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Article: 'ALAS, POOR ERIK! HE WAS A PHANTOM' THE INIMITABLE LON CHANEY (ABOVE) STARS AS ERIK, THE DUNGEON-DWELLING TITLE CHARACTER OF "PHANTOM OF THE OPERA," ADVERTISED IN THE POSTER AT LEFT.(RHYTHM)
- Article from:
- The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI)
- Article date:
- October 30, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Capital Newspapers. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Amanda Henry
"His face is like leprous parchment, yellow skin strung tight over protruding bones!
His nose -- there is no nose!"
Who is this masked man?
Why, the Phantom, of course -- or, as he will pathetically inform Christine, the damsel he distresses, "Men once knew me as Erik."
Before the musical that spawned a thousand sweatshirts, there was this deliciously gothic 1925 silent film, staring Lon Chaney as the Phantom (aka Erik) who lurks beneath the Paris Opera House. Or, as the movie heatedly describes it via intertitle:
"Sanctuary of song lovers, the Paris Opera House, rising nobly over medieval ...