Welcome to Steph you missed in history class from how Stuff Works dot Com. Welcome to the show. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Wilson. We recently had a live show in Salt Lake City. Tracy was unable to make it, so friend of the show and previous guest Brian Young stepped into co host. I want to give my huge thanks to Brian Young. Yes, Brian Young has has been a guest on our show on a number of occasions, many of them when I could not be present for a live appearance. Yeah, thank you so much for that, Brian. And this live show is all about Lawn Cheney Senior in the amazing career he crafted as both an actor and a makeup artist. Yeah. I think I said before we started that show, but to the audience that while I was researching this, I really fell in love with Lawn Cheney. I had not known all that much about him beforehand, and I have immense respect and adoration for him. So let's jump right in. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Brian Uh. And Brian. In our long ongoing tradition of featuring classic horror stars, as part of our lead up to Halloween, we're going to talk today about Lon Cheney, and not only was he a star as an actor, but he was famed really for his use of makeup, and in fact, his passion to completely transform himself for each role, coupled with a determination to keep his life off screen as private as possible, probably robbed him a little bit of historical notoriety. But his life story reveals more than just an actor. It shows a man who loved the art of creating both stage and film in a holistic sense, a man who was happy to move sets and stage manage and choreograph and as well as act. And he was described by one of his co stars is quote extremely kind, thoughtful and protective. Yeah, which is kind of at odds of the image he had. He played a lot of heavy ease, but he was in fact apparently just the sweetest man. But he didn't want anybody to know that because he was afraid it would impact his career. And while he appeared in more than one hundred and fifty films, today he is most remembered for his roles into silent films Hunchback of Notre Dame in ninety five Phantom of the Opera. That is probably the image you immediately conjured in your head was him in the Phantom of the Opera makeup. Uh. We're going to talk about those, but we'll also examine his extensive career that's far beyond them, which led him to eventually be called the Man of a Thousand Faces. On April Fool's Day, which was April first, eighteen eighty three, Leonidas Frank Cheney was born Lawn, as he became to be called, was the second child of four. His parents, Frank and Emma Cheney of Colorado Springs, Colorado, were both deaf mutes. This had often been cited as the reason that Cheney became such a proficient actor. He'd spent his youth learning to communicate without language through gesture, signing, and facial expression, skills he would use to inhabit roles on stage and screen. And there's one particular point where that became really important in his life as a child, which we will talk about right now. When Lawn was only nine years old, his mother became really, really ill. She had a very high degree of inflammation from rheumatism, and it rendered her unable to perform most tasks, and Lawn actually dropped out of school to become her nurse made so he was basically in the fourth grade at this time, and that is where his education ended. But this is one of the things people site because she had such a difficult time communicating even she was really unable to sign because she was in so much pain that she couldn't move very much. And he really kind of went to a whole other degree of pantomime to communicate with her. And so that is really where his his ability to communicate without speaking at all began. So it's a boy. Lawn attended public school in Colorado Springs, but he didn't finish his education like Holly said. Instead, he took a job as a guide and made money by helping to navigate the trail to Pike's Peak. His next job brought him into the theater. The Colorado Springs Opera House hired him as a property boy, and working as a property boy offered him a really unique learning experience that impacted his life forever. While he was in the theater, he would actually watch other actors put on their makeup, noting the various techniques that each of them were using to achieve different looks, and he learned through observation. Basically, one of those actors that he spied on while the man applied his own makeup was Richard Mansfield, who was famous for his portrayal of the dual role of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and who was also a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case. Uh. Mansfield could very well be a podcast subject in the future. Yeah, he's on my list because he's a whole other fascinating thing. But he was really a famous actor at the time. So when Lon Cheney later cited in his life during interviews like, oh, yeah, I learned from watching Mansfield do his makeup, it was pretty noteworthy. It would be like someone today going totally spied on Johnny Depp. Uh, it's the