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| New Movie Magazine, November, 1930 |
This post is part of the Chaney Blogathon hosted by Fritzi at Movies Silently and Jo at The Last Drive In. Be sure to click on most images to see larger versions.
Actor Lon Chaney and his son Creighton, who reluctantly went by the name Lon Chaney, Jr, were both versatile actors who became closely identified with the horror genre.
In the first of four posts for the Chaney blogathon, I shared some newspaper and magazine items that
cast light on Lon Chaney's early life and career. In this, my second post, I will cover his later career and his untimely death. In my third post, I will display some stories that show
Creighton's reluctance to become Lon Chaney, Jr. In my fourth post, I will write about
Creighton's later career.
Leonidas Chaney was born in 1883 in Colorado Springs. His parents were deaf and this must have helped him become good at pantomime. He went into show business in 1902. In 1905 he married singer Cleva Creighton and they had a child, Creighton Chaney, the next year.
In April, 1913, Chaney was managing the Kolb and Dill musical comedy company at the Majestic Theater in Los Angeles. Cleva Chaney came to the theater and took chloride of mercury in an attempt to kill herself. She may have done it on stage during a performance. She failed in her suicide attempt, but damaged her vocal chords, ending her singing career. There was a scandal, a divorce and a custody battle and Lon Chaney was forced to look for other work. He found it at the Universal Film Manufacturing Company.
Chaney stayed at the Universal for several years, then became a free-lancer. His big break into stardom came with
The Miracle Man in 1919. Chaney returned to Universal for two of the most important movies of his career.
Universal began production of
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, based on Victor Hugo's novel
Notre Dame de Paris, in 1922.
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| Film Daily, August 12, 1922 |
I have never seen another source say that Chaney wanted to organize "a company of his own to film (
The Hunchback) abroad."
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| Universal Weekly, August 26, 1922 |
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| Universal Weekly, September 22, 1922 |
Lon Chaney announced that Quasimodo, the hunchback, would be his last "cripple role." This turned out to be untrue.
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| The Photodramatist, January, 1923 |
The Photodramatist for January, 1923 reports that "Lon Chaney will be the star." I get the feeling the initial capital should be "M" and not "S."
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| The Photodramatist, February, 1923 |
The Photodramatist for January, 1923 reports that production of
The Hunchback may "take from eight months to a year." It also mentions
The Merry-Go-Round, which had gotten Erich von Stroheim fired from the studio.
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| Motion Picture Magazine, May, 1923 |
In May, 1923,
Motion Picture Magazine carried an atmospheric photo of Chaney as Quasimodo. "Lon Chaney is At It Again."
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| Motion Picture Magazine, May, 1923 |
In Decmber, 1923,
Motion Picture Magazine carried a photo of Chaney on the pillory with Nigel de Brulier as Frollo and Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda.
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| Motion Picture Magazine, May, 1923 |
In the same issue, Adele Whitely Fletcher wrote about the movie in her column "Across the Silversheet." She was impressed by the huge sets, but felt the movie lacked in humanity. She said that Chaney "has overstepped the bounds of good taste."
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| Exhibitors' Herald, December 29, 1923 |
Holiday greetings from Lon Chaney.
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| Film Daily, February 14, 1923 |
How did
The Hunchback of Notre Dame do in the theaters? "Ask the Man Who Played It!" says this Universal ad.
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| Pictures and the Picturegoer, November, 1924 |
"the man with India-rubber legs."
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| Motion Picture Magazine, August, 1924 |
"Lon Chaney has been the subject of much controversy." It mentions that he is currently appearing in
He Who Gets Slapped, "a screen version of that whimsical play." Whimsical?
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| Film Daily, November 3, 1924 |
Swedish director Victor Sjöström (usually spelled as Seastrom when he worked in the United States) directed Chaney in
He Who Gets Slapped for Metro-Goldwyn.
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| Stars of the Photoplay, 1924 |
The 1924 book
Stars of the Photoplay calls Lon Chaney "the man of a thousand faces" and refers to his deaf parents.
