Repost The Villa Diodati

In 1816, Lord Byron rented the manor known as the Villa Diodati, near Cologny, on Lake Geneva. The house already had solid literary credentials. Its original owner, Giovanni Diodati, had translated the Bible into Italian and French, and the poet John Milton (whom Mary would quote in Frankenstein) is said to have vacationed there in 1639.

Byron was joined that fateful summer by his personal physician, John Polidori, and his guests: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (soon to be Shelley), and Claire Claremont. It was here that ghosts stories were read aloud, and at the nearby guesthouse where she resided that Mary conceived of Frankenstein and first wrote these words that, slightly edited, would open chapter five of the book: “It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld my man completed…”

The villa still stands. It is the square building, right of center, in the GoogleEarth image below.

http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Places/diodati.html

http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/misc/shelleysites/tours/tour1816.html

RepostMary Shelley, a Tell-Tale Moon, and the creation of Frankenstein

An article in the November 2011 issue of Sky & Telescope reveals the precise moment, down to date and hour, when Mary Shelley conceived of Frankenstein.

In her introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel, Mary described a dream in which she saw “the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together”, and how “the hideous phantasm of a man” came alive “on the working of some powerful engine”. Brought awake by the startling vision, Mary wrote, “I see them still; the very room, the dark parquet, the closed shutters, with the moonlight struggling through, and the sense I had that the glassy lake and white high Alps were beyond.

Now, the moment of revelation has been pinpointed.

Dr. Don Olson, an astrophysicist at Texas State University-San Marcos, practices the unconventional science of “forensic astronomy”. Working with fellow scientists and students, matching the tantalizing clues found in text, archives and maps with the irrefutable logic of star charts, tide schedules and field expeditions, Dr. Olson has solved historical puzzles, revealing new information, new layers of meaning and a new appreciation for famous moments in history and art.

Among other discoveries, Olson and his team have re-dated Caesar’s invasion of Britain in 55 BC; explained how a rare low tide doomed the Marines at Tarawa Beach in 1943, and how a rising moon led to the tragic sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945. In significant contributions to art history, Olson has pinpointed the exact locations and the precise moments captured in paintings by such artists as William Blake, Vincent Van Gogh and Edvard Munch, notably identifying the tortured sky in Munch’s The Scream as the planet-spanning effect of the Krakatoa eruption. Olson can even tell the exact instant when Ansel Adams clicked the shutter on his most famous photograph.

In literature, Olson has studied Chaucer, Whitman and identified Hamlet’s star as a supernova. Now, turning to Mary Shelley, Olsen and his collaborators have settled the issue of when, exactly, Frankenstein was conceived.

The clue lay in Mary’s description of moonlight “struggling” through closed shutters at Maison Chapuis, the small house she and her lover Percy occupied near Byron's Villa Diodati. Based on lunar cycles and confirming results on a field trip to Cologny, Switzerland, Olson was able to determine which of two recorded dates for Mary’s inspiration was the correct one. On June 22, 1816, a waning moon rode too low to illuminate Mary’s second-story bedroom, but the other documented date, June 16, proved just right as a gibbous moon rose high and bright enough to be noticed by the awakened Mary. Working out the angles, Olson is also able to attest that the moon shone into Mary’s bedroom at 2 AM.

As morning came, Mary writes, “I announced that I had thought of a story. I began that day with the words, ‘It was on a dreary night of November,’ making only a transcript of the grim terrors of my waking dream.”

Thus confirmed, Mary Shelley began Frankenstein on June 16, 1816. The moon tells us so.

Sky & Telescope magazine, and a digital preview of the November 2011 issue.

Don Olson’s website at Texas State University.

The Fiancée de Frankenstein

French actress Audrey Tautou, perhaps best know as the shy and gently eccentric heroine of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s AMÉLIE (2001) posed for the May 2006 issue of Elle magazine as a goth Bride of Frankenstein in a red satin cocktail dress.

The same month, a New York Times article entitled “Sans Makeup, S’il Vous Plaît” discussed the French “Le No Makeup Look”, directly referencing the Elle issue as the cover featured Tautou, “the anti-star”, sporting what they called the “Le Bare Face Look” in direct contrast with her powdered face and dark-eyed, frizzy-haired appearance within, suggesting, perhaps, that overdone makeup is only suitable for Frankenstein’s Fiancée.