same idea. And later Cheney would say of this time in his life and its impact, quote, I used to watch Richard Mansfield and Robert Mantell and others. Those old doctor actors never showed the audience themselves, but really dawned the personality of the character they were playing. From the beginning of my acting career, I always strove to bury my own personality in my part. When Cheney was in his late teens, he started his first stage acting job. The play was called The Little Tycoon and Cheney had written it with his brother John. His brother was also a theater manager, so they had a venue to produce the play, and it went well enough that the brothers next produced a series of Gilbert and Sullivan operas there in Colorado Springs and so a tour was the next logical step, but it really barely off. The got off the ground before the sibling impresarios ran out of money. Uh So the solution was that they had to sell their theater company. But even after that sale, Lawn state on uh and the new iteration of the troupe was on tour in Oklahoma City, and Lawn Cheney I met a singer named Francis Cleveland Creighton, who went by Cleveland for short. Cleveland joined the tour, which was something she did despite pressure from her family to stay in Oklahoma City, and she and Lawn became romantically involved. The pair were married in nineteen o five, and in February of nineteen o six, they had a son, Creighton Toll Cheney. Creighton would become better known by the stage name Lawn Cheney Jr. And he followed in his father's footsteps as an actor. This is one of those parts of Lawn Cheney's life that is a little different depending on your source, because there are rumors that, in fact, of course, they got pregnant and had to get married, but some versions of it suggests that they actually didn't get married until after the baby was born, and then they fudged the record. Uh So it's a little unclear, but it's a hundred years ago. We'll just give it to him. And eventually the couple went back on the road. They paused for a little while when uh uh, Creton was a baby, but this time they just took their son along with them. And Lawn had always wanted to continue work in the theater. He didn't see family life as something that was really going to be fulfilling for him, even though he gave it a whirl like in more traditional jobs, and even as he got work as an actor. Though. One of the things that was interesting is that he actually maintained his stage hands Union card, so he would help move scenery during shows without hesitation. He was perfectly happy to be backstage helping out, even while he was waiting for his cues. UH, and while he still pursued acting and dancing, his knowledge of the technical side of production enabled him to really be a diversified UH job opportunist, and so he could also get work as a stage director, for example, and make sure he always made ends meet for the family. As part of a vaudeville troupe, the Chinese traveled to the West Coast in nineteen ten and settled there. Lawn would act, stage managed, choreograph whatever was required to keep a job in the theater. Cleveland began to build a decent singing career, but she also developed a drinking problem and their marriage really started to suffer. There was also a lot of jealousy and there were allegations of cheating, and it just was not a good match long term. Uh and Cleveland became increasingly unstable, and in en she attempted to take her own life by drinking by chloride of mercury. But she did this in a very dramatic way, which was that she did it off stage in a theater where Lawn was working at the time, and it ruined her voice, so her singing career was destroyed, even though she did not die, and it ruined their marriage forever. Their divorce was final the next year, and Lawn Cheney raised his son, Creighton as a solo parent after the split. I have read that he actually told Creighton that his mother had died, and so he never knew his mom until after she had actually passed away. He never knew what had really happened. So before we pick up with Chenese life after his divorce, we're gonna take a quick break where we left off. We had just talked about Clevland's suicide attempt, and not only did this of course completely shatter his family life, but this cast a shadow over Lawn's career in the theater. It basically kind of was always going to be associated with him in theatrical circles, and it made it hard for him to get a job, and it was part of why he turned to film to sort of shift gears and kick start his career all over again. And he had already been getting into film at this time. It wasn't like he went theater's over film now. He just put more of his effort into film work at that point, and he had appeared in a short made by the Rex Motion Picture Company at that point called the Honor of the family. That was in nineteen twelve, but after the scandal of his failed marriage ending dramatically as I said, he completely abandoned theatrical work and pursued film work full time. Shaney initially appeared in a number of bit parts. He eventually worked on films such as False