News Related to the 1954 Creature From the Black Lagoon Movie
Studios see 3-D potential
Disney and DreamWorks plan to make more 3-D versions of their films.
Andy Fixmer | Bloomberg News
Posted March 31, 2007
3-D movies are back, and the glasses are cooler.
More than 50 years after Creature From the Black Lagoon became one of the first movies shown in three dimensions, Walt Disney Co. on Friday released Meet the Robinsons, kicking off its plan to make four 3-D films annually. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. says it will produce 3-D versions of all its films. The studios are betting that the more-lifelike action made possible by digital technology will lure viewers willing to pay higher prices, and help stem a 12 percent decline in admissions since 2002. Moviegoers also will don Ray-Ban-like glasses that create more vivid images than the red-and-blue paper specs of the 1950s.Studios plan 3-D versions of 15 films during the next two years, up from a total of 12 since 1980, according to box-office tracker Box Office Mojo LLC.The studios will spend an extra $15 million on each film to make them work in 3-D. The enhanced graphics, as well as 3-D's resistance to piracy, makes the format attractive and worth the extra cost, studio and theater executives said."There is a groundswell" among filmmakers attracted to the creative opportunities, said John Batter, who heads the 3-D initiative at DreamWorks.The industry needs a lift. U.S. theaters sold 1.45 billion tickets in 2006, down from a record in 2002, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Higher prices helped boost box-office revenue to $9.49 billion, up 5.5 percent from 2005.
Chuck Viane, president of Disney's Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, would not say how much Disney spent on the film. The company is releasing it on 3,400 U.S. screens in all.
Film composer Stein dies at 91
Gained fame at Universal for sci-fi, horror classics
By JON BURLINGAME
March 22, 2007
 Herman Stein, who composed music for many of Universal's 1950s science-fiction and horror films, died of congestive heart failure March 15 in Los Angeles. He was 91 says his record producer, David Schecter.
He was most famous for his contributions to such genre classics as "It Came From Outer Space," "This Island Earth," "Creature From the Black Lagoon," "The Mole People," "King Kong vs. Godzilla," "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "Tarantula." He also composed music for such television shows as "Gunsmoke," "Lost in Space," and "Daniel Boone."
As a staff composer at Universal, Stein collaborated with Henry Mancini and others and contributed music to nearly 200 films, though he didn't get credit for all of his work because of the studio's tendency to give solo credit to a project's music supervisor.
"It was an unwritten rule at Universal that if he wrote less than 80 percent of the score, then his name would not be credited in the picture," Schecter said. "Herman had few credits to his name."
He was born in Philadelphia, began playing piano at the age of 3 and gave his first public recital at 6. He taught himself orchestration and was arranging professionally by the age of 15.
During the 1930s and '40s he composed and arranged for radio programs and jazz orchestras, including work for Count Basie, Bob Crosby, Red Norvo, Fred Waring and others. He moved to Los Angeles in 1948, studied composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and joined Universal in 1951.
Stein's other films included "City Beneath the Sea," "The Glass Web," "The Black Shield of Falworth," "The Great Man," "Backlash," "No Name on the Bullet" and Roger Corman's anti-racism film "The Intruder."
Stein composed for television from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, including scores for "M Squad," "Wagon Train," "Gunsmoke," "Daniel Boone," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "Lost in Space."
He also composed for cartoons and commercials. His concert work included the "Mock March" for brass quintet and "Sour Suite" for woodwind quintet.
His wife Anita, a violist for many years with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, died in 2001. There are no survivors.
Perry Lopez dies, played in the CFTBL
He was one of the first victims of the Gillman in the movie .
February 17, 2008
 Perry Lopez, 78, a veteran character actor perhaps best known for his role as Lt. Lou Escobar opposite Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson in the classic 1974 film "Chinatown," died Thursday of lung cancer at the Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, according to his friend and executor, actor James Victor.
Born in New York City, Lopez got his start on the stage before moving into film with an uncredited role in "Creature From the Black Lagoon." He also had roles in such familiar films as "Mister Roberts," "McClintock," "Che!" and "Kelly's Heroes."
In addition, he appeared in dozens of television shows, including "The Lone Ranger," "Bonanza," "Charlie's Angels," "Mission: Impossible" and "Star Trek."
Sixteen years after "Chinatown," he reprised the role of Escobar, who was promoted to captain, in "The Two Jakes" featuring Nicholson, who also directed the firm.
