October is Book Month on Frankensteinia

The Monster puzzles over a book of fairy tales in Son of Frankenstein (1939).

Things are always busy around here at Halloweentime and this year is shaping up to be, well, insane. October, of course, is Countdown to Halloween month, the internet’s annual trick or treat marathon, instigated by John Rozum. If you click the pumpkin on my sidebar you’ll be taken to a list of over 100 participating blogs that will offer up a wealth of ghosties and ghoulies, and celebrate the frights and fun of Halloween.

Here on Frankensteinia, starting tomorrow and straight on to Halloween day, all of my posts will be devoted to Frankenstein-related books. I’ll be reviewing books new and old about Frankenstein and Mary Shelley, and looking at books that are sequels to or inspired by Frankenstein. I’ll also be featuring notable Frankenstein book covers and unusual Frankenstein book designs. The illustration above shows just some of the books on tap.

Let’s get literate. Join me, won’t you, for Book Month on Frankensteinia!

Young Mary Shelley, by Esao Andrews

The introduction to Esao Andrews’ current exhibition at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York states that the artist’s “distinctly figurative oil paintings on wood panel feature dark, surreal characters set within haunted atmospheres, blending erotic and often frightening imagery to form a ghost-like underworld.”

Andrews’ atmospheric portrait captures the proud spirit and inner strength of a Young Mary Shelley, as she might have appeared around the time she wrote Frankenstein. Posing against a heavily textured background of foreboding clouds, the morbid themes of her novel and the tragedies that hounded her life are called up by a dark, batwing shawl out of which peer an owl, a death’s head, snake, feather and eye motifs. Her dress seems to deteriorate into diaphanous lace, as if woven from cobwebs and blood.

Explore Esao Andrews’ remarkable art on his excellent website.

Art from Andrews’ exhibition, Solid Void, which runs until October 9, 2010, is on view on the Jonathan Levine Gallery website.

The Australian Frankenstein

It’s Bride of Frankenstein Ballyhoo halfway ‘round the world as The Monster and his Mate put in a personal appearance at the Regent Theater in Sydney, Australia, on July 22, 1935.

The Monster is suggested by an unidentified actor in the requisite dark suit, with a tight skullcap revealing a high forehead and face streaked with greasepaint to grim effect. An approximate Monster, if you will, but at least they got the boots right. The Monster’s mate is a lovely gowned bride, sans special makeup. Her stiff hand replicates a pose by Valerie Hobson on the film's poster.

Another photo shows another Sydney theater, the Plaza’s box-office, wrapped in a large painted Frankenstein head. The Bride appears on the marquee and a paper skeleton hangs in the doorway.

These photos, by Sam Hood and his assistant, Jack Lazern, are part of a wonderful set archived on the State Library of New South Wales website. The Monster and Bride performers are seen posing outside the theater and in a store, the Bride apparently shopping for a new hat. Other photos show the long queue that stretched “up George Street and around into Wilmott Street”. Note patrons wearing heavy coats, July being the dead of winter in Australia.

Inaugurated in 1928, the palatial Regent Theater was a Sydney landmark for over 60 years. Boasting an elegant façade, a swooping marquee and a high lobby with a crystal waterfall chandelier, the 2200-seat auditorium hosted films, concerts and gala premieres. It was adapted for Cinerama in 1953. The ignominious end came in 1990. A victim of its prime location, the theater was purposely shuttered, abandoned and — despite being submitted as a heritage site — razed by developers to massive public outcry. The bitter loss was compounded when the property market promptly crashed and the downtown site lay undeveloped for 16 years, an eyesore until 2006.

The State Library of New South Wales archive also carries photographs of a large banner promotion — "Coming Soon" — for Son of Frankenstein, outside the Amusu Theater (identified in a caption as the Balmain), dated June 1939. The other film advertised is She Married an Artist, a 1937 romantic comedy starring John Boles, the stalwart Victor Moritz of Frankenstein (1931), and Frances Drake, of Mad Love (1935) and The Invisible Ray (1936).

For more great pictures of the Australian Frankenstein, click through to the State Library of New South Wales Search Page and enter “Frankenstein” in the search field.

The State Library of New South Wales site is a wonderful resource, and a major time sink! Clicking around, I found a snapshot of theater advertising Dracula in 1929, and the Three Stooges on a late career tour. Go explore!

Theatre information found on the absolutely indispensable Cinema Treasures website.

The Art of Frankenstein : Angela Rossi

Angela Rossi of Los Angeles describes her art as “using recycled, abused, broken and forgotten items and turning them into fabulous new, one-of-a-kind creations”. Her altered antique plates combine classic “orphaned and unloved” display and cabinet plates with outsider iconography. Bearded ladies, zombies, Che Guevara, Sid Vicious, Star Wars characters and other pop culture icons appear, at once jarringly and delightfully, surrounded by floral motifs and delicate scrolls.

The Bride of Frankenstein is centered on a lovely decorative plate with a bright flower design and a blue rim. Her beau, the Frankenstein Monster, appears on a large Sevres serving plate featuring a pink rose motif, with yellow and green background wash.

These one-of-a-kind items are meant primarily for display but, should you wish to eat off them, the artist can, on request, make them dishwater safe.

The Bride is sold, but The Monster’s Frankenstein Portrait Plate is still available from Angela’s online Etsy store.

Angela’s Beat Up Creations Etsy Store.

See more of Angela’s altered plates and disturbingly whimsical sculptures on her website and blog.

The Covers of Frankenstein : Mon Film No. 609, April 1958

Frankenstein Has Escaped was the French title for Hammer Films’ The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). The cover shown here is a composite using a posed studio photo of Christopher Lee’s Monster overlapped with a film still cutout of Hazel Court snooping around the lab.

