 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 goingon kind of deal. Yeah, it
was really funny. Yeah. Ithink it was five years from the original
one that they did, uh.I believe it was Frankenstein Briden. Frankenstein

(45:14):
was done in thirty five, sofor one was the original. So it's
about it for you. And theystill had I think they still had the
original props laying around, so theywere 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 theyhad like four inch souls on him,
each one. I think weighed likeeleven pounds and it took him hours and

(45:38):
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 andhow Cruise retreated and stuff. I
think he became an advocate later onfor you know, hours because he had
to spend so many hours in makeupto get all that stuff put on him,

(45:58):
and it was just like it wasa lot to ask of a person.
I think it's what it came downto. So he kind of became
an act advocate for actors rights intime, how much time they spend on
sets and how you know you gothrough six seven hours of makeup before you
even start acting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's interesting
he got he became famous for nothaving a single line. Of course.

(46:20):
You know when Briden Frankenstein came about, he had complete you know, dialogue.
I mean he learned that in aday. 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. Youknow, Bella Legosi had the thick Hungarian
accent, which actually kept him fromgetting a lot of roles, other roles

(46:43):
in his career because he was alot of times he was difficult to understand
his English. And and yet hegets all the speaking parts with the Dracula
character, and Boris Karloff, who'sBritish 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 thatrivalry was between the two of them.

(47:06):
You know, I think that Battlewanted 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

(47:28):
Ghostie. But they say that Bettaand 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 guessthey 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 bettercareer in the long run than Legos

(47:52):
he did. I think, yes, certainly. Yeah. And and there
was the way it was represented inin the movie ed Wood was quite funny.
The way that he referred to youknow, Karloff, that cocksucker was
there. It was pretty funny.I love that. But yeah, so
Carlopp good on him. So hehe and Bella were you know, we're

(48:14):
sort of neck and neck. Hewas into Walking Dead in thirty six.
He was in The Invisible Ray inthirty six. He ended up both of
them ended up doing like spoofy Abbotand Costello movies. You know, I
just I'll meet Frankenstein, which isa connection to the murder of Robert Leaves.
You know that got the little screenwriterthat got murdered in Hollywood, got

(48:34):
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, theylet's put him together. There's so many

(48:57):
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 wolfman, you know, do that.
Um, you know Godzilla versus Frankenstein. Yeah, do that, and um,
it just didn't matter. After awhile. They just went and did
their thing. And then he wenton to have quite a success in as

(49:21):
a voice actor too. Yeah.Yeah, The Grinch still Christmas and uh.
He ended up doing a lot ofsilly movies too. He wasn't the
Ghost Indivisible Bikini where he had hischaracter name was like the Ghoul or something
like that. And it's interesting becausewe talked about in the Patreon episode Tommy
Kirk, the Disney Kid was inthat movie as well, the one had

(49:42):
just died not that long ago.But um grinstall Christmas. Yeah, he
was, he was. He washere. Throw Ravens. Yeah, throw
Ravens. Croff sang the song.He was the guy who was Tony the
Tiger, which is which is thegreat? Yeah throw throw Ravens Croft.
I think he was Captain Crunch too. I love that. But yeah,

(50:05):
he was doing some kind of sillymovies towards the and you know, beach
movies because a lot of them wereremember that Buster Keaton, he was doing
him too, beach movies, youknow, just kind of trash throwaway,
I got a week to kill movies. But anyway, he ended up Boris
Carlof ended up passing away in sixtynine February of sixty nine. He was
eighty one, and he apparently wasa heavy smoker and he only had like

(50:30):
half of a functioning lung yet leftat the end, and so he got
heat and died from pneumonia. Basically, okay, when you have half of
a functioning lung, you don't wantto get pneumonia. And that was no,
no, yeah, he's so hewas cremated and he's his ashes,
well, there are certainly there's aplaque for him at the Actors Church in

(50:51):
London and Covent Garden, and Ithink that that's where his ashes are in
a wall, because there's a walloutside. 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 inLondon. And he was eighty eighty one
years old. But it's interesting we'retalking about just a second ago. Richard

(51:12):
O'Brian. I wrote a book aboutthe Rocky Horror Picture Show several years ago.
I interviewed, you know, mosteveryone that was involved with him,
and Richard O'Brien, who wrote thebasically the story, you know, made
it. Of course, his ownwas sued for by a woman who claims
that he stole her idea of Idon't know, a transvestite that comes from
outer space and you know, Iguess, but she sued him, and

(51:37):
he ended up not having to goto court because it's like, well,
we both ripped off Mary Shelley.You get you know, if you if
you wrote the story, we bothowe you know, owe our careers to
Mary Shelley. So what are youeven saying? But but yeah, I
thought that was it was a cleverway to put it, because I never
really thought of it that way.But there was some sort of um,

(51:57):
you know, providence or or youknow, how you can get away with
a lot of stuff with like wetalked about about Elf, you know,
how they did the rank and bassstuff. It wasn't even just it was
just straight up, here are yourprops. 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 nowanyway then not. Yeah, that's and

(52:20):
that's and that's I think why alot of those why they went back and
dove dove into those books from theeighteen hundreds because they were they were public
domain and you didn't have there wasno one to pay for the right.
Yeah. Yeah, um, Imean Disney kind of did the same thing
with some of their early movies similarsituations. Oh yeah, like doing like
old fairytale stuff. Well, sincewe're talking about Frankenstein, might as well

