CLASSIC HORROR BEHIND THE SCENES: CHANEY’S AUDITION (New Book) Released!
My new book tells the story of MAN MADE MONSTER, Lon Chaney, Jr.’s ‘audition’…and the thorny road to THE WOLF MAN.
By Bill Fleck, author of the Rondo-nominated book CHANEY’S BABY, available here.
Did you know? Two-time Rondo-Award winning filmmaker Thomas Hamilton is in the process of making VINCENT PRICE & THE ART OF LIVING. (I’m lucky enough to be a producer on the project.) For information about the film, click here. To check out Tom’s HORROR ICONS update—featuring interview clips with Jessica Rains, Elizabeth Shepherd, and Yours Truly—click here. For information about possibly joining the Ignition Group and helping to get HORROR ICONS produced, click here. Thanks!
Check out other articles on this Rondo-nominated blog by clicking here.
I’m excited to announce the release of my new nonfiction book, CHANEY’S AUDITION: MAN MADE MONSTER AND THE THORNY WALK TO THE WOLF MAN.
Right now, it’s available in three formats: Kindle (click here), paperback (click here), and hard cover (click here). [1]
I’m also happy to make personalized, signed copies available. Feel free to be in touch with me to get yours: billfleckenterprises@gmail.com).
Why write about MAN MADE MONSTER, you may ask? Well, the origin for this new project begins with my Rondo-nomination for CHANEY’S BABY (2021). Lon Chaney, Jr. has always been my favorite Classic Horror film actor. This isn’t meant to disparage the others, whom I certainly respect and admire. I just find Chaney to be the most relatable. And the fact that CHANEY’S BABY resonated with so many was heartening…I never expected it to be the success that it has been. [2]
Then too, I noticed that the most popular articles on this very blog have to do with Chaney, Jr. in one way or another. Interesting…
And finally, there’s the fact that the subject matter of CHANEY’S BABY—which takes an in-depth look at Lon’s nearly successful suicide attempt in 1948—is necessarily disturbing and sad.
But while it’s true that there were certainly periods in Lon Jr.’s life that were dominated by disappointment, fear, and misery—and CHANEY’S BABY dealt with one of the biggest of them—not every waking moment that Lon experienced featured, well, “the tortures of the damned.”
That being the case, I wanted to write a biographical piece that sort of “book-ended” CHANEY’S BABY…one that featured a happy, more hopeful period in Chaney’s life…for balance and fairness, among other reasons.
Well, the period around the making of MAN MADE MONSTER certainly fit that bill!
Without giving too much away—after all, that’s what the book is for—I can tell you that the promise of a potential long-term contract with Universal Studios in December of 1940 was just what the doctor ordered for Lon, Jr.
Why?
Well, the early months of 1940 had seen him garner unprecedented praise. His stirring performance as Lennie Small in Lewis Milestone’s classic film OF MICE AND MEN (1939) had truly set Hollywood abuzz. The film itself was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and—if there had been any justice in the world—Chaney himself would have been nominated as well. [3]
But, for whatever reason, OF MICE AND MEN didn’t set the box office on fire. Though the film would prove to have legs, that reality could not have been foreseen in 1940. As such, producer Hal Roach’s plans to star Chaney in John Steinbeck’s CUP OF GOLD went up in poor box-office smoke.
What might have happened had Chaney beaten Laird Cregar to the role of Captain Henry Morgan? [4] Might Chaney have had a career similar to Cregar’s—that of a colorful heavy in A-List productions for the Big Five?
We’ll never know.
What we do know is that Chaney became typed as a big, dumb lug.
“From then on, I had to be cast as a Lennie,” he’ll complain bitterly in 1967, “and who writes Lennies?”
[Above: Lon Chaney, Jr., Betty Field, and Burgess Meredith in OF MICE AND MEN (United Artists, 1939). Though the part of Lennie finally—and spectacularly—launched his career, Chaney found himself typecast as big, dumb lugs, and his momentum stalled. “I had to be cast as a Lennie,” he complained years later, “and who writes Lennies?” Photo credit: Alamy, Inc.]
Having been pretty much typecast from the get-go as a (mostly) villainous cowboy, this new development wasn’t any more welcome. And it actually resulted in less work for him.
“While that picture was a high point for me,” he’ll explain, “right after it I was flat on my back-side.”
Not that folks didn’t notice. Hollywood columnists were happy to weigh-in on his predicament. Some mourned the fact that his talent was being wasted after giving such a masterful performance. Others insisted that all of his talent—such as it was—had been spent in one shot, and that he didn’t have anything else to offer.
And, of course, there were the inevitable comparisons to his father—some good, and some bad—which Monster Kids know irked him to no end thanks to the reasons I lay out in the book.
So, when some unnamed Universal exec saw Chaney’s very effective turn as the cave man Akhoba in Roach’s ONE MILLION B.C. (1940), and thought that the young actor might be effective starring in some movies for them, Lon, Jr. was on board in a hot minute.
And MAN MADE MONSTER turned out to be the audition.
As it turned out, Lon Chaney, Jr. was very lucky that Universal assigned this audition to writer-producer-director George Waggner. Waggner—on the cusp of signing a long-term deal with Universal himself—was the ideal person to bring out Chaney’s best in the film. (For a preview of how Waggner tailored the abandoned Karloff-Lugosi vehicle THE MAN IN THE CAB for Chaney, click here to see Chapter 3 of CHANEY’S AUDITION).