 If you ask me, both versions of Ms Tatou look great.

Red Frankenstein by Darryl Cunningham

The movies’ flattop and bolts Frankenstein Monster rocks his Che Guevara t-shirt and pulp culture icons of the twentieth century are monster-mashed into this wonderful sketch by cartoonist Darryl Cunningham — previously profiled here as the author of Uncle Bob and the Frankenstein Monster.

Darryl posted this recently, with a shout-out to Frankensteinia, on his Facebook page. I just had to share it on the blog. 

Best of the Holidays, everyone, and here’s to a great New Year!

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series The Bride is Released!

Back in 2011, here on this blog, we determined that Universal’s original FRANKENSTEIN (1931) had actually been released on November 20, a day earlier than most sources claim. Dial up Google, check the IMDB, they still say November 21, but we have proven otherwise. Now, supported by the ads posted here, we can demonstrate that BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) actually started playing three days earlier than the “official” release date generally quoted in books and online.

The actual “release” date is, by definition, the day when a film begins playing on a regular schedule. There may be prior screenings, as “Premieres” or “Preview Showings”, but these do not count towards the actual release date. The classic, Hollywood-style Premiere is a stand-alone promotional event with fanfare, klieg lights and attending movie stars. The “Preview Showing” describes when a new film is sneaked into a movie house for the purpose of gauging the moviegoers’ reactions. For instance, the original FRANKENSTEIN (1931) was shown in a Santa Barbara theatre about three weeks prior to its actual release. This particular screening, by the way, created the stubborn myth that Boris Karloff was not invited to the film’s premiere. Nice story, but false. Point is, there was no official premiere for FRANKENSTEIN.

If you Google “Bride Frankenstein Release”, your first hit, in large characters, claims “April 22, 1935”. Go to the IMDB, and the USA release date is stated, again, as April 22. A possible explanation is that the date was quoted by Universal as the planned release date, even though films rarely if ever launched on Mondays.

Did some digging and, to settle the issue, here are two contemporary ads from the pages of the Chicago Tribune. At top, dated April 18, 1935, an ad for the RKO Palace announces, “Tomorrow.. The World Premiere!” And what a show it was, with The Bride supported by a “Huge Stage Review”. The next day ad, also shown here, from Good Friday, April 19, proclaims, “The World Premiere… Today — 10:45 A.M.” featuring “Twice the Terrific Thrills of Frankenstein”.

And there you have it. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN was actually released on April 19, 1935. Not April 22.

It must be noted that Stephen Jacobs, in his superb biography Boris Karloff, More Than a Monster, points to San Francisco as the premiere city, also on April 19. Who knows, maybe Chicago’s RKO Palace scored the “World’s Premiere” claim by virtue of its early first show, 10:45 AM, while it was still 7:45 on the West Coast!

And so we wrap up our BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN 80^th Anniversary series. No worries, as we return to our regular posting, I’ve lots of BRIDE material on hand and ongoing research to be posted in the weeks and months to come.

I hope you enjoyed our visit with the Bride of Frankenstein! 

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series No Greater Thrill!

We are used to seeing the iconic Frankenstein Monster on TV— with inevitable flattop, bolts and green face — flogging everything from soft drinks and beer to pain meds and cellphone services. Here’s an ad from way back in 1935 — the earliest I’ve seen — of The Monster as pitchman… for refrigerators!

“No Greater Thrill…” the ad goes, “Than the Bride of Frankenstein… and our 1935 Kelvinator!” 

Printed large, across three columns in New Orleans newspapers, the ad is a curious example of cross-promotion stunts often suggested to exhibitors by Universal. For the original FRANKENSTEIN of 1931, theatre owners were urged to trade ads with a local bookstore stockpiling the new Photoplay edition of Mary Shelley’s novel. Here, for BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, the New Orleans’ Orpheum plunked a “thrilling” new Kelvinator fridge in its lobby in exchange for the movie’s poster being displayed at the legendary Godchaux’s Department Store on Canal Street. The offbeat idea was credited to the Orpheum’s manager Victor Meyer and adman Gar Moore.

The Orpheum also fielded The Monster live and in person, working the crowds, and the ambulance-out-front routine complete with nurses on duty. A bandage-wrapped dummy Bride strapped to a gurney was trundled around town, and local newspapers participated in a search for a New Orleans’ own “bride” for The Monster.

