As many of you know, I’m a huge fan of horror movies. It’s easily my favorite genre and while I’m a
little picky about my horror (I prefer monsters over slashers) I’m pretty much
open to watching anything. Last year around Halloween I published a
listicle about my favorite movie The Creature From The Black Lagoon. In that post, I described how the story actually
came from a very real Amazonian myth and it gave me the idea for this series. Over the next ten weeks or so, we’re going to visit some of the true
events that launched great horror movies. If you are a horror movie fan, chances are you are at least familiar with the name Tod Browning. He's responsible for some of the most famous movies in the history of the genre and also one of the most infamous ones. What you may not know is that prior to entering the wild west atmosphere of the early film business, he actually made his name in real carnivals and traveling sideshows. In fact, he was one of the star attractions and it was this experience which led him to his film career.
Browning was born in Louisville, KY and his uncle was the professional baseball player that the original Louisville Slugger was made for. Browning wasn't interested in sports though. His calling was always showmanship. As a kid, he'd been singled out by the church for his amazing voice. He would perform on Sundays but if people wanted to see him outside of that, they would have to pay (a penny a performance) to see him in a shed in his back yard. Browning would write, direct and perform in productions that ranged from dramas to musicals and he staged them all in that shed. There was no doubt that showbiz was the thing that called to him, so it should have come as little surprise to those close to him when he literally ran away at sixteen to join a traveling show. What probably did surprise them was that he didn't pursue singing. Instead, Browning was drawn to the dark side (and easy money) of the carnival sideshow.
His first gig was as a "barker" for a "Wild Man of Borneo" act. The wild man was really an African-American from Mississippi in costume. Browning loved that underworld element through and through. He rubbed elbows with the attractions that most people would have shied away from. I'm talking about acts like the "geek" who bit the heads off live chickens, the dwarves, the pinheads and others. He soon learned how to escape from manacles and became an attraction in his own right. He spent a season as a clown for Ringling Bros. and another as a rider in a horse show. However, his most lucrative and odd "trick", the one that ended his carnival run, was as a "Living Corpse". The way the trick worked was that on the very first day the carnival pulled into town, they would announce one of their most miraculous offerings: an elixir that actually raised the dead. Of course, that claim needed some proof in order to sell product. At this point, they would unveil Browning, laying in an actual coffin, his features pale and deathly.
The barker would then instruct his assistants to bury this dead man. The coffin would actually be placed eight feet down in the ground and all of the dirt placed back on it. The barker would then tell everyone to come back the next day. Sometimes, it would be two days! At the appointed time, everyone would gather round to watch as Browning was exhumed and miraculously brought back to life with the special potion. How did he do it? Well, it wasn't easy. Browning actually had to stay down in the coffin the entire time. There was a ventilation system built into it to allow for fresh air. There was also a small hidden panel in the coffin where he could hide malted milk balls so he didn't starve. Otherwise, there was nothing for him to do but lay there and wait. He famously said that the only time he was ever scared was the first time when he heard the dirt raining down on the lid. He performed this trick for two years in a ton of towns as part of a traveling riverboat show until finally a police raid in Madison, Indiana exposed their con. Browning decided, after losing every cent he had to the imposed fine, it was time to do something slightly more "upscale" and so he went back to singing and dancing as part of vaudeville acts.
How does all this tie into the film industry? Well, film started out in the sideshow. It was an attraction, the same as the Wild Man or the Living Corpse. In 1913, at the age of thirty-one, Browning was offered a part in a film by an associate of his. Two years later, he directed his first film and the rest, as they say, is history.
Browning is credited with directing 62 films in his lifetime. His most famous is Dracula (1931), starring Bela Lugosi, however prior to that, he'd already made huge hits with Lon Chaney.
If you've never seen the silent film, West of Zanzibar (1928), you really should. It's one of the darkest films of revenge and horror in Chaney's catalog. Browning also directed Chaney in the famous "lost" film London After Midnight (1927).
After Dracula was such a huge hit, the studio let him direct the film he'd always wanted to make. It was a film about the sideshow life that he'd fallen so in love with as a young man. In particular, it was a film about the people he felt most akin to from those days. The movie is Freaks (1932) and it would prove to be his undoing in Hollywood.
While Browning treats his titular characters with respect (they are in fact the good guys in the film), the studio's marketing did not. Instead, they played up the more salacious tidbits as evidenced in the poster image directly above. "Do Siamese Twins Make Love?" "Can a Full Grown Woman Truly Love a Midget?" "What Sex is the Half Man Half Woman?" You can see how popular society thought the film was exploiting those "unfortunates" who were the stars. The film was famously pulled from theaters, disowned by the studio and Browning's reputation was ruined. He would go on to make a handful of other films, including a reteaming with Bela Lugosi in Mark of the Vampire (1935). He wouldn't direct another film after Miracles for Sale in 1939.
Browning died in 1962 but not before something amazing had started to happen. In 1961, Freaks was unearthed and began showing in art house theaters. Over the next decade, it gained popularity as a midnight film that college kids would flock to on Friday and Saturday nights. Among a certain breed of horror fan, it's now considered a masterpiece. I'm definitely part of that breed. Personally, it's one of my favorite films of all time and part of the reason is because you can see so much of Tod Browning in it. If you haven't seen it, seek it out and also I highly recommend West of Zanzibar, Dracula and even Mark of the Vampire. If you're a connoisseur of horror, I doubt you'll be disappointed. And if you like those, you should check out my book The Wash. It's filled with all kinds of fun. See you next time!