(52:44):
mentioned Elsa Lanchester, right sure,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
So she was the bride and inBride of Frankenstein. Um, I
thought she was great in it.I also I have to mention she is
in my favorite Christmas movie that Imentioned. It seems like every other episode
she was the housekeeper and the bishop'swife with David and Lauretta Young and Carrie

(53:07):
Grant. Yep, it's sizable,you know, a fascinating lady. I
know, I love her because shethe choices she made, you know,
granted maybe she didn't have a lotof choices, and she you know,
she ended up taking a lot ofhorror movie roles after after the Bride Franklin,
that's clearly not but she was.She played housekeeper roles too. You

(53:29):
know. It's another one of thoseBritish you know, sturdy uh women you
know, for lack of a betterterm, well it's the only term I
could think of that were often cashShe 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'sjust that they're British and you know,

(53:50):
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 andyeah, and so I was in I
think ninety twenty seven that that wasmade well or was he in he was
even the nineteen thirty nine version,or is in the thirty nine No,

(54:12):
you're right, you're right, it'sum thirty nine. He played Quasimodo.
It was twenty seven. Was thefirst time it was done, the silent
version. Apparently. Elsa and CharlesLawton were in twelve films together that many
eh okay and also um Latton isalso famous for he basically helped launch the

(54:34):
career of Marine O'Hara he um heI guess because she was in a Hitchcock
film, I think Jamaica in andLatton was impressed by her. And basically
when Lawton came over to to dothe Hunchback, he kind of insisted that
they cast Marine O'Hara, who waslike eighteen or nineteen as as Maeralda.

(54:57):
And that's that was it. Therest 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 movieis probably the most visually insane movie ever

(55:17):
made. It's the only movie Ithink he ever directed. I believe he
was and he was sort of laughedout 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 thinkas far as long as as long
as he lived, it was adisastrous movie. But oh my god,

(55:38):
it's so scary as hell. Itis a really good movie. And it
looks amazing. You know, itlooks like Tim Burton's probably borrowed a lot
of that too, because but it'sall live action. But the imagery those
little kids running away from that sinisterpreacher. And oh, that was a

(55:58):
good movie. That's scary as hellmovie. That thing. Did we talk
about this before, Yeah, wedid with with the Prosiety Adventure episode.
We're talking about Shelley Winters in themovie how he know She's killed and she's
at the bottom of the lake ina car tied up and then they showed
her at the bottom of the lakewith the with the seaweed and her hair.
Oh man, it was and thenyou see a fish fishook go by.

(56:20):
It was insane. That was agreat movie. But um, anyway
back, so that was Charles Lawton, but he also Lanchester, and he
had an acting school in Hollywood andthey taught Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe took
acting lessons. Oh wow, Idid not know that. This is kind
of interesting. Yeah. They theytheir house was right off of where that
old abandoned house was off Sierra Benitawhere the James Dean houses. That that

(56:44):
just across that park. Um iswhere their house was. But anyway,
yeah, well uh. Also Lanchesterpassed away on January fifth, nineteen eighty
seven. She was eighty four,and Charles and her husband had passed away
two decades earlier. He died Decemberfifteenth, nineteen sixty two. He was

(57:05):
only sixty three. He died fromrenal 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 kindhe 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.

(57:34):
But she, you know, hewas famously he was gay, and she
found out about it. Apparently thestory is, or the legend is that,
uh, they she caught, shewalked home, she came home and
found him on a sofa with ayoung man, and she threw the sofa
out the window. I never spokeabout it again. That's that's the legend

(57:55):
now there. I think she wrotean autobiography and mentions it there about his
homosexuality. So well. I readand I read some that she she tried
in her books. She tried toblame 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, hewas actually by and the reason that she

(58:15):
didn't have kids was either because shedidn't want to or because of medical issues
that she had. So I don'tknow what the real issue was. But
yeah, there's an interesting marriage forsure, 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 NightGallery that Rod Serling Show where she

(58:37):
you know, with green literally likefingers that were plants, and Willard she
played the crazy uh a mother andWillard Um the rap movie. I love
that. She was a murder byDeath which if you haven't seen Murder by
Death that was made in seventy sixand it has all these uh old you

(58:57):
know now like Maggie Smith and DavidNiven play hum old type. Peter Laurie
played Sam Spade, I mean Peterum, Peter Falk played Sam Spade,
and um Charlie Chan was played byPeter Sellers, all these you know.
She played um miss Marple. Ithink it was I think it was like
a nagg of the Christy thing too. Anyway, it was a great movie,

(59:17):
this very very funny movie, truemca Pody, Nancy Walker, one
of those all star casts. Anyway, the point that I think you probably
just delete all that shit. WhatI found what was interesting This was something
I found about Elsa Lanchester and herhair in Brida Frankenston, the famous hostess

(59:40):
Cupcake too, you know, yeahyeah, And I found a couple of
quotes about it and she said shipAlexa, stop Alexa. I found a
couple of stop Alexa no stop.She Uh. I found a couple of

(01:00:08):
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 kepttaped wide open for the long takes.
I always assumed it was a wig. Why would they do that to her

(01:00:28):
real hair? Well, I wouldimagine 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 thingI did in that film, I believe
was my screaming. In all mymovies 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

(01:00:53):
mothers dragged their poor DearS to meand demand the children say something to Frankenstein's
bride. Can you imagine an actressbeing overexposed by a picture she meet forty
years ago? Okay, some peoplewould would would kill for that and uh
and literally kill for that. Andon her marriage to Charles Lawton she said,
we both needed other company. Imet his young man. This is

(01:01:15):
something I guess, she said.So I met her, I met his
young men, and I had ayoung man around that. Charles didn't even
argue about interesting. Apparently it waswell 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'sthe back to Charles, Lawton said,

(01:01:38):
I have a face that would stopa sun dial. That's funny, that's
very funny. He did have anan 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 andI think it relates to Dracula.