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series The Monster Goes Dancing

The Monster crashes the annual May dance sponsored by the Fire Department, one of several “personal appearances” promoting BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, coming to the Astor Theatre in Reading, Pennsylvania.

According to the Motion Picture Herald of June 29, 1935, the “makeup stunt” was cooked up by house manager Dwight Van Meter using the Astor’s doorman as stand-in for The Monster. The transformation — said to have cost all of $2.15 — proved popular. High school seniors arranged a mock wedding — The Monster Demands a Mate! — and the very odd couple was seen driving around town in a bannered car and popping up at local nightclubs. One stop was at the swanky Riverside Club on Friday, May 17, same day the film opened. 

The Monster gag had kicked off a week earlier when the Astor ran the film’s trailer. The live Monster appeared in a green spotlight, chained to a large chair — as Karloff was in the film’s dungeon scene — rising out of the stage floor on the organ’s elevator loft, to weird sound effects. As the trailer played out, the snarling Monster broke his chains and escaped into the wings.  

  

Dubbed “unique bally”, The Monster’s manifestations in and around Reading helped drum up some excellent business at the Astor. By Sunday, the theatre was boasting 18,904 in attendance over two days and the film would be held over for a second week. 

Sources: Motion Picture Herald via the Media History Digital Library, and The Reading Eagle.

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series Jazz Age Monster

Here’s a splendid streamlined cartoon likeness of Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster from the pages of Universal Weekly, the studio’s trade magazine, May 4, 1935. The art deco-style illustration — signed ‘Marshal’ ? — decorated a page boasting the film’s great box office returns and enthusiastic reviews in Variety and Motion Picture Daily.

Among the articles grouped under the heading “BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN: A TREMENDOUS SMASH” were reports from the Tower Theatre in Kansas City of a Sunday’s sellout business with crowds lining up despite a downpour, and the film drawing “unusually heavy child attendance” despite ads warning “not suitable for children”. The Tower’s manager, Barney Joffee, said he did not refuse admission to families on the principle that “parents cannot be prevented from bringing their children”.

Also featured is a column’s worth of praise for eighteen-year-old female lead, Valerie Hobson, essentially billed as a scream queen, before the term existed. Hobson, we are told, “screamed her way to success” and “plays the part of the beauty-in-peril with ear-splitting realism”. True, Hobson had to deal in quick succession with the Frankenstein Monster and WEREWOLF OF LONDON, leading Universal’s promotional department to declare that “… no actress has ever seemed more certain for stardom than this lovely lady of the vociferous tonsils”.

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series The Birthday Bride

All this month — and onwards as we’ll be spilling into November — we have been celebrating the 80th Anniversary of an extraordinary film. Today, we note and celebrate another, related Anniversary: Elsa Lanchester was born October 28, 1902.

The image here was found in the movie fan magazine Picture Play, published out of New York by Street & Smith, for June 25, 1935. I’ve never seen this one before — please tell me if you have. The Bride appears in quiet profile, reflective, looking down, the trademark Nefertiti hair gone vertical. A caption read, “Elsa Lanchester’s amazing make-up for ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ won even the enthusiastic approval of Boris Karloff, who knows the possibilities of grease paint as few stars do.”  

Elsa Lanchester was 33 when she bookended the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN in two different roles, that of Mary Shelley in the film’s opening and, of course, the unforgettable Bride of its climax.

She thrills and charms us to this very day.

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series A Frankenstein "Laff"

Here’s a rarity, a panel cartoon take on BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, from the pages of the industry trade paper Motion Picture Herald of 29 June 1935. 

House cartoonist Milt Rosenfeld shows a couple of Legion of Decency types investigating the new Frankenstein film to see if it’s “another sex picture”. The ladies are then seen to exit in a hurry, having had a shock of another kind.

The Motion Picture Herald first appeared in 1915 out of Chicago as the Exhibitors Herald and evolved under various titles over the silent era through mergers and acquisitions, eventually consolidating under the highly influential publisher/editor-in-chief Martin Quigley in 1930. Published on Fridays, the exhibitor’s publication would run until 1972. Many celebrated writers, film historians and industry pundits would grace the Herald’s pages through the years. The legendary New York Times film critic Vincent Canby got his start there in the 1950’s.  