And Universal wisely surrounded Chaney with other excellent players, including Samuel S. Hinds, Anne Nagel, Frank Albertson, and the inimitable Lionel Atwill, playing what historian Greg Mank refers to as “his maddest doctor of them all.”
[Above: Lionel Atwill, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Samuel S. Hinds in MAN MADE MONSTER. Universal wisely handed ‘Chaney’s audition’ to writer-producer-director George Waggner—who tailored it to Chaney’s talents—and surrounded him with these excellent players as well as Anne Nagel and Frank Albertson. Photo credit: Alamy, Inc.]
Certainly, Monster Kids are well within their rights to ask, “What am I going to learn from this new book?”
Well, a preview of the Table of Contents—and a hint about what each chapter contains—might help to answer that…
Chapter 1: DAN McCORMICK TO DIE IN CHAIR (a prose recap of the conflict in MAN MADE MONSTER, and a quick peek at Lon Chaney, Jr. just prior to making the film).
Chapter 2: Of Creighton and Lon (the complicated relationship between father and son, which led to the birth of Lon, Jr.’s dream).
Chapter 3: George Waggner and THE MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR R (again, preview this entire chapter by clicking here).
Chapter 4: Surrounded By Other Strong Players (interesting information about the lives and careers of Lionel Atwill, Anne Nagel, Samuel S. Hinds, and Frank Albertson leading up to the shooting of MAN MADE MONSTER).
Chapter 5: “Action!” (Chaney is on his best behavior shooting the film, and impresses everyone concerned).
Chapter 6: The Dotted Line and the Dream (Chaney gets signed to a contract, and is promised a “variety of roles.” His reviews for MAN MADE MONSTER are generally stellar).
Chapter 7: The Thorny Walk to THE WOLF MAN (how Universal didn’t know exactly what to do with Chaney until George Waggner came up with a plan. Plus, Chaney makes a lifelong friend in Brod Crawford).
Chapter 8: “King of Horror, overshadowing those veterans, Karloff and Lugosi.” (Shooting THE WOLF MAN, plus the film’s immediate impact on Chaney’s career and dream).
Chapter 9: The Master Character Creator and a Dream Deferred (how THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN—as great as it is—indicated the unlikelihood that Chaney’s dream was ever going to come true).
Chapter 10: Epilogue (interesting and often tragic facts about the lives and careers of Atwill, Nagel, Hinds, Albertson, and Chaney following MAN MADE MONSTER, with an emphasis on Chaney’s last years).
Chapter 11: MAN MADE MONSTER and THE WOLF MAN—An Essay (some interesting connections between the two films, including an analysis of the surprising similarities and differences between Dan McCormick and Larry Talbot…and an in-context discussion as to why Larry doesn’t speak with a British accent).
Afterward (an interesting and humorous description of a late-1960s encounter between some Monster Kids connected with the Count Dracula Society and “the great Chaney”).
Acknowledgements (my list of heartfelt thank-yous).
About the Author (a very brief bio).
Notes (in-depth information which adds to the narrative found in the body of the book).
Sources (a comprehensive list of the dozens and dozens of primary and secondary sources I utilized in the writing of CHANEY’S AUDITION).
[Above: Lon Chaney, Jr. in 1941. He was about to embark on his career at Universal Studios, and his hopes for the future—while guarded—were at an all-time high…in many ways, thanks to MAN MADE MONSTER. Photo credit: Alamy, Inc.]
In short, I think Monster Kids in general—and Chaney, Jr. fans in particular—will enjoy CHANEY’S AUDITION. For me, writing it was a labor of love. No one commissioned it, and no one attempted to influence my thesis. I hope if Chaney’s relatives ever read it, they sense that it comes from a good place: my desire to explore a period in Lon Chaney, Jr.’s life where it was quite possible for his dreams to come true.
It was also a welcome opportunity for me to explore the more positive aspects of Lon, Jr.’s personality, which were every bit as ingrained in him as were the more infamous elements, which—unfairly, in my view—dominate most modern accounts about him.
I’m hoping that anyone who reads my new book will agree.
NOTES
[1] I’ve tried to keep the prices low, but hard covers these days are expensive to produce. I know $35 USD is a bit pricey, but some folks prefer their books to be hard covers, so I wanted to provide the option. And the hard cover edition of CHANEY’S AUDITION is certainly handsome enough to make a special gift for the Monster Kid on your holiday shopping list! (In addition, I’m working on setting up a recording studio so I can offer an audio-edition of CHANEY’S AUDITION in my voice—stay tuned!)
[2] While certainly not a NEW YORK TIMES best seller, the book has sold decently, and I’m flattered that many Monster Kids in the know have been very generous in their praise.
[3] As you will see in CHANEY’S AUDITION, Chaney did claim from time to time that he had been nominated…which, sadly, was not the case.
[4] Cregar played Morgan—and well—in THE BLACK SWAN (1942) for 20th Century Fox.
SOURCES
Fleck, Bill. CHANEY’S AUDITION: MAN MADE MONSTER AND THE THORNY WALK TO THE WOLF MAN. Wurtsboro, NY: Just Pay the Ransom Publishing, 2024. Print.
Note: The pictures used herein (and most of those in CHANEY’S AUDITION) have been licensed from Alamy, Inc., 49 Flatbush Ave, 130, Brooklyn NY 11217 (www.alamy.com). All rights are reserved.