Since he first haunted the Palais Garnier opera house, The Phantom has captivated and chilled readers of Gaston Leroux's classic novel and viewers of its many film adaptations. The most memorable translation from page to screen is widely considered to be the first one, thanks in large part to Lon Chaney Sr.'s stunning, skeletal transformation into The Phantom. Nearly a century later, Black Heart Enterprises, LLC is celebrating the actor's iconic appearance in The Phantom of the Opera with a new life-size bust coming next year from Sideshow Collectibles.
Meticulously sculpted by Jeff Yagher, the new life-size bust of Lon Chaney Sr. is a detailed depiction of the actor as he appeared in the classic 1925 movie The Phantom of the Opera. Standing approximately 17 inches tall, the life-size bust gorgeously displays Chaney Sr.'s haunted expression under ghoulish makeup that forever cemented the tragic character in horror film history.
Sideshow Collectibles is expected to release the life-size bust (limited to 250 and priced at $649.99) sometime between February and April of 2018. In the meantime, you can learn more about The Phantom of the Opera collectible at Sideshow's website, and we have a photo gallery and further details on the history of the iconic character below:
From Sideshow Collectibles: "In 1922, Carl Laemmle, President of Universal Pictures, took a vacation to Paris, France where he met Gaston Leroux, author of the 1910 novel, The Phantom of the Opera. Leroux gave Laemmle a copy of his novel and it is said that Laemmle read the book in one night and liked it so much that he bought the film rights with actor Lon Chaney Sr. in mind as the title character. Laemmle and Chaney had already collaborated on another film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which Chaney created his own make-up for his portrayal of that film's title-character.
Chaney's iconic appearance as Erik the Phantom of the Opera is the most accurate depiction of the character as described in Leroux's novel. Erik was described as corpse-like, as having a "death's-head" (human skull) throughout the story. He had no nose, his eyes were sunken so deep that they were two skull-like eye sockets except when they glowed in the dark. His skin was yellow and tightly stretched across his bones and he had only a few wisps of black hair behind his ears and on his forehead.
Christine, the woman with whom he was obsessed, described his mouth as "lipless" and a "dead mouth." Erik himself admitted his mouth was abnormal. And, he was described as so extremely thin that he resembled a skeleton. Erik describes himself to Christine as a corpse "built up with death from head to foot."
To achieve the look of Leroux's Phantom, Chaney painted his eye sockets black, giving them a skull-like appearance. He pulled the tip of his nose up and pinned it in place with wire. He enlarged his nostrils with black paint, and put a set of jagged false teeth into his mouth to complete the horribly deformed look of the Phantom. When filmgoers first saw the film, many screamed or fainted at the unmasking scene which revealed his skeletal face.
Manufacturer: Black Heart Enterprises, LLC
Artist: Jeff Yagher (Sculpt)
Product Size: 17" H (431.8mm) x 11" W (279.4mm) x 11" L (279.4mm)
Est. Arrival: Feb 2018 - Apr 2018
Limited Edition: 250
$649.99"
Photos from Sideshow Collectibles:
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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