Saturday, November 01, 2008

Happy Halloweeni

Polly and I started our evening by driving down Hollywood Blvd. into Thai Town where we enjoyed some good Thai Food. After dinner we headed downtown where we had tickets at the Disney Concert Hall where, for Halloween, they were presenting the first horror film, "The Phantom of the Opera", shot at Universal on Stage 28 in 1925. We arrived at the theater early enough to enjoy a cocktail and a cigar. A beautiful night in California. This has been the hottest October in history and I'm not complaining. At two in the morning, it's 68 degrees.

It's always a treat to see a silent movie in a nice theater, accompanied by a giant pipe organ. Dig the pic of the unique pipes on the organ, very cool. It was a sell out crowd, many people in costumes. I was doing some surfing for a clip to put up and was surprised to find the whole movie. You can watch it below! The sets are absolutely magnificent. They recreated the lobby of the Paris Opera House as well as the dungeons and cellars below. From what I understand some of the backlot set pieces still exist at Universal, 83 years later. It's interesting to look at how films were made back then, how they told the story and put it all together, simple shots, not a lot of camera movement. Good time, fun night. . . that's all she wrote.



Been trying to get my kids on the phone for weeks. It would have been nice to talk to them and find out what they were dressing up as for Halloween. I miss them all so much and wish that she would let them see or talk to me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lon Chaney was one of my first heroes of horror.


- Rocksteady