Milt Rosenfeld produced his innocuous cartoons, never editorializing, under the “Showmen’s Lobby Laffs” banner. Here, from May 1940, is another genre-related cartoon, this one about the “Invisable” Man sequel that starred an unseen Vincent Price. The caption says, “Usher: He wants half his admission back… Says he couldn’t see half the picture”.

 

Source: Motion Picture Herald is digitized online at Archive.org and the Media History Digital Library.  

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series The Ballyhooed Bride

Standing 30 (?) feet tall, eyes fitted with flashing lights, The Monster straddles a busy sidewalk on St Clare Street in Toledo. “Legs formed arch plenty tall enough not to hinder pedestrian traffic…” reported the Motion Picture Herald of August 31, 1935. 

A second photo, different angle, shows the giant figure positioned half a block down from The Tivoli, next door at The Palace. The placement suggests either common ownership or a very friendly arrangement between the two theaters.

With the phenomenal box office of FRANKENSTEIN (1931) in recent memory, and a terrific subject to promote — The Monster Talks!... Who Will Be The Monster’s Mate? — BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN was ripe for hype and flashy ballyhoo. In San Francisco, the Ritz lobby had a mummy-wrapped dummy on a gurney and a mad-lab electric coil shooting foot-long sparks over the box office. Outside, a giant cut-out Frankenstein Monster head glared down at passers-by from atop the marquee. In the days running up to release, THE BRIDE’s trailer was accompanied by an elaborate stunt described in the Universal Weekly showman’s magazine of July 27…

“All house and stage lights out; rattle and drag chains about back stage; girls in wings give several blood-curdling screams; loads of scrap iron dropped from flies onto steel boiler plates back stage; set off charge of flashlight powder and at the same time plug in green spot on 24-Sheet cut-out head of monster on stage. Hold while smoke from flash rises through green light on head then go into trailer leaving green face visible. Also worked as a swell gag before picture itself.”

Likewise, the State Theatre of Harrisonburg, Virginia. Their trailer presentation kicked off with flashing house lights, live screams and clashing cymbals. Then all the lights went out and a giant Monster head with glowing red eyes was pulled across the stage in a deep blue spot. House manager Sam Roth ran a newspaper want ad reading, “BRIDE WANTED — to act as mate for man-made monster. Apply Frankenstein, State Theatre.” The theatre front was papered with a stunning assortment of gorgeous posters and the parked ambulance gag was revived, with banners shouting “Emergency Ambulance — for those who can’t take it while seeing the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.” According to Universal Weekly, Roth’s State campaign “aroused beaucoup excitement in town.”

More great gags, stunts and showmanship coming up as we count down to Halloween and celebrate the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN 80th Anniversary!  

Sources: Cinema Treasures. Motion Picture Herald and Universal Weekly via Lantern/Media History Digital Library.

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series "The Weirdest Honeymoon Ever Conceived!"

No sign of Elsa on this ad… This Bride is Valerie Hobson’s Elizabeth!

When BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN came to Australia in mid-1935, exhibitors turned on the ballyhoo. Theaters were festooned with posters, cutouts and eerie lights. Stand-ins for The Monster and his Bride patrolled lobbies and neighborhood streets, and went shopping for a trousseau. 

This early ad for Sydney's Hoyt's Plaza ran in The Truth on Sunday, July 14, setting the stage for the film’s much anticipated arrival on Friday the 19th. “Public interest in “The Bride of Frankenstein” is already unprecedented. AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT BY BOOKING NOW!”

The effective art is a composite of promotional stills. Note how Hobson’s Elizabeth is lifted from a photo with Karloff’s Monster…

The dress is retouched as a bridal gown and a bridal veil is painted in. The forlorn Frankenstein head looming over Elizabeth was also used as decoration, painted giant-size and wrapping around the box-office over at the palatial 1,650-seat Plaza.

“THE MONSTER DEMANDS A MATE! But what heart, what soul, what flesh so brave would dare be his bride…?”

In an era of adrenalized ad copy, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN inspired writer to new heights of lyricism and hype. The small print copy down the side of this ad reads as follows:

SYDNEY IS THRILLING WITH EXCITEMENT!

First it was a murmur! Now it’s roar — an incessant clamour for information about this strange bride. The public pulse is quickening to the vision thrill of her romance with the monster. What will the bride look like? What manner of woman could be mated with the strangest and most terrifying figure in the whole literature of the screen?