(01:01:59):
Well, so it's a good it'sa good segu Dwight Fry, who played
who played Fritz in Frankenstein was theguy who played Renfield in Dracula. Both
kind of sidekicks to villain lish likecharacters, but very very physically, very

(01:02:19):
different performances, which is and it'sin 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 goingto get flack because we call Boris Carlo
Frankenstein. But it's actually the FrankensteinMonster. It was doctor Frankenstein, although
if you ever watched the movie,there is at least one instance where they
refer to him as Frankenstein. Ibelieve not just okay, well, but

(01:02:45):
that is a common mistake that peoplemake. The doctor Frankenstein is the doctor
who created Frankenstein's monster, which isyeah 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,

(01:03:10):
you're not gonna get You're not gonnaget a Colin Clive Halloween mask.
You're gonna get a Boris Carla Halloweenmask. All right, damn right,
damn right. So so Dwight FryHe played Renfield and Dracula played Fritz and
Frankenstein. He was also in TheInvisible Man and in the Bride of Frankenstein.

(01:03:30):
And he was never called Igor.There was never Igor was a was
a word. I think they cameout of the Shelley novel. It was
never used ever in any of thefilm so, you know, it's always
an Igor name. But that wasMary Shelley Buck, not in any movies.
That's interesting. Yeah, I noticedthey called him Fritz, and I
thought that was odd because he seemedlike the Igor type character, but they

(01:03:52):
didn't call him. Yeah, andthen then young Frankis signed its Igor.
So why wouldn't they, Why wouldn'tthey Why would he changed that? I
wonder? But apparently apparently Dwight Frydied on a bus in Hollywood. Yeah,
I believe he was writing he hadbeen to the movies with I think
his son maybe or something, andthey were riding a bus coming home and

(01:04:14):
yeah, he had a heart attack. See I would I know, went
on a deep dive looking for thatand I couldn't find anything. It was.
It said that he died in thebus, and I went through all
the nineteen forty three papers, andit mentions that he died, you know,
of a heart attack, but itdoesn't tell you where. He doesn't
tell you that it was on ayou know, he's pronounced dad. I
believe at the Hollywood Hospital which isnow the Wilcox Police Station. That's where

(01:04:38):
That's where it was the same placeFred Murch was pronounced Dad. Yeah,
he was only forty four and hehad 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'sgoing to come up again in this episode.
Is young people, especially young actors, young ish at least, you

(01:04:59):
know, twenties, thirties, forties, who you would think, are you
know, in fit condition, andjust 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 ofthese actors had um that they seem I
mean, they're probably taking mercury cocktails. And you know, the costumes there

(01:05:21):
was, Yeah, the costumes werehorrible for them to make up. I
mean there's the of course, allthe 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 leastnot in the way that we know it
today, and people just drank heavilyand smoked heavily, and their bodies were
just ripped up like they used likethey aged faster because the way they lived.

(01:05:45):
Um. And then there are alsoI think a lot of just there
were a lot of like serious healthconditions that aren't as big of a deal
now that we've kind of learned todeal with that they had no answer to
you back then too. That soyeah, and mental health issues too that
were just you know, get overit kind of thing. Like Colin Clive.
You know, Colin Clive was aguy that was just destroyed by you

(01:06:08):
know, by drinking. And ifwe 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 totalk about him because he was he was
kind of a fascinating character. Ofcourse, 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 youknow, comes alive. You know,

(01:06:30):
he's talking about how he now heknows what it's like to be a god.
Um, which is what Frankenstein's kindof all about, right man pretending
to be God and then you know, turning backfiring on him. Um.
So, he apparently had tuberculosis andthen was a pretty bad alcoholic and it
was what. His alcohol issues werewell known. I guess he was.
It was always passing out on set, you know, when they weren't rolling,

(01:06:51):
And I even caught it. Saw. I don't know if this is
true, but I saw one claimthat 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 theshot because he's just yeah, he's just
a kind of a fall down drunkalcoholic unfortunately. Um and they had tuberculosis
on top of that, so that'sa bad combination. And he passed away

(01:07:15):
in nineteen thirty seven, which wasjust two years after Bright of Frankenstein,
so he was only thirty seven yearsold himself. And I guess Peter Laurie
was one of his pallbearers. Yeah. I think he was at at Edar
McKinley on Hollywood Boulevard, which iswhere Bala, which is where the Fritz
guy, Um, Dwight Fry andyou know Criswell and all those guys were