Faces and Riddled Gone, among others, before appearing in his first credited role in the nineteen fourteen Universal Pictures film Hell Morgan's Girl. He also did slapstick comedies and worked with Western star J Warren Carragan on seven films. Yeah, we think of him as like this silent film horror actor, but he did all kinds of different genres. He really was completely multifaceted as a performer. As we said. He could dance, and he could uh, you know, direct, and he could basically do almost anything you handed him. And in nineteen fifteen he married again, this time to a woman named Hazel Hastings, And at that point he was working for Universal still and his son Creighton, who at that point had been in boarding school because Lawn's job was taking up so much time, moved to Los Angeles and the trio kind of settled into life as a as a family together, and Hazel, who had been a chorus girl, was with Lawn Cheney for the rest of his life. So the second time around, he got it right. From nineteen fourteen and nineteen eighteen, Lawn Cheney made more than one hundred movies with Universal Pictures. That's that's that's fifty a year a year. That's ridiculous. Yeah. So if you think about how long productions take today, imagine doing two a month for four years straight. So he then asked the studio for a raise at this point, and when he was turned down, he left the studio system to work as an actor for hire for a while, and it was rough going initially until he started getting the work in Western's we mentioned just a moment ago. Yeah, it was like a thing where he I think I'm gonna guess on the numbers. I know I have heard them and I didn't write them down, but it was like he was making a hundred dollars a week and he asked for one and they're like, you're never going to get that. Who do you think you are? Uh? And eventually he could say I'm long Cheney as who uh. And when he appeared as a con man character in a film UH called The Miracle Man. He appeared as a man called the Frog who had feigned a handicap, And this was in ninete and this particular role really brought him accolades for his incredible skill both with acting and with makeup, and it was basically his breakout role, bringing him really widespread recognition. At that point, some people knew him, but he wasn't like famous, and then he was. Uh. It also made more money for Paramount than any of their film that year, so those people at Universal probably felt really stupid after that. At that point, he was drawing on what he'd learned through observation and through his own experimentation. He had no formal training in the art of makeup. Through the years, though, he became more and more serious in learning about the application and uses of makeup. Eventually became such a recognized expert on the manner that he was asked to write Encyclopedia Britannica's Makeup entry in the nine edition of the publication. His makeup case, which was basically a small tool case, became famous for the many looks he could create using its content. Yeah, there's actually a great documentary where, uh, there is a historian who has the makeup case. And what's sort of fabulous is that when you open it, there's nothing unique in there. I mean, it's the same tools anyone else would have had, but he was just so deft at using them that he turned it into a magical source of all kinds of things. Um. Also in nineteen nineteen, Cheney acted in another film called The Wicked Darling, and the director on this picture was someone we've probably all heard of before, Todd Browning, who eventually went on to direct the cult classic Freaks, which sort of ended his career. But this was before that. Cheney knew that he could sometimes go too far as an actor. I mean he recognized that coming from theater and being so expressive, he needed a director to kind of reel him back and tell him when he had gone too far. Uh, And Browning for him, was like a perfect match. They ended up having this fantastic working relationship and they actually made ten films together. That was like three weeks of work. It was until later in they made several over the years. So Cheney would go to extreme lengths to create the illusion of an entirely new character, different from himself playing the character Blizzard in a film called The Penalty. Cheney's character was legless, so he physically strapped his legs back and his knees were contained in leather covers that simulated stumps which he walked on. And this system was not only painful, it cut off the circulation in his legs. I highly recommend you go online and look for clips of this film. It's mind blowing. Um, he kind of has crutches, but he really is just walking around on his knees throughout the whole film. Uh. And it looked utterly convincing. I mean utterly convincing. And it was a really powerful part in this film that was very full of upsetting images and ideas. It was kind of a controversial film at the time, and in it, Cheney's character wanted to cut off another man's legs and have them grafted onto his own. And while this is not considered one of Cheney's horror movies, his performance in