Published weekly, the French Mon Film (My Film) was a thin, cheaply produced magazine containing short novelizations of mostly current movies illustrated with stills, which were sometimes heavily retouched because of poor printing and bad newsprint stock. Introduced in the Thirties, the magazine had an incredibly long run, using the exact same cover design — a black and white photograph with monochrome overlay of sepia, blue or green, and the title in a filmstrip — for over 650 issues, well into the Fifties, when a different layout and color covers were introduced, though briefly, before the venerable title finally folded.

Mon Film generally steered clear of horror films — Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) was a rare exception — with this cover feature indicative of The Curse of Frankenstein’s phenomenal international success.

This issue, number 609 for the week of April 23, 1958, also devoted a few of its slim fourteen pages to Manuela, released in the US as Stowaway Girl, a 1958 film starring Trevor Howard and Elsa Martinelli.

The Posters of Frankenstein : Spanish Film Festival

Artist Daniel Fumero gives Boris Karloff the Warhol treatment on this poster for the weeklong Fantastic Film Festival, unfolding as we speak in the beachfront town of Estepona on Spain’s Costa del Sol.

Frankenstein is the go-to guy this year — the festival’s 11^th — with gala screenings of Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Young Frankenstein (1974), an attendant exhibit of Frankenstein memorabilia, and a commemorative book, La Marca de Frankenstein, featuring original takes and reflections on the Frankenstein myth by a number of Spanish writers and artists.

Also honored this year is the late, great Paul Naschy, who was one of the original instigators of the Costa del Sol Festival. His passionate support and contributions are immortalized through the Festival’s Waldemar Daninsky award, given to artists whose work “supports the fantastic”. Winner this year is singing star Alaska, of the band Fangoria.

Costa del Sol/Estepona Festival website (in Spanish).

The Art of Frankenstein : Arthur Adams

A bold and beautiful Bride, by comic book artist Arthur Adams.

Adams’ meticulous and elegant art has appeared in a number of X-Men comics, Alan Moore’s Tom Strong and an Eisner Award-winning Gumby one-shot. His art has graced the covers of such titles as Superman, Batman and Vampirella. His love for monster movies was expressed in a gorgeous graphic novel adaptation of Universal’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and a series of memorable Godzilla comics from Dark Horse.

The superb Bride sketch is from the collection of Emilio Lobato.

Arthur Adams’ Wiki page, and an interview from Comic Book Artist.

Frankenstein in the Park

Colin Clive and Mae Clarke take five at a rare location outing for Frankenstein, shot between August 21 and October 3, 1931. Note the microphone hanging overhead.

Film historian Jack Theakson identifies the mike as a cylindrical Western Electric model, either the 47-A or the 53-A. The sturdy device swiveled at top and bottom, allowing the operator to aim the mike as needed. Introduced in 1928, the model proved enormously popular for broadcast and film applications and remained in use until the mid-thirties when condenser mikes were phased out in favor of the newer ribbon-type microphones.

The location here is the original Busch Gardens, the direct ancestor of today’s amusement park empire. Once the winter home of brewing magnate Adolphus Busch, the 32-acre spread was opened to the public in 1913 and became a prime tourist attraction, even getting its own Pacific Electric Railway stop. The park offered miles of scenic pathways, botanical wonders, fountains, manmade waterfalls, rare birds and a collection of vividly colored sculptures of fairy tale characters. Events included dog shows, boat rides, alfresco entertainment, and your admission ticket sometimes entitled you to free beer.

The park’s studio proximity translated into its frequent use for outdoor scenes, notably in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Gone With The Wind (1939). The Frankenstein crew stopped over on a beautiful summer day to shoot the brief, bucolic scene where the ever-patient Elisabeth tends to her convalescing fiancé, Borzois lounging at their feet. By the way, Borzois were also featured in the sequel, Bride of Frankenstein (1935), seen pulling maid Una O’Connor around in the opening scene at Villa Diodati.

Interestingly, another famous horror film, Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde had begun shooting on the same day as Frankenstein, August 21. The connection carried through to Busch Gardens, where Fredric March’s Jekyll would sit on a bench and, upon observing a cat attacking a nightingale, spontaneously transform into the monster Hyde.

The original Busch Gardens closed in 1937 and the city began cutting up the park for housing. A few artifacts such as terracing effects, treetrunk-shaped cement troughs, and bits of stone walls and fencing remain, scattered among the private homes in the area.

A technical description of the Western Electric 47-A Amplifier.

Remembering Busch Gardens, from Pasadena Living Magazine.

Pasadena Gardens, an illustrated history of the original Busch Gardens.

With thanks to Sally Stark for the wonderful photograph, and Jack Theakson for the technical information.

The Bride's Bare Essentials

British photographer Peter M. Ferguson and model Holly, aka Ivory Flame, have combined their talents for an elegant Bride of Frankenstein-inspired photoshoot.

This most minimalist of interpretations required nothing but a graceful model posed against a stark white background, a touch of bluish makeup, and a couple of yards of very loose bandages. Even the classic, towering Bride hairdo is done away with. The model, serendipitously, is a redhead, as was Elsa Lanchester, and she wears her short hair swept back, with the lightning highlights barely suggested. It all works beautifully.

Ms. Holly has posted a handful of shots on her blog, Ivory Underworld, and there are a couple more to see on Ferguson’s Pure Storm page. There’s also a photo of the Bride’s makeup being applied on makeup artist Michelle Court’s site.

Photos are mildly NSFW.

Related:
The Bride Unwrapped