(01:07:38):
all buried out of that mortuary.So here's what I I correct me if
I'm wrong, But he was crematedat Chapel of the Pines. Oh was
okay, Well he's okay. SoI don't know where the memorial was held
though, I mean, I don'tthink 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. Sothree hundred people show up at his funeral,

(01:08:02):
and then he wasn't buried, hewas cremated, and apparently his cremains
sat in the basement of the crematoriumfor forty years, and it wasn't until
nineteen seventy eight that they were finallylike, we should do something with this
guy, and they went scattered himat sea. But he sat there for

(01:08:24):
over forty years. And apparently thereason that I read is, or the
speculation is that he was married backin 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 orwhatever out here, and so the only
person that could legally take possession ofhis cremains was his wife, and they

(01:08:45):
were separated into strange and I guessshe didn't want him or didn't want to
go through the hassle bringing him backto England or whatever, and so no
one claimed him or could legally claimthem for her, and that was it.
And you've run into those situations whenyou 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

(01:09:09):
columbariums is when they bury ashes,you know, so they have a lot
of that around there now. Butunderneath it is storage and there are thousands
of people underneath their in boxes withnames on them and to get you know,
there are a lot of actors downthere. One of the people we
were looking for was Stephen Stucker,who played Johnny in Airplane. You know,

(01:09:30):
I can make a broach, Ican make a pterodactyl. Yeah,
he was down there for many yearstoo. And you have to go through
a legal process to get them outbecause you have to prove there's no next
of kin. And Sheridan there's anotheractress, my friend Kara McHale went through
that whole legal process. They didfind someone that was a next of kin
to sign the paperwork to have thatperson removed from basically a shelf in the

(01:09:51):
basement and then presented to this familymember 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 throughlegally to get somebody's creamins. And I
guess you know it's it's once youdo it, if you scatter someone at

(01:10:11):
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 gottheir eyes and crossed their teas um.
And apparently at the chapel of thePines Crematorium there's a cenotaph to Colin Clive
that there's a marker, but he'snot buried there. Yeah, yeah,

(01:10:31):
yeah, I mean coincidentally, coincidentallyin the in the cemetery that's kind of
next door as I think where ToddBrowning 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.

(01:10:55):
He's buried at Forest Lawn, Glendale. Elsa Lanchester, who played the
b I, died at the MotionPicture Country Home and was scattered at sea.
Charles Lawton, the hunchback of NotreDame 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. Isthat what you're saying, You're still

(01:11:17):
in storage. No, he was. Clive was finally scattered at sea in
the seventies, but there's a cenotaphfor him at the crematorium. Okay,
yeah, interesting now okay, yeah, wild right, yeah, very very
very I just it's amazing that threehundred people show up at his funeral and

(01:11:39):
then but then no one is thereto take his ashes and actually bury him.
It's like they all were just justlike, well, I guess that's
getting taken care of. I'll gohome now. Some people, yeah,
I guess they just don't care.Some people just don't care. Or you
look, when you go to afuneral, the family is handling all of
that. So you don't think you'renot thinking about it, I guess,
And yeah, I'm somebody paying forthe cremation. Yeah, unless that's the

(01:12:00):
reason that he's there, because there'sa 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 thosepeople 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 fivehundred dollars. That was it. Now

(01:12:20):
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'stypecaster for the rest of her life.
And that's why a lot of interestingthat's why a lot of them,
like Bella Legosi, could get destitutepretty fast. Yea. Even though you
think they're these huge stars raking inall this money, they weren't. You

(01:12:45):
know, if you weren't at thattop 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 moneyto save it. Up so that you
could survive the lean years, youknow, yeah, unless you got a
piece of the production, you know, for sure. Yep, because um,
yeah Bella especially I mean having noreally other careers aide from Dracula.

(01:13:05):
Um, you know, he couldn'tlook at him and Nazi Dracula. So
yeah, it really it ruined him. It really ruined him. So Legosi
was both not only ruined by beingtypecasted, but also just we talked about
this earlier. His accent and hisyou know, his his English wasn't always
very clear. It hindered his careergoing forward, the speaking parts he wanted

(01:13:26):
to get. Um. In fact, one of his later films they actually
dubbed over him, which was verybad 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 Germanyen route and kind of was run out
of Hungary and was married at aHungarian woman and she they kind of fled

(01:13:50):
the country together because the political situationchanged 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 Soagain like so many of these stars from
that era. I think he wasmarried in a multiple times over the years
to various people. Yeah, he, I mean he he had a lot

(01:14:11):
of success. I mean, hewas a really wealthy man at one point,
right, you know, but theyended up dying in this crappy little
apartment building, one bedroom, youknow, off of Western with parts and
Edward movies, you know, exceptthat. Yeah, but his role as
Dracula, I I mean, gowatch that movie today. It is what

(01:14:32):
we think of as Dracula is whathe did. Like he almost like created
the mold of the Dracula character withthe accent and the hair and makeup and
every I mean, it's when whenkids dress up as Dracula for Halloween,
they're dressing up as Bello Legosi's Dracula. Basically his interpretation for sure. And

(01:14:56):
there was I mean some of thatwas pretty some of it was pretty pretty
laughable, you know, some ofit. I mean, you know,
I mean I didn't want to justyou know, it wasn't it wasn't even
just acting. It was just himstaring, 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