it is utterly chilling and as scary as anything you will find today. Was the first instance of the phrase the Man of a thousand faces being associated with Cheney. That line was used as part of the marketing promotion for his film The Trap, a revenge story of a minor played by Cheney who has his mind and love interest stolen by a rival and then plots to ruin the usurper's life. It's melodramatic and it was not considered a succe. Yeah, he had really been like on such a h an upward trajectory in terms of his career that it was a little troubling to studio heads that they were like, why why are you doing this weird melodramatic film that is not making any money. They were early mad at him. They were more concerned with the director. But of course his makeup work for his role of Quasimodo in the film Hunchback of Notre Dame, which we mentioned at the top of the show, was impressive, so impressive at the time, including complete coverage of one of his eyes with a shell and then it was disguised in putty, so he looked like he had a completely mangled side of his face. But it was wearing this harness that both held the hunchback prosthetic, which you'll see it often listed as weighing like fifty pounds um. Historians have amended that to say, No, it was heavy. It was probably like between ten and twenty, but it was not fifty. That was an exaggeration. Um. But it held the hunchback prosthetic and it also altered his posture significantly. And it was all of this that really completed his transformation into the hunchback physically. Patsy Ruth Miller, who was Lawn's co star in the role of Esmeralda, once said in an interview that she felt Lawn, rather than Wallace Worsley, that truly directed the film. It was a massive and expensive undertaking, but it paid off. It was a huge success and made Cheney the most sought after actor in Hollywood. Yeah, Wallace Worsley, who directed The Hunchback Is was one of Lawn Cheny's good friends and so, uh, it really felt a little bit like Lawn Cheney had the better touch with actors when dealing with them, which is why his co star said she really felt like he directed that film. Uh. The MGM film He Who Gets Slapped was made in which is kind of the best title ever. Uh, and it starred Lawn Cheney. And this is actually a very depressing one. It's the story of a bitter clown uh. And it was a success, and it was also the start of a long term partnership between the studio and the actor. MGM was so happy to have him because he was doing amazing work for them. But of course it was Cheney's role in Phantom of the Opera that most modern audiences remember. Once again, the actor transformed himself through makeup. The moment when his character's mask is removed, revealing the disfigured face underneath, is one of film history's iconic scenes. The appearances in the film prior to that reveal, when the actor's face isn't even visible, really showcase Cheney's use of his physicality, particularly his hands, to convey emotion. Yeah, he was. He played all of these like really kind of heard edge characters a lot of the time, but he was one of the most graceful men you will ever see move. His hands were just completely graceful and beautiful when he wanted them to be. And there's this great scene in Phantom of the Opera where he is reaching out to touch the shoulder of the female lead and it is so beautiful and so elegant, but also so creepy at the same time. That it just evidences how this one person who just knows how to use his hands can convey keep points of the story without ever uttering a word. Uh. And then Phantom was followed by another film that you have probably seen images from, called London After Midnight, and that was in nine seven. And like I said, you've probably seen stills from this movie. It's uh. It features Cheney disguised as a vampire. His character is actually in a disguise as a vampire. He's not a vampire in a top hat. And he has these bulging eyes and so you've probably seen this, and that effect was actually achieved by fitting wires around his eyes and his eyelids to keep them open and looking sort of bulging. There are a couple of images you can see of close ups and and you can see the wire and if you're one of those people that's weird about stuff around your eyes, it will give you the he b gbs really bad. Um. But the film itself, unfortunately has been lost. There have been attempts to um find the pieces of footage that still exists and sort of put them back together, but the full film will never be seen again. Uh. And while it was something of a sensation at the time, and one man even claimed that it drove him to murder. That was actually his defense in court was that he saw this movie and it freaked him out so bad that he had to go out and kill someone. Uh. He did not get off on that charge. Uh. People who actually saw it in theaters and then talked about it later in life generally rated it as less enthralling than Phantom. But because it has been lost, it kind of gets a little bit of cash a and people maybe misremember just how scary it was. So Ever, working to both refine his makeup skills and to