Ben Chapman Passes Away
A Universal Studios Horror monster icon
February 21, 2008
'Black Lagoon' star Ben Chapman, 79
Ben
Chapman, a Honolulu resident best known for playing the title character
in the 1954 horror film "Creature From the Black Lagoon," died
yesterday at Tripler Medical Center. He was 79.
Chapman
was a retired real estate executive. But his role as the Gill Man — the
quintessential 1950s monster in Universal Pictures' black-and-white
film in 3-D — became his worldwide calling card and made him a darling
on the collectibles and sci-fi circuit throughout the world. The gig
brought him enduring pleasure, said his son, Ben Chapman III, of
Honolulu.
"His
'Creature' fans kept him going and he looked forward to trips to the
Mainland. But over the past year, he was slowing down because of heart
problems; he had breathing problems," his son said.
"He had created a 'Creature' Web site (www.the-reelgillman.com)
where his fans would reach him," said Chapman, who was among family
members at his father's bedside when he died shortly after midnight
yesterday.
Chapman also appeared in "Wake of the Red Witch," a 1949 sea saga starring John Wayne and which also featured Duke Kahanamoku.
"Creature"
was released in 1954, when Chapman was a contract player at Universal.
In a 1993 Advertiser interview he said: "I never knew, when I did the
movie at age 25, that it would be such a monster film," — pun intended.
A
Tahiti native, Chapman got the Gill Man part because of his size, 6
feet 5. He wore a foam rubber suit that defined his character:
part-amphibian, part-man.
Ilene
Wong, who, with Wayne Maeda, produces the summertime Hawai'i
All-Collectors Show at Blaisdell Center, said Chapman took part in the
show every year since 1999.
"He
was always very happy and so giving. People would ask him about the
movie, or Hollywood, and he would always provide the answers, help
out," Wong said. "Ben would bring his briefcase and inside he had his
memorabilia —posters, 8-by-10 glossies — and a good pen for autographs.
He was just wonderful. In fact, we expected him this year. I think we
will make a shrine for him."
As
Chapman explained in a 1993 interview, there were actually two actors
who played the Gill Man. He was the creature on land; Ricou Browning
was the actor in water sequences.
In
publicity photos, Chapman was the one beneath the foam-rubber body suit
and the large-lipped headpiece, posing with Julia Adams, the object of
the Gill Man's affection in what he once likened to a
beauty-and-the-beast tale: a soul with a ghastly exterior falling in
love with the woman of his dreams.
The
Gill Man is shot and stabbed in the final moments and he sinks into the
depths of the water, only to return in a pair of sequels — neither with
Chapman — that never replicated the success of the original.
The
Gill Man's place in the Universal monster lineage was a priority for
Chapman, since he was the longtime lone survivor in a parade of horror
monster flicks that dated to the 1920s. He cited predecessors Lon
Chaney Sr. in "Phantom of the Opera" and "Hunchback of Notre Dame" in
the 1920s, Bela Lugosi in "Dracula" and Boris Karloff in "Frankenstein"
in the 1930s, and Lon Chaney Jr. in "The Wolf Man" and "The Mummy" in
the 1940s.
Will
Hoover, a friend and Advertiser reporter, said, "Ben — even at 79 — was
nothing but an overgrown kid, always laughing, always joking, never
serious. He was a shinning example of the adage 'You're only young once
— but you can be immature forever.' "
Island
actor Branscombe Richmond, now based in Los Angeles, is a distant
cousin of Chapman's. "I can reflect about so many memories about Ben,"
Richmond said. "Ben and my Dad, Leo C. Richmond, were among the first
Polynesians to appear in films in the 1940s."
Richmond
added: "As a child, we were all in 'Mutiny on the Bounty' with Marlon
Brando, Trevor Howard and Hugh Griffith. It took two years to make, and
the movie filmed in Tahiti and in Hollywood, but everyone spent a good
year in Tahiti and by the time the film was done, so many of the crew
had Tahitian wives."
Chapman was born Oct. 29, 1928, in Oakland, but was reared in Tahiti till age 12 or 13, then relocated to San Francisco.
He
was a Korean War veteran, earning both a Silver Star and Bronze Star.
He also earned two Purple Hearts for battle injuries to his legs.
Chapman's son said doctors wanted to amputate his legs. Instead,
Chapman nursed himself back to health.
Survivors
also include his companion of 25 years, Merrilee Kazarian, who
describes herself as "Mrs. Creature"; another son, Grant Chapman of Las
Vegas; step-daughter Elyse Maree Raljevich of Coto De Gaza, Calif.;
sister Moea (Harry) Baty of Los Angeles; and several nieces and nephews.
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