(01:15:17):
in that regard there, it's kindof funny when he when he has this
that that kind of just staring forthirty seconds. You know, it's I
understand the intensity of it in thecinema 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 ofit's a little bit of a you know,
snort when you see it. Youknow. And when we when we

(01:15:40):
did our Freaks episode, we mentionedthat, 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 hada throat hemorrhage after getting a lung cancer

(01:16:00):
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 itbecame the role to define the rest of
Legosi's life. Yeah, and helived it too. I mean, he
did that whole, you know,live in a castle kind of house thing

(01:16:23):
and had the big oil painting andhe was very grand, and uh,
yeah, it was very I wentto Uh I was. I worked with
a guy briefly in at the cemeteryat Hollywood Cemetery back and when I worked
there for like five weeks in twothousand and five, they were Yeah,
they wanted me to go door todoor selling funerals and it was awful.

(01:16:44):
It was awful. I went totheir whole. Yeah, you probably heard
the story. So then the guysays, oh, yeah, I lived
in I live in Bella's old houseup and outlook and uh and he says,
I read a biography that he hehad like panthers buried in the backyard.
So I went out, idn't foundhim. It doesn't go up Bella's
panthers. It was in this biography. And he went out inside because yeah,

(01:17:05):
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 orsomething like that. Right, Well,

(01:17:26):
I mean were Randolph ruling? RandolpHirst had an entire zoo at yea castle?
So yeah, I guess that wasit was. It was a flex,
a financial flex. I guess umI thought it was. Were you
speaking of well, you know Edwardand everything? Um? Uh the Edward
film? Um, the one thatBurton did, Tim Burton did. I

(01:17:48):
guess Legosi's family took issue with someof the creative liberties that were taken without
like saying that Legosi slept in acoffin, no kind of that kind of
stuff. Yeah, they're like,he did. I got to I get
a chance to talk to Martin Landauone time, who won the m playing
Bella. Yeah, yeah, Igot him photographed my Edward post or two?
Did you lead Departed? But thatwas cool? But anyway, he

(01:18:10):
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 knowwhat did he have to say about it?
And Bella Legosi Junior. Bela's sonsaid, I like everything about what
you did, except Bella never hadlittle dogs and he never swore. So
that was because he you know,he was pretty raunchy with the with the

(01:18:34):
with the language. Not raunchy asn'tyou know, just use some colorful words.
Sure, he said, Bella wouldnever do that, and he never
had little chihuahuas or something like that. That was the only issues he took
with it. But u but hewon an Oscar for playing Bella Legosi and
Betta Legos. He never came withan Amila one. It's gonna fun,

(01:18:57):
poor Bella. So he was.I mean, also he was the first
per to go you know, reallythe first famous person to go into rehab.
You know that for coke was amorphine addiction. You know, he
apparently he apparently had a sky atticasciatica, which is I've I had some
issues with that, um I thinkuh last year, extremely painful to nerve

(01:19:18):
down. That goes through your yourhip bones and into your leg, your
whole leg um. It's really sharp, really sharp, terrible pain. So
he he was he was given kindof stronger and stronger treatments for it until
they got him on opiates. Andthen yeah, I became an addict.
I didn't know about the rehab partthough. Yeah, there's pictures of him

(01:19:38):
being checked into rehab on a hospitalbad looking very old and gaunt. But
yeah, he I think it wasa sanitarium was what they called it back
then. But yeah, he admittedhimself to it and it was in all
the papers, so he was likehe went in public. Well that's probably
why I know him would touch himafter that, and that's how he got
into Edwood movies, you know,because I had met him on Hollywood Boulevard.

(01:20:00):
You know, that's that Bella's oldstuff. So talk about that.
Let's go, let's go into theEdwood stuff because you kind of know a
lot about that. And when didn'twe um when we did Dearly Departed Volume
one, didn't we go into thecigar shop that he used to go to,
yeah, which is gone. Ohyeah, it's all bordered up and
gone. So that's historic footage thatwe uh yeah, that's cool. It

(01:20:21):
is, it really is. Imean that was such a neat place.
They had the cigar in the Torontoout in front of it and as a
neat the Hollywood smoke shop. Soyeah, Bela lived over on Western and
and interestingly not very far from Vampirawhere she ended up dying, like literally
like three blocks from there. Butbut Bella every day of his life would

(01:20:42):
walk down Hollywood Boulevard to this cigarstore and buy himself a cigar. And
that's about the time he met upwith 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, justthe just the suit. The cape
actually got auctioned off a few yearsago and it's going to go in the

(01:21:03):
Academy Museum next year. I thinkthey'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 nowis the w Hotel. The other McKinley
mortuary who handled peg end Twistle,who jumped up to the Hollywood sign,

(01:21:24):
handled Bella, handled Dwight Fry,We talked about the guy that played Fritz,
handled Criswell, handled a lot ofa lot of you know those people.
The supposedly the mortuary had an agreementwith 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 wasat Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills,

(01:21:46):
and he's buried a Holy Cross cemeteryand they had to get from Hollywood
to Beverly Hills. So the legendis that that Bella was in the back
of the hearse and the hearse driverwas pulling out of the drive why and
his and he lost control of thehearse. He said the wheel was not
literally ripped from his hand, buthe could not control it, and the

(01:22:06):
wheel took them onto Hollywood Boulevard,and he said he struggled with the wheel,
could not get it under control untilthey passed the Hollywood Smoke Shop.
So they said it was Bella's finalfarewell 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 processionsruining the vibe, Yeah right, the

(01:22:30):
classy vibe of Hollywood Boulevard. PoorBella. But yeah, so he's buried
Holy Cross in a Dracula suit.But not the cape. And yeah,
so the end of the I gainthe 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 withForrest Ackerman. And Ackerman was that

(01:22:51):
guy who had everything. He wasmister sci Fi they called him. He
had a house, and he hada 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 andall that business. And when Forrest Ackerman
died, it all kind of wentup into the into the sky and all
landed all over the place. ButBelos Cape did go up for auction.