innovate, he made a mark literally when he found new ways to simulate scars in the film The Road Demand Alay. That same year, he made an uncharacteristic non makeup performance and Tell It to the Marines. Cheney played a tough drill sergeant and it set the standard for all the others that have been played in films since. And though he wore no makeup, audiences were so accustomed to seeing Cheney and one of his character creations that to some his real face looked unnatural. One critic wrote that the makeup work looked fake and that one of the lines was inconsistent. He had on no makeup whatsoever. Um. I've even read accounts to say he didn't even use powder. He just showed up on set and you know, went for it because there was a lot of action in that film. He was playing a marine and they were loading guns and stuff, and I mean like the huge size, and he was just there to do the physical work. And so they never bothered with powder, knowing it would vanish. But there were still some write ups that were like that makeup is not as good as we're used to seeing. Um. But positive reception for Tell It to the Marines far outweighed any of the negative reactions. Uh Lawn. Cheney was lauded for the performance, and he was actually even made an honorary US Marine and he was the first actor to be honored in this manner. And in the year that it was released, ninety nine just has been as had been the case the previous year of Night Lawn, Cheney was rated the number one mailbox office attraction by US theater owners. Next, we're gonna talk about how Cheney's intensely private life fueled rumors about why he was slow to transition into talkies. But first we're gonna pause for a little break to do to his makeup work and his commitment to physically uh, to complaying a completely different physicality in his roles. Lon Cheney became known as he had planned from the beginning for vanishing into each character that he played, essentially disappearing as himself, and this was in line with his proclivity to keep his personal life completely to himself. He allegedly said at one point quote between pictures, there is no Lawn Cheney. In truth, he just enjoyed a quiet life in Beverly Hills. He dabbled in photography and like to go fishing. He loved to read and cook. He studied the criminal justice system and actually wrote extensively about how prisons are run. And he only rarely did press like when any movie comes out now there's always a huge press junket, and actors have to spend ungodly amounts of time like basically just answering the same questions over and over. He refused to do this for the most part. Uh. He thought maintaining his air of mystery was actually going to be better publicity than giving interviews, and he was right. But this quiet life purposely away from the press also made it really, really easy for people to speculate about the real man behind all of those performances. That speculation reached a fever pitch as the film industry began moving away from silent pictures. Cheney, like Charlie Chaplin, waited as long as he could before taking a speaking role in film, and this led to wild theories that there was something wrong with his voice and that he'd never be able to make it in cinema's new age of sound because apparently none of those people knew that he had come up as an actor in the theater. Uh and this conjecture had been fueled as well by news in May nine that Lawn Cheney had become quite ill. It was reported as a bad case of the flu in the papers, but because his doctors refused to say anything about his condition or make any statements, it led to whispers of something more dangerous or insidious. When Cheney finally did star in a talkie n it was it was in a film called The Unholy Three, which was chosen very deliberately while director Todd Browning, who had already directed Cheney in a silent version of the Unholy Three had consistently denied the rumors that his frequent collaborator had any kind of vocal issue. Those rumors weren't really put to rest until this film debuted. In the strategy behind choosing this film, it really showcased Lawn Cheney's wide vocal range. He used five different voices in the film, including that of a parrot uh and in the film Laon. Cheney's character, who is a ventriloquist named Echo, joins up with two of his side show colleagues to commit burglaries, and for much of the film, Echo actually appears in disguise as a woman, so he's also doing a woman's voice. But just to make sure that people knew that it was in fact lawn Cheney doing all of those voices, they had a notary corroborate that Lawn and only Lawn was responsible for all of them. Throughout the making of the film, the notary fl Henderson of Los Angeles took Cheney's deposition on the matter, in which he stated, I Lawn Cheney being first duly sworn, deposed and say In the photoplay and entitled The Unholy Three, produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayor Corporation, all voice reproductions which purport to be reproductions of my voice, to with the ventriloquists, the Old Woman's, the Dummies, the parrots, and the girls are actual