April 2- “Previews”- and Props to a Horror Great

Here’s your first warning- be watching during “Son of Dracula” this Saturday for what will hopefully become an occasional feature of our show- a segment called “Svengoolie’s Shriek Previews”- where we’ll be giving you a quick look at an upcoming horror movie that’ll be hitting the big screen! I’ll remind you again later in the week- plus- next week, our webisodes will also be tied in to the movie that we’re profiling…
In my various ramblings yesterday in this space, I was remiss in not mentioning one of the early horror greats whose birthday was celebrated on that day. No fooling- April 1st was the anniversary of the birth of the great Lon Chaney Senior.
Father of the man who will always be most closely identified with the Wolf Man, Lon Sr. was a great sensation in the silent movie era- and probably the biggest name in horror actors during that time frame.
Chaney was well known for his incredible make-up work- he’d design and create his own make-up for the many characters he would portray- and some of the make-up device were actually pretty painful! I recall reading how he used spring clips inside his nostrils to get the bizarre look of his “Phantom of the Opera!” The scene in which he is unmasked in that film supposedly caused pandemonium when the film first ran- with audience members fainting at the sight of the horrific face of the Phantom! He suffered from many other of his make-up creations-leg cramps from his construct that made him appear as a legless crippled man, and even the covering of one eye for his “Hunchback of Notre Dame” for the long periods of time during filming caused problems with his vision. Talk about suffering for your craft! His knowledge of make-up was so well respected that he even provided the Encyclopedia Britannica with the entry for “make-up” in one of its editions.
Chaney had planned to move his chameleon-like talents into the realm of sound pictures- in the remake of his silent classic “the Unholy Three” into a talking picture- he was to provide both the characterizations and the voices of five different characters! He was indeed the original choice to play the vampire count in 1931’s “Dracula”-but passed away, paving the way for Bela Lugosi’s chance at horror stardom.
“The Man of a Thousand Faces” other great “creation”- his son
Creighton, whom we know as Lon Chaney Jr. Though Lon Jr. did indeed learn about make-up from his father, by the time he was doing horror films, the make-up work was provided for, with some of the great old masters like Jack Pierce taking care of the make-up jobs. From the stories of how Lon Jr. disliked some of the lengthy and uncomfortable designs, we get the feeling that he wasn’t as willing to endure the painful make-ups that his daddy did.
So- a late happy birthday to the TRUE grand-daddy of movie horror-who was probably the most famous man-that nobody was sure of what he actually looked like!