(01:23:15):
I think Julian's. I'm not sureit's sold, but the Academy has it
and they're going to put it inthe museum. That's what they say.
That's fantastic. I need to goto the museum. It opened recently,
by the way, it finally opened. I have friends who have gone.
I have not gone. I havefriends who don't live in LA who have
gone, and I haven't gone.Here. Well, if you go to
my YouTube channel, Mike, Iwalked through the whole museum with my camera.

(01:23:38):
Yeah, like I'm actually the entiremuseum. So how'd you like it?
Yeah? I enjoyed it. Iwas expecting. I was hoping for
a little bit more clutter, youknow. 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. Andthere was a lot of that. But

(01:24:00):
that's that's the deal. That's whatthey did. They hired, they had
gajillions of dollars to do it,and they hired, you know, all
these people to do it. SoI would have liked to see more stuff.
The Hollywood Museum, Hollywood History Museumon Highland. I love because it's
so it's just all wacky, youknow, it's everywhere something amazing. You
know, the seldom science of theLambs. So there's Maywest's uh you know,

(01:24:21):
doors and it's it's the kind ofstuff I like. I liked it
a lot. And that's the onethat's in the old the old barn that
was was this This one's the oldMax 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 uhthe Hollywood Museum. I guess they just

(01:24:44):
call it is on Hollywood and Highlandin the old Max Factor building, and
they just have a cool collection ofstuff. 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 poone of the five hundred of them.

(01:25:08):
You know, it was interesting.But but I liked it. I enjoyed
it. I definitely glad. Andand I'm sure you know, this is
the opening. This is his firstiteration. I'm sure over it. Over
the years they'll acquire more things andI think they'll have rotating exhibits. I'm
also really, really, really excitedabout the movie theater that they built,

(01:25:30):
which was somewhat divisive though the wayit was. The design. It looks
like I think it looks like abig egg. It's like a ball yum.
But I think it's freaking really cooland I can't wait to see a
film in it. I think it'llbe really excited. Yeah, it'll be.
I hope it's um, you knowthe way they had it set up
because I was one of the dondonating members, so I got like to
see the preview before it opened openand um, so it was awesome because

(01:25:56):
you had to book it, youhad a certain period of time to go.
I don't know what it's going tobe 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 rubyslippers. There weren't ten thousand people there.
You walk away and they're all bythemselves 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'tknow if they're going to have a free

(01:26:19):
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 enjoyedit. I'm planning on joining it as
like a member, and I gotlike the I think I did do like
the early contributor. I I donatedlike twenty five bucks or something like that,

(01:26:39):
you know when they were first doinglike their fundraising, right, But
I do plan on joining as amember. I'm a LACMA member and that's
next door, so it kind ofmakes sense to just join both of them,
right, And I like supporting thatkind of stuff, So I did
like forty bucks or fifty bucks,and yay, I got I got the
invitation out of that, so Iwas like, cool, you know,

(01:27:00):
all right, I'll go for free. Sure. I think I did look
into it early on. I lookedinto how much he would need to contribute
to get your name like on thewall. Oh my gosh, the thing.
And I think don't quote me onthis, but I think it was
like two hundred and fifty grand wasthe minimum to get up there. Yeah,
you know, I'm tauntcy, freakingyou know, pretentious. I hate

(01:27:24):
these people. Okay, I wantto tell these something. These people didn't
give a crap about any of thisstuff before the academy. Yeah, I'm
talking about this. This goes backto Debbie Reynolds again. Debbie Reynolds hard
ass. She wore all those costumes, all those props from classic MGM movie.
She spent her entire life. Shemortgaged her house to get these things,

(01:27:46):
to save these costumes, sing sevenyear rich dress. She had,
you know, she she had youknow 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. Theacademy 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

(01:28:06):
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 thisshit, and she, you know,
put off on auction. And thenthey come to Todd Fisher, Debbie's son,
and said, we want to usethese costumes of your mother's and he's
like what he says, tell youwhat, I'll do it, but I
want you to name, you know, something like the Debbie Reynolds Pavilion in

(01:28:28):
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 shedied, 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

(01:28:49):
when it comes to that. Iguess it the better better late than never.
But yeah, it would have beennice if she could have got the
glory while she was still around.And yeah, I mean she was,
she worked her but she she hadlike four deals. She had. Hollywood
and Highland was built specifically with hermuseum in mind, and it fell through.
Another one at the corner of Hollywoodand Vine was supposed to happen.