reproductions of my own voice, and in no place in said Photoplay, or in any other of the various characters played by me, and said photoplay was a double or a substitute. So while doing press for this picture, which he did this time around, he also said, quote, I want to play roles in which I can use several voices in the same play, so that people really won't be able to say which is my natural voice, just as I always have used makeup so they don't quite know what my real face is like. My whole career has been devoted to keeping people from knowing me, and I wouldn't sacrifice it by talking. On the other hand, the public is demanding that screenplay air's talk, and so we must talk. But I don't want to talk and spoil any illusion. But there really was a problem. Just six weeks after the premiere of The Unholy Three, news broke that the actor was quite ill. This basically was like a daily update in the papers at the time, so on July eighth, nineteen thirty, a brief article appeared in The New York Times indicating that Cheney had been hospitalized at Memorial Hospital in New York, and, according to the blurb that was written quote, the nature of his illness was not disclosed, and although it was said that he is here to undergo treatment on his throat, it is understood that he is suffering from a gall ailment. Neither the hospital nor Metro Goldwood Mayor would confirm that Cheney was even a patient at Memorial at the time. Chinese hospitalization after we returned to Los Angeles continued to be news. The story in the papers was that he had an attack of pneumonia and was a mnemic as a consequence. On August nineteen thirty, The New York Times reported that Cheney received a full blood transfusion, the third such treatment, and that he was improving. The following day, August, another article confirmed that the actor was resting while and making games and his battle against pernicious anemia. He died later that day of a throat hemorrhage. While it had not been made public, the actor had been battling bronchial cancer while filming bronchial cancer while filming The Unholy Three. And he was only forty seven when he died. Yes, so allegedly that instance in May of nine when he got sick was when he was actually diagnosed, and so he had known throughout filming that this may be his only his last picture. Uh. So he appeared in exactly one talkie, but boy is it a doozy because he did do five different voices. His funeral was announced in the papers on August quote, Lawn Cheney will be buried as he lived, simply and without display, at Glendale tomorrow. Uh. And at the time that Chenese remains were laid to rest, all pictures in production and studios in Hollywood stopped work and they went silent. I'm gonna get all choke up. Uh, And they went silent. To honor the actor. On the MGM lot, a marine color guard played taps and lowered the studio's flagged half mast. Lawn Cheney's crypt in Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery bears no name. That's one of those things that sometimes portrayed is like a big mystery. His crypt has no name. But if you just look at his life story, you completely understand why he didn't want his name on the crypt uh. And The New York Times reported that Lawn Cheney had left five hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of property to his widow, Hazel. That's Hazel Hastings Cheney at that point. This is a nice little, uh, kind of stick it to his ex wife. Cheney's will also stipulated that exactly one dollar was to go to his ex wife, Clevel Creton Bush, and this was done so that she could not claim that she had been left out of the will and mount an effort to contest it. His driver and companion of the last I think roughly decade of his life, John Jaski, received five thousand dollars in the will, and an insurance policy that was valued at two d seventy five thousand dollars was split among his siblings. In ninety seven, a biopic of Cheney's life titled Man of a Thousand Faces and Start James Cagney was made. UH And I have to say it's incredible. It's a really good to me fantastic So a lot of screen time in the movie was devoted to his tumultuous relationship with his first wife, and one of the advertising taglines for the film was who were the women who twisted his life and love, igniting the flame of his genius, driving him to immortal flame, to immortal fame. Yeah, it's a little melodramatic. Uh, There's there's such a fantastic moment in that movie though, where he's in the hospital dying of cancer, and there's there's so much importance placed on his makeup box, right, and his son is they're like coping with the death of his father. And James Cagney does this. It's such a level that's you know, you think of Robert Downey Jr. As chaplain and Chaplain Cagney did the same thing as Lawn Cheney in this movie. And so Cagneys they're laying in the hospital bed and he and he beckons with without a voice because his throat is messed up, and he beckons his son to come over with the makeup box and it says Lawn Cheney on it, and he just he gets a piece of the grease paint or whatever and then writes Junior on