This will be our last excursion to Griffith Park for now, but it's a great interactive one for anyone visiting with an hour to spend on a short hike. As mentioned in my previous posts about the Griffith Observatory and the Griffith Curse, this place is a jewel of sorts in the middle of Los Angeles. Sure, there may be weirdness and chaos in places, but overall it's a fabulous place to visit and honestly one of my favorite places in L.A.
Back in 1912, the Griffith Park Zoo opened with a whopping 15 animals on display. It wasn't the first zoo in Los Angeles. That honor goes to the Eastlake Zoo that opened in the late 1800's, but the Griffith Zoo was plenty popular. Built on the site of a defunct ostrich farm, it was attracting over two million visitors a year by the time it was closed in the 1960's.
Now this would normally be where I tell you that it was the curse that lent a hand to the zoo's demise but in reality it was just progress. The Griffith Zoo was a relic by 1966 and the public was realizing that keeping animals in cages was cruel. A call had gone out to update the zoo and so L.A. did just that, relocating the animals once the new zoo was completed.
The thing that makes the old zoo noteworthy now is that it's still in the park and easily accessible to visitors. Most of the enclosures were left as they were when the zoo closed. The city put in some picnic tables and renamed it the Old Zoo Picnic Area. There are two loop trails that you can take to get to the enclosures. One will take you by the larger "cave" pens and the other takes you by the smaller cages.
Of course, they're mostly graffiti'd up at this point, but it's still interesting to hike out there and see what was once a big tourist draw. Better yet, the hike isn't strenuous. It's about a mile and a half from start to finish and while it does climb, it does so gradually.
At the start and finish of the loop there is a carousel that also played a huge part in the popularity of Southern California. The Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round was built in 1926 by the Spillman Engineering Company. It began its life down in San Diego but was moved to Griffith Park in 1936.
A local resident, who happened to make animated films, made a habit of taking his kids down and letting them ride the carousel on weekends. One day, while his kids were riding around and around, he looked at the crowd of families and thought to himself, "I should make something like this on a much larger scale."
The man was Walt Disney and he publicly credited this merry-go-round with inspiring him to create Disneyland.
I know a lot of you who read this only know me from my Southern California blog posts or have come by to visit because of my book The Wash (available at Amazon... shameless plug complete). You may not know that for years, I wrote about music and movies mostly, first on my now defunct website musicmisfits.com and later on sites like DVDinmypants.com and Gapingmediahole.com.
Music is and probably always will be my first love and it really became my obsession during the 1980's. I was at just the right age to begin discovering classic bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones through my older cousins. At the same time, MTV hit the airwaves introducing me to bands like Rush, Styx and Motorhead. I wasn't just a metalhead though. I was just as likely to get fixated on a band like The Thompson Twins or an artist like Cyndi Lauper as I was to delving into the back catalog of Iron Maiden. It wasn't about the look of the band. It was about whether the song caught my ear and so I would walk around singing some very, very uncool songs sometimes.
The thing about early MTV was that there were artists who appeared with one catchy song that was an instant hit on the channel. Then they would disappear and you'd never hear from them again. For this Five Bands post, I'm going to attempt to dig some up. You can hate me for it later once these are stuck in your head and won't let go.
The Salt In My Tears - Martin Briley
As I remember it, this was a huge hit on MTV. I know there were a few weeks where you could not get away from this video. Knowing what we do now about how songs were picked to get played, someone paid a lot of money to try to make this guy popular but other than this song, he never caught on. It's still one of my favorites to pull out on an 80's playlist though.
She Sheila - The Producers
This one has a chorus that sticks in my head for days! The Producer's biggest hit was "What's He Got?" which anyone who has ever listened to an 80's nostalgia station has heard at some point. Personally, I like this song better. Plus the video is fantastic on its own! Check out the sleeveless muscle shirts, spiked hair and wait... are those pink sweat pants??
I Wonder If I Take You Home - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force
This song was all over the radio in my senior year of high school. I'm not really including it here because she was a one-hit wonder. She wasn't. It was the first of a string of hits for Lisa Lisa. I'm including it for a few really dated and fun reasons. First, it's a song about not having sex. Even though the lyrics to this are about waiting until you get to know someone better, nothing says 1980's AIDS scare like a song about not having sex. Second, the name of the band is even longer than the name of the song. Finally, check out that video. Hot pink! Jheri Curl! Spiked hair! Plus despite the dated electronic drumming, this song has a chorus that will stick in your skull. Listen at your own risk.
Modern Day Delilah - Van Stephenson
Here's another one of those artists that somebody was pushing like crazy but ultimately only had one hit that I know of. He's got the hair, the sunglasses (that you know he wore "at night") and the clothes but something just didn't click. However the song itself is a quintessential 80's rock song. It's got all the hallmarks of the kind of thing you'd hear on the car stereo in an episode of Stranger Things.
Change - John Waite
John Waite was not a one hit wonder. The guy had huge hits with his band The Babys before going out on his own. He had a mega-smash with the song "Missing You" which pretty much ruled the charts the year it was released. Later on, he formed a supergroup of sorts called Bad English with a couple of the guys from Journey and scored even more hits. This song kind of gets lost in the shuffle though. It's probably my favorite song of his and I only rediscovered it when it was played in Trader Joe's while I was grocery shopping. Now it's in regular rotation.