(01:29:11):
That didn't go through. Dollywood wassupposed to happen. All these investors were
like bugging out and uh and youknow, so now you're gonna pay two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars to getyour name on a wall. You know,
it's like, oh, screw you. You know, Debbie Reynolds's mortgage
or house to buy this stuff andyou're gonna get your little name on the
wall and feel good about that?Eat me well off, I'm sorry.

(01:29:40):
How do you really feel about it? Though? I just I think I'm
just I really do. I thinkI'm just in that. I find that
to be really shitty. So umyeah, so yeah, but again,
better late than never at least existsFinally, Hollywood finally has like a big
budget, fully funded history museum dedicatedto the film industry. Yeah, so

(01:30:02):
hopefully it'll only get better and growthgo from here. Yeah. Bella da
Goosie. I don't know if wementioned this. Bella Gosie passed away from
a heart attack on August sixteenth,nineteen fifty six, and he was seventy
three years old. And then hehijacked his hearse from beyond the grave.
Oh you know what, I metthe woman who had the first line in

(01:30:23):
Dracula. She's she's in the carriagein Dracula and she plays these a little
girl with glasses on. I thinkshe has the first line in the movie
when the guy's on his way tothe 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

(01:30:45):
who found it h and she wasdoing she she died just a couple of
years ago. She was like onehundred and four, but but she was
doing a thing at the Hollywood HistoryMuseum one night. So I went up
there and got to take a picturewith her. That was really cool.
I met a woman who was inDracula thirty one, was really really neat,
and I got another story. Isaw Bram's Stoker's skull. What Bram

(01:31:11):
Stoker, who wrote Dracula, wascremated and in London, and he's a
Golders Green crematorium and he's in alocked area. So this is back in
the nineties, early nineties, beforethere was the internet. So find a
grave. None of that ship wasaround and I was doing some research.
So I went to Golders Green andI was peaking. Actually in this locked

(01:31:34):
area. Anna Pavlola, the Ballerinasin their Sigmund Freud is in there.
Conrad Bite, the actor, hehadn't been moved there yet, but he
was in there, and he ultimatelywas in there. But anyway, I
talked to a guy who worked thereand he goes, i'll show you.
So we came on and he unlockedthe door and we go up this weird
staircase and on the staircase is thislittle box. This is Bram Stoker on

(01:31:57):
it and I got to peek inand he lift up and this when they
didn't pulverize, they cremated, butthey didn't pulverize yet so their bones and
bits of skull in there that Isaw, So I saw bram Stoker's skull
in real life. And then theylet 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.

(01:32:17):
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 andPeter 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

(01:32:39):
about Lon Cheney Jr. No,we can skip that actually and yeah,
well, I mean, well justas a as a mention, you know.
And then not to be dismissive becauseFanom of the Opera is a great
movie. It's a silent movie aboutopera, which is interesting to mode.

(01:33:02):
I'm just saying. I'm not sayingit it's lacking anything. I'm just saying
it was a silent movie. Whogreenlit 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 NotesAre Dawn before Uh played, played the
Phantom and it was really it wasreally interesting and really very interesting. Actually,

(01:33:26):
what was important to me to mentionwas that on a sound stage at
Universal Studios for decades was the originalwall 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, andit was covered, you know, obviously
while they were filming other things,but it was there and if he went

(01:33:47):
to the tour sometimes if they weren'tfilming in that particular sound stage Stage twenty
eight, it was also the stagewhere a film bride at Frankenstein and Frankenstein
and Uh. And also it shouldbe noted that the same guy that did
the props for Frankenstein was the guythat helped on Young Frankenstein and the Munsters,
Uh, because that we're that Universal, that that was the Universal had

(01:34:10):
the rights to the Munsters because itwas Dracula and Frankenstein, etc. But
anyway, Stage twenty eight had theoriginal wall from the Paris Opera House with
the booth that the phantom sat inand 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 kindof kind of there you are,

(01:34:33):
there you are. That's Hollywood.So um, you know what I did
want to mention. I know we'reclose to wrapping this up, but we
were talking about Launchiny and lun Cheney'sjunior, of course, was the Wolfman
in Universal and all the sequels,the original Wolfman in forty one and in
the sequels. Um. I thoughtit was interesting, you know, he

(01:34:53):
could obviously in the shadow of hisfather, 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 notknow anything really about lon Chiny junior,
but apparently his mother attempted suicide inLa in nineteen thirteen. She entered the

(01:35:16):
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 lunCheney Junior's life, and he apparently was

(01:35:36):
led to believe that she was deadand did not know that she was still
alive until after his father died innineteen thirty. Wow, that's something.
There's some drama. So she went, she committed suicide in the theater.
She tried, she tempted, butdidn't succeed. And then I don't know
what. I don't know if shewas committed after that or what happened.