the box. And that's sort of in the movie. The last sort of communication he has with his son before he before he dies. Then it's It's beautiful, which I think is fiction. But I'm sure, I'm sure it's fiction, but it's fantastic in the movie. I mean, here's the thing. If anybody could pull out that kind of like drama at the end of their lives, it's Lawn Cheney. But I believe that's fiction. And it's actually not clear how many films exactly Lawn Cheney appeared in before his untimely death. There is a count, sort of an official count of a hundred and fifty seven, but even that is qualified as uncertain because in those early days at Universal, he appeared in so many movies as an uncredited bit player that's it's almost impossible to get an accurate account. Um, it's not like we can go back and look at all the films and seek him out one because he was already doing some disguise work and to because a lot of those films don't exist anymore. So there's really no way to know. Uh, we do know that there was a period where he would get pictures of himself in films and send them to his relatives, and he was so good even then at disguising himself he would have to circle who he was in the picture because they didn't know, they couldn't pick him out. And I believe like in his early career when he was doing films, like he was just picking up a lot of extra work because he was disguising himself so well. So it was it wasn't even like he was a featured player, Like he'd be bit bit player number three in the background with a really gnarly scar on his face. Yeah. Yeah, he could just transition like that. He was the guy to call when you needed an extra body. So there's a wonderful story that Cheney himself allegedly loved. Um And at some point in the nineteen twenties, when Cheney's fame for transforming himself was well established and revered, a workman on a picture that that Marshall Neelan was directing saw a spider on the floor and prepared to end its life with his foot, and the director interceded on the spider's behalf, saying, don't step on it. It could be lawn. Cheney, he apparently loved this story. Um. And then to close out, I thought it might be right to leave you with some advice that Lawn Cheney actually gave to Boris Karloff, and it is about finding success, in this instance in a movie career, but it is also just really good life advice. In my opinion, find something no one else can or will do. The secret of success in movies lies in being different from everyone else. So that's Lawn Cheney. Many many thanks, as Tracy said at the beginning, to Brian for co hosting on this one, but also from me. He's I've said many times, he's like a brother to me. I really love Brian and he's great to work with. And if you want to know more about his work as a writer, you can check out Brian Young fiction dot com or you can chase down on Twitter. He is at swank Matron, but we'll point out that it is Brian b r y A n oh. Yes, that's a good thing to do. And immense thanks as always to Salt Lake Comic Con and to Ryan Call, their director of programming. Salt Like Comic Con is one of both of our favorite cons. I was really bummed out that I had a commitment that meant that I could not be at this one. It is both exciting and relaxed at the same time, everyone who works to bring the show to fruition, from its administrators all the way down to the volunteers, has just been incredibly kind and delightful to be around every time we have been there. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, I love it. I always have nothing short of a blast at salt Like comic con, and I'm always delighted that people will come up and introduce themselves and and hang out. UM. I met a lovely listener named Clark and his family on the street while we were waiting for food trucks, and then I saw them later on UH and they were just so sweet. I love everybody there, So thank you Saltlake for having me again because I love it. UH. And now to close out, I have a little bit of listener mail. And this is another postcard round up, because we have a pile of postcards that is obscene in size and I feel bad that, as we always say, we can't recognize every single person. UM. Our first postcard is from our listener UH Kirston, who is writing us from Berlin UH and says that she's a huge fan of the podcast and that she and her partner are vacationing and she works in film and television in Toronto, Canada. She says, thank you for many hours of educational entertainment while I work behind the scenes at the Canadian Broadcast Center. She also gives us a really good idea for a future episode that she came across while touring a German film museum, and she says, your team always does such amazing work. A thousand thank you from across the world. You're devoted listener, Kirston. Our team is really just me and Tracy and Noel, but I feel like we haven't taken an opportunity to thank Noel for being amazing in a while. We'd be dead in the water without him, So nol thank you from us and listeners. UM. We also have a lovely postcard of the Chateau desh Antilly from our listener Katerina. Um. It is absolutely