Article: Fan of fright casts a spell on `Beast' with magical masks

The horrifying and scary always intrigued theatrical wizard Willy Richardson, even when he was a boy.

When Charles Laughton came on the screen with one eye and a huge hump on his back in the 1939 film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," the 34-year-old designer remembers being "enthralled." Lon Chaney in "The Phantom of the Opera," the 1925 silent horror film, tantalized him.

"I've been fascinated by the special effects in old horror films since I was old enough to stay up and watch them on television," Richardson said.

Instead of just watching horrible creatures on film, however, he tried to create his own terrifying characters at home, using himself as a guinea pig. At hobby stores in ...

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