(01:35:59):
But he was apparently estranged from herfrom then on and was led to believe
that she was dead and didn't knowit until he until his father died.
She was interesting, YEP. Iknew 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 hiswas his name so and then he became

(01:36:21):
the Wolfman and H yeah, andthen then was that weird? I just
read it and I just saw somethinglike they're the only father's son. US
postage stamp people. They both whenthey did the Universal Monsters, both Lon
Cheney Junior and Lon Cheney ended upon the stamps. The US postal stamps

(01:36:42):
different ones. So I think it'sthe only time that's happened. But the
other thing about Lon Chaney Senior isa defended He made like almost one hundred
and sixty films, and of thoseone hundred and sixty films, over one
hundred of them are lost, youknow, I mean just never found.
They're just missing. Something like likethere's something like ninety plus percent of films

(01:37:05):
from the Silent era are gone forever. Yeah, so only fifty of his
films out of almost one hundred andsixty are here, you know, still
survive. It's that's that's really interesting. Again, it says a lot about
well, you know, it wasa disposable time. Nobody knew was going
to have the longevity. That's alsothat there just wasn't a way. There

(01:37:26):
wasn't a good way to store itbecause film itself is extremely brittle and hard
to store a long term, andit's extremely flammable, and a lot of
these old films were lost to firesand also they just lost because the film
fell apart, and to your point, because they were disposable, and you
know, theater houses just threw themaway when they were done running them.

(01:37:47):
Did we ever talk about the SilentMovie 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 probablyit's for a different time. But
the the irony of that being thatthe mother, the husband and wife that
created at the Silent Movie Theater,the only American movie theater devoted just to

(01:38:11):
silent movies of around Fairfax, youknow, places where Charlie Chapman would slip
in or Clara bow would slip induring a screening to see their own movies
for the hell of it, youknow. And the man and the woman
who created this place, he diedfrom cancer from the chemicals of preserving the
films, you know. And andalso but I mean the story about the
guy who inherited it getting murdered inthe you know, we should talk about

(01:38:32):
this sometimes it's so much to takeon. But his name was Lawrence Austin,
and he was murdered in at thebox office of this this movie theater.
But he was a film historian,and they saved, like they have
a lot of prints of movies thatwere long gone, thought to be gone.
So there is a there's a realunderground um sort of industry and that

(01:38:58):
kind of thing. A lot ofcollectors have these things, and you know,
you don't know about it, andthat's really interesting because why would you
want to keep something like that toyourself? But so cool that the whole
reason you have a movie is towatch 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, becauseyou know, the Library of Congress

(01:39:19):
and these other film preservation organizations,what will happen is they will sometimes they'll
find these old films and pieces they'llturn up, you know, a new
a few seconds of footage will showup in an old trailer that was in
the you know, the attic ofa 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'veonly had you know, ten minutes of

(01:39:43):
it in the past. And they'llfind a way to kind of stitch different
pieces together, or sometimes because ofthe way censorship work back in the early
days of film, different cities wouldhave 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 theymay not even realize or considered lost films

(01:40:08):
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, Ivoryand 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. Youknow, it's like, okay, I

(01:40:30):
have the car. Now what I'mjust sitting in my house and not telling
anybody you have it. It's likethe whole point of having that something that
interesting is that you want to showpeople. So it's it's it's also very
interesting. But Slan Cheney, interestinglyenough, what he was the is Paul
Bearers. That was an interesting listof people. Did you see that.

(01:40:50):
It's like Paul Burne, Paul burnwho was murdered. You know, there's
another Manson connection that Jean Harlowe murderedin the house that are suicide officially whatever.
Yeah, Jacbring ended up buying thehouse. LB Mayor, Louis Mayer,
Lionel Barrymore, Todd Browning, andRamon Navarro. We're all Paul bearers

(01:41:11):
at launch his funeral. Yeah,and he's buried in an unmarked grave and
uh at Enforced Line Glendale, inthe same mausoleum as James Whale. Na
Navarro is another one. We shoulddo 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 moresilent movies. I can't more silent movies.

(01:41:38):
I can't do the research. Ohmy god. Oh it's hard.
It's hard. It's hard to sitthrough those. I didn't mind. We'll
see fanom of the Opera. Therewas like fifty five minutes. It's like,
yeah, sign me up, I'mgood, that's all right. But
also, I love I love umthe comedies. You know, it's like
chaplain there there because there's so thephysical comedy is so entertaining you don't even

(01:41:59):
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 theydid, Yeah, jumping off trains and
things. Yeah, yeah, whynot speaking of film safety. Yeah yeah,

(01:42:20):
right, all right, good wayto end this thing. Actually we
brought it all the way around tofull circle, full circle unfortunately. Um,
all right, well thanks to everybody. Uh, it's the end of
our thirtieth episode. So we wentwith the nineteen thirties with the Universal monsters,
and yeah, it was it wasa lot of it was a lot

(01:42:42):
of a lot of information. Butthank you. Yeah, thanks for watching.
I'm glad that you and uh liketo spend the time with us,
and we enjoyed doing this, sothank you very much. Yeah, and
check out our patreon We're Dearly Departedpod over on Patreon, And um we
uh five dollars subscribers get it asked, um, these are these episodes a
few days in advance, and thetwo dollars subscribers, uh and five dollars

(01:43:06):
whoever, whoever subscribes, you alsoget access to and we do extra like
what we call mini episodes every everytime we put out one of these so
yeah, and they end up beinglike hour long episodes too. It's pretty
long, yeah, so uh,and that's where we talk about kind of
more recent occurrences, deaths, youknow, recent death stuff and and personal

(01:43:29):
stuff. So yeah, check itout. And thank you all for you're
amazing and belated Happy Halloween, andh have a good November. Blah blah
blah blah. This has been anepisode of the Dearly Departed podcast. Dig

(01:43:50):
up more episodes at Dearly Departed poddot com and on iTunes and Google Play.
See you next time. I'm