And When You Actually See Her!!

You’ll marvel… You’ll wonder… is she human, monster or devil? But you’ll be entirely enthralled at the weirdest honeymoon ever conceived!

SUCH A WOMAN AS THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN HAS NEVER BEFORE EXISTED IN THE FURTHEST REACHES OF HUMAN IMAGINING. A NEW KIND OF WOMAN… GLAMOROUS… TERRIFYING… EERIE!

Related:
The Australian Frankenstein.

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series The Art of Frankenstein : Nicolas Delort

The Bride of Frankenstein strikes an enigmatic pose, head turned away, her moonlit shroud billowing around her.

Paris-based artist Nicolas Delort’s superb scratchboard rendition places the The Bride front and center in a sweeping gothic scene replete with ominous skies, a distant castle and a dark lake.

The image is currently offered as part of a seven print set featuring all the Classic Universal Monsters. Expect a quick sellout.

The set, in a number of variant styles, goes on sale October 13 from Dark Hall Mansions.

Artist Delort’s website is packed with fabulous, must-see art.    

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series The Bride's Rhymed Review

By the time BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN came around in 1935, not quite four years after the original FRANKENSTEIN, The Monster was already a pop culture icon, recognized worldwide, referenced and often spoofed in musical shorts or animated cartoons. Reflecting this new, comfortable attitude towards the very Monster that had once awed or disturbed critics, many reviews of the new film, almost universally positive, were lighthearted and peppered with jokes. The Monster was a Romeo, the Bride wore an “asparagus-tip hairdo” and a sequel would invariably be “Frankenstein’s Baby”.

One of the most unusual and whimsical reviews appeared 19 July 1935 in The Newcastle Sun of New South Wales, Australia. It was one of a series of “Rhymed Reviews” penned by writer and critic Robin Slessor, whose knack for amusing verse was no doubt triggered by his older brother, Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971), hailed as one of Australia’s greatest poets.

Here, to facilitate reading, is a transcript of this unique, fun, touching, and very special Rhymed Review.

Bride of Frankenstein, by Robin Slessor

A year or two ago, in mortal fear I fear, we gripped the seat

And trembled at the mere approach of Karloff’s heavy feet

The monster made us shudder, as around the countryside

He blundered, wreaking havoc ‘mid the people far and wide.

Though striking far more terror than the worst of all banditti

He tinged our human horror with a modicum of pity,

The sequel to this horror film of man-created life

Shows Frankenstein, assisting in the moulding of a wife —

A mate for his monstrosity — a partner to command,

Who wakes in him a feeling that he cannot understand. 

The film is far more thrilling than the former one, and yet

Despite the man’s repulsiveness, one cannot quite forget

The pathos of the story of this manufactured twosome, —

The tragic side is curiously mingled with the gruesome.

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series The Art of Frankenstein : William Basso

All this month, we’ll be celebrating THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN on its 80^th Anniversary year. Lots of information, great images and fun finds coming up in the days and weeks leading to — and perhaps beyond — Halloween! 

Let’s kick it off in style with a spectacular painting by the brilliant William Basso…  

William Basso’s collage painting of The Bride, like its subject, is a patchwork of elements, slotted and stitched together to unsettling effect.

In the Nineties, Basso worked as an artist with Stan Winston’s special effects studio, contributing to such titles as EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990), TERMINATOR 2 (1991) and INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (1994). Since 2000, Basso has largely concentrated on his own projects, mixed media and sculpture, informed by his abiding passion for splendidly creepy Halloween themes and classic horror.  

Basso’s website is packed with terrific art, a blog and prints to buy, including the Bride painting, Mate for a Monster, and a superb companion piece, Man-Made, seen here below.

William Basso’s website.

An interview with Basso on Strange Kids Club.

The Great Frankenstein/Wolf Man Presidential Debate

With federal elections coming up this month in Canada and the US presidential contest a year away, North Americans are being bombarded with attack ads and portentous messages, political posturing and the inevitable debates. As citizens, we will be called to decide who will lead us but — let us admit — there is no challenge as monumentally important as the horror-battle between the two most terrifying creatures of all times, the Titans of Terror: Frankenstein and the Wolf Man!!! (Hyperbole shamelessly lifted from a 1942 ad for FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN).