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| Film Daily, March 9, 1925 |
"This can't miss." This ad from Film Daily touts
The Phantom of the Opera's Technicolor sequences, and says "Lon is a character with a horrible face, who wears a mask." English was not the first language of many of the people who worked at Universal.
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| Film Daily, March 25, 1925 |
I was surprised to learn that San Francisco's Curran Theater on Geary near Mason hosted the world premier of The Phantom of the Opera. The Curran now hosts mostly musical theater. I saw
Pacific Overtures,
Wicked and many others there.
According to Variety, the premier run of the
Phantom "fails to hold the audience in the serious parts, instead bringing gales of laughter." Does anyone else remember my favorite subtitle? "Darling, it is I, Raoul."
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| Film Daily, September 21, 1925 |
The presentation at New York's Astor Theater included a ballet which led directly the scene in the movie where the ballerinas react in horror to the shadow of the Phantom. This item describes how the ushers "are attired in costumes of the new Phantom red with slippers, stockings, breeches, capes and feathered cap all in the new color."
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| Film Daily, August 20, 1926 |
Lon Chaney had moved on to Metro-Goldwyn (later Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), but Universal was able to recycle his work, such as a 1926 revival, not called a revival, of
Outside the Law from 1920.
Outside the Law was directed by Tod Browning, who directed many of Chaney's most interesting movies.
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| Motion Picture Classic, September, 1926 |
An interesting caricature of Chaney.
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| Film Daily, December 26, 1926 |
One of Chaney's big hits without a lot of makeup was
Tell it To the Marines. "One of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Two Dollar Hits."
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| Photoplay, May, 1928 |
In a rare casual photo, "Lon Chaney shows his Filmo movie camera to Crown Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden and Prince Erick of Denmark." I would like to see his home movies.
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| Universal Weekly, June 23, 1928 |
Universal was still promoting
The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1928.
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| Universal Weekly, October 12, 1929 |
Universal continued to squeeze money out of their association with Chaney by reissuing
The Phantom of the Opera with not only sound but dialogue.
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| New Movie Magazine, July, 1930 |
A nice photo of Lon Chaney from the July, 1930
New Movie.
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| Photoplay, July, 1930 |
Lon Chaney celebrates his birthday with the cast and crew of his first talkie, a remake of
The Unholy Three, on the first day of production.
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| New Movie Magazine, August, 1930 |
Lon Chaney made his talkie debut in
The Unholy Three. "The Man of a Thousand Faces returns with four voices."
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| New Movie Magazine, September, 1930 |
"Lon Chaney speaks! Now Charlie Chaplin alone stands voiceless outside the gate ... Chaney is matchless." I like the photo.
Lon Chaney died on 26-August-1930. Due to publication dates which don't match the dates on the magazines, tributes to him tend to be dated considerably later.
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| Photoplay, October, 1930 |
Photoplay remembered Lon Chaney with a poem.
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| New Movie Magazine, November, 1930 |
The title of this post, "The Face of a Thousand Memories", comes from a tribute article in the November, 1930
New Movie. This illustration shows a range of Chaney's characters flying out of his famous makeup case. "Chaney was the film's greatest mater of make-up."
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| Photoplay, December, 1930 |
Photoplay also featured Chaney's makeup box, along with his dog Sandy. This breaks my heart.
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| Universal Weekly, November 19, 1932 |
Universal continued to make money from its legacy with Chaney well into the 1930s.
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| Motion Picture Magazine, January, 1927 |
I like to end with something light. "Movie Mother Goose" has Chaney as a spider menacing Little Miss Muffet. This may have been inspired by the popular joke "Don't step on that spider -- It may be Lon Chaney."
This post was part of the Chaney Blogathon, hosted by Fritzi at Movies Silently and Jo at The Last Drive In.
Thank you to both of them for all the hard work. Thank you to everyone
who visited and I encourage you to read as many posts as you can.
My posts for the blogathon:
Chaney Outchaneys Chaney
The Face of a Thousand Memories -- Lon Chaney
But Not as Lon Chaney, Jr
Listen to That Box Office Howl! - Lon Chaney, Jr