creature features | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Women in Horror Month: Book Review: The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara

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The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara

Hanover Square Press, 2019

ISBN-13: 9781335937803

Available: Hardcover, paperback. Kindle, Audible audiobook

When Mallory O’Meara discovered that one of her favorite movies, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, featured a monster designed by a woman, Milicent Patrick, she knew she had to find out more. Sadly, there was little information available about this elusive figure. Through her research, O’Meara learned much about Patrick’s contribution to The Creature from the Black Lagoon and her eventual disappearance from film history. O’Meara, herself working in the horror movie industry, “set out to right the wrong and in the process discovered the full, fascinating story of an ambitious, artistic woman ahead of her time.”

O’Meara’s book is well-researched, using primary archival resources and interviews as a basis for her work. She describes pushback she received from different parties in her introduction. Similar to asking the question, “why is there a Women in Horror Month?”, she was asked why she was searching so much for a woman who was denied her craft for decades. O’Meara spends the bulk of the book answering this question.

The book isn’t strictly a biography of Milicent, but also of those closest to her. O’Meara includes biographical information on Milicent’s parents, William Randolph Hearst, Bud Westmore, and other people who had been influential in Patrick’s life. Interspersed in the chapters are the author’s discussion of her discoveries and “aha moments”, such as finding Hearst Castle as a clue to unveiling more of Milicent’s life, her time at Glendale Junior College, her eventual dropping out to attend Chouinard Art Institute, and Walt Disney hiring her on in the animation department of his humble studio. Milicent worked as an uncredited model, developing her own sense of style, something her father disapproved of. The author does not hide that some of Milicent’s life choices led to heartache and agony, her own as well as others. O’Meara discusses Milicent crossing paths with the infamous Bud Westmore and her time designing the Gillman, Universal’s monster in Creature from the Black Lagoon. The author also provides some great information on the history of special effects, and the ongoing gender inequality in the film industry.

A major criticism I have about the content is O’Meara’s exaggerated lack of understanding of the research process. She discusses her struggles with the process and, thankfully, credits those who helped her by providing her with clues or pointing her in the right direction. She seemed to be unaware of databases, or how to conduct oneself in an archival room. While such things are undoubtedly unknown to some people, including her own ignorance and gasping, and telling the reader she probably annoyed others in the research room of the archives, would probably be best left out. However, O’Meara’s conversational style of writing is appealing, to a point, and makes the pace of the book go quickly. Recommended.

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Linkity Links: Monster Kids, Scary Stories, Fifty Shades, and Maurice Sendak

First, I’ve learned about a couple of cool Kickstarter projects. We received an email telling us about a documentary about “Monster Kids”- the kids who grew up on classic creature features and horror movies and became the next generation of artists, moviemakers, writers, and actors. From Rose Fox at Genreville, I learned about Nightmare Magazine, soon to be presented by Creeping Hemlock Press, and edited by John Joseph Adams. The lineup for the first issue is impressive- it includes original short stories by Sarah Langan and Jonathan Maberry, among others. Both of these projects are still in need of funding, so if you’re intrigued I encourage you to check them out.

Not that long ago, I wrote about an excellent reason to read the classics– Harry Clarke’s illustrations of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination At the time, I had seen them only in an article from io9, but now, those who would like a full scale experience (and don’t have the book) can go here to the book design blog 50watts.com and see how disturbing they really are when they fill the entire screen.

And, over at Agnostic, Maybe, Andy Woodworth discusses why the Brevard County Library System’s quandary over Fifty Shades of Grey should lead to pairing Banned Books Week with “National Update Your Collection and Challenge Material Policies Because You Probably Need To (No, Seriously, Do It)” week. Apparently the Fond du Lac Library in Wisconsin declined to purchase it as well, but at least they made the decision, based on their selection policy, BEFORE purchasing the book. Not that the average person who wants to check out Fifty Shades of Grey will care whether the reason it’s not there is because of selection policy or because of censorship, but librarians are going to have to take a position, because it affects them now, on a practical level. It’s going to be an interesting Banned Books Week this year, no matter what.

Finally, Maurice Sendak and his impact on children and children’s literature (and me) can’t be summed up in a couple of paragraphs here. When I went to Amazon.com to look at children’s bestsellers, up at the top was Higgelty Piggelty Pop! I was a little surprised, since I don’t think of it as being as well known as many of his others. It’s an odd little book, with a lot of story devoted to eating (and being eaten, by a lion). This afternoon one of my kids said “I don’t care” in response to something, and the other said “Well, you’ll be eaten by a lion”. They were referring to Sendak’s Pierre, in which a little boy who only responds to his parents with “I don’t care” is, in fact, eaten by a lion. And then there are the Wild Things, who scream to Max “Oh please don’t go! We’ll eat you up, we love you so!” And so I was glad to have this article come my way. It does an excellent job of expressing why Sendak’s nightmares and bizarre fantasies are so powerful for so many. And maybe also why he wrote so much about being eaten.

And that’s all for now! Whew!