Here’s Dan Roebuck as Lon Chaney as Larry Talbot as The Wolf Man going up against Perry Shields as Bela Lugosi as Ygor’s brain in Frankenstein’s Monster, which altogether makes more sense than anything in the current, real-life political discourse.

Roebuck and Shields are professional actors and unreserved Monster Kids, and they give their all in what proves both a Valentine to the Universal Monsters, and a genuine Halloween treat.

Enjoy!

Frankenstein Marionette

Towering 22 inches tall from its big black stomper boots to the top of its flat head, here’s a Frankenstein Monster with strings attached.

This unique creation from Czech Marionettes is entirely hand-made from sculpt to paint to sewn outfit and carefully assembled into a fully functional, high-quality string puppet. The high price — $590USD — reflects the superior craftsmanship of this piece.

Click through to the site for more pics of the Frankenstein marionette, a fascinating history of Czech puppets and tons of beautiful work including a dragon, winged skeletons and a Nosferatu puppet.

With thanks to Jeffrey Eernisse

I am the Frankenstein Monster

Argentine-born, Ohio-based author, illustrator and designer Ralph Cosentino creates dynamic children’s books filled with fun, eye-popping art and engaging read-along stories. Best sellers included a superhero trilogy tracing the origins of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman for young readers.

Now, Cosentino has turned to crowd funding to help launch his own publishing company, with I am the Frankenstein Monster as its first offering. Books about Dracula and The Werewolf are in the pipeline.

Cosentino’s Kickstarter page carries lots of preliminary and finished art from the Frankenstein project, and you can kick in some cash, of course, if you are so inclined.  

I am the Frankenstein Monster Kickstarter page.

Ralph Cosentino’s web page. 

Frankenstein's Creature

A radical new retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein comes to the London stage this week — and very reasonably priced tickets might still be had if you are in the vicinity.

Running August 25 to 29, Frankenstein’s Creature is a one-man play written and performed by James Swanton who has garnered consistently high praise for his work, notably his recent West End success in Sykes and Nancy. Mr. Swanton is no stranger to extraordinary characters of genre fiction having played the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Marley’s Ghost.

Frankenstein’s Creature promises to be an intense experience as the story is told entirely from The Creature’s perspective. “With no name and no past,” reads the press release, “he must forge a place in a world that does not want him. He must find his voice.”  

The image of Swanton as The Creature shows him biting into an apple, the new Adam cast out of paradise.

Frankenstein’s Creature is directed by Jack Gamble with designs by Zoe Koperski. It is produced by Jack Gamble and Quentin Beroud for Dippermouth and mounted at Theater503 on Battersea Park Road, London.

We’ll be on the lookout for reviews and future productions.

Frankenstein’s Creature on Theatre503 page.

Frankenstein’s Creature on Facebook.

Have some cake!

I want to take a moment before this day runs out and note that this blog was launched on August 20, all of eight years ago. Eight years! I don’t know how that happened! I was just fooling around, honest, and I never thought I’d make it past eight days, maybe 8 weeks tops and, well, look at us now. I just checked my stats counter, and we’ve clocked a bit over two million visits in eight years. Two million! How did that happen?

Posting has been sparse over some time now, due mostly to real life butting in. Lots of things keeping me busy, and I won’t even mention my recent Hard Drive meltdown and the loss of research material I had failed to backup properly. Otherwise, it’s been a very good time, being busy with my graphic novels for the French market, and busy with TV, movie and web series writing, all good news for a freelancer. I also was the subject of a TV documentary, how about that! On the side, I never stopped researching Frankenstein in all its aspects and I’ve amassed tons of great new material.

Now I’m on top of things again and I’m undertaking a much busier posting schedule. Very shortly, I’ll be running a series celebrating the 80th anniversary of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) and, after three years of research, I’ll be posting about the Forgotten Frankensteins of the Thirties! Earlier this year, I made a pilgrimage to Malibou Lake just outside LA, where they shot the Little Maria scene for FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and I’ll be sharing that, and lots more finds and surprises over the days, weeks and months to come.

I made a lot of real friends here over the years, and I got to visit with some of you as I traveled to New York, Louisville, London, Paris and Los Angeles. I hope to see you all again, and meet new friends along the way. You all are the reason I keep doing this.

So join me, and do have a slice of birthday cake, won’t you?