In the meantime, awesome Project follower Heather made this hilarious bingo card for use when reviewing self-published Phantom novels. I laughed, I cried, I thought of how true it was and got drunk.
Now you, too, can follow along with the self-pubs in your own libraries! I did a few for the greatest hits of the Pit of Infamy on the Project site, and oh boy, you can totally see them hitting all the high notes.
To the left, Becky Meadows' Phantasy; to the right, Etienne de Mendes' The Return of the Phantom: Le Coeur Loyale. Truly amazing.
In more serious news, however, some of you may not be aware that Universal Studios is currently planning to demolish Stage 28, which was the original stage on which the 1925 Julian/Chaney Phantom film was shot, and which was used again for the 1943 Lubin/Rains movie as well as for countless other Universal productions since. The Phantom set itself is being preserved, according to this Variety Magazine article, and hopefully moved to a new home as a historical attraction or museum exhibit, although we don't yet know where it will end up or in what shape (the article notes that it's unsure how much of it can be preserved when it's moved off the stage it's lived on for the past ninety years).
While I personally am pleased as punch that the set is being preserved and don't mind letting the stage go once it's been moved off, there is a petition started by fans of the first Phantom film adaptation and other Universal movies to try to stop its demolition, if any of you would like to go add your voices to it.
No matter what your feelings on it, now seems like a great time to go show the 1925 film some love, right? Let's get some Chaney up in here!