beautiful. This one has gotten really obscured by the postal service and their markings, but it's a really beautiful postcard and I wanted to thank you for sending it. Uh. And then our last one is from our listener Katie, who says I just wanted to send a note to say how much I love your podcast. I listened to it on my way to work and I often end up having fun facts to share with my students. I've been leading a US tour around the UK and I've been revisiting some of the old episodes, like the Brontes. We spent a day at the Royal Shakespeare Company and I was able to share some information about Iref Frederick Aldrich with the group. Thank you for making my travels more fun. And she sent a beautiful postcard from the Royal Shakespeare Company of the inside of the theater with all of the boxes UH displayed, and it's really really lovely, So thank you, thank you, thank you. If you would like to write to us, you can do so at History Podcast at how sto works dot com. You can also find us on social media as in History pretty much anywhere you look, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler and interest. If you would like to check out any of our back episodes, we've got them all for me online. You can do that at missed in history dot com, or you will also find show notes for any of the episodes that Tracy and I have worked on together. So we encourage you come and look around and explore history with us. At missed industry dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit housetop works dot com.

Welcome to Steph you missed in history class from how Stuff Works dot Com. Welcome to the show. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Wilson. We recently had a live show in Salt Lake City. Tracy was unable to make it, so friend of the show and previous guest Brian Young stepped into co host. I want to give my huge thanks to Brian Young. Yes, Brian Young has has been a guest on our show on a number of occasions, many of them when I could not be present for a live appearance. Yeah, thank you so much for that, Brian. And this live show is all about Lawn Cheney Senior in the amazing career he crafted as both an actor and a makeup artist. Yeah. I think I said before we started that show, but to the audience that while I was researching this, I really fell in love with Lawn Cheney. I had not known all that much about him beforehand, and I have immense respect and adoration for him. So let's jump right in. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Brian Uh. And Brian. In our long ongoing tradition of featuring classic horror stars, as part of our lead up to Halloween, we're going to talk today about Lon Cheney, and not only was he a star as an actor, but he was famed really for his use of makeup, and in fact, his passion to completely transform himself for each role, coupled with a determination to keep his life off screen as private as possible, probably robbed him a little bit of historical notoriety. But his life story reveals more than just an actor. It shows a man who loved the art of creating both stage and film in a holistic sense, a man who was happy to move sets and stage manage and choreograph and as well as act. And he was described by one of his co stars is quote extremely kind, thoughtful and protective. Yeah, which is kind of at odds of the image he had. He played a lot of heavy ease, but he was in fact apparently just the sweetest man. But he didn't want anybody to know that because he was afraid it would impact his career. And while he appeared in more than one hundred and fifty films, today he is most remembered for his roles into silent films Hunchback of Notre Dame in ninety five Phantom of the Opera. That is probably the image you immediately conjured in your head was him in the Phantom of the Opera makeup. Uh. We're going to talk about those, but we'll also examine his extensive career that's far beyond them, which led him to eventually be called the Man of a Thousand Faces. On April Fool's Day, which was April first, eighteen eighty three, Leonidas Frank Cheney was born Lawn, as he became to be called, was the second child of four. His parents, Frank and Emma Cheney of Colorado Springs, Colorado, were both deaf mutes. This had often been cited as the reason that Cheney became such a proficient actor. He'd spent his youth learning to communicate without language through gesture, signing, and facial expression, skills he would use to inhabit roles on stage and screen. And there's one particular point where that became really important in his life as a child, which we will talk about right now. When Lawn was only nine years old, his mother became really, really ill. She had a very high degree of inflammation from rheumatism, and it rendered her unable to perform most tasks, and Lawn actually dropped out of school to become her nurse made so he was basically in the fourth grade at this time, and that is where his education ended. But this is one of the things people site because she had such a difficult time communicating even she was really unable to sign because she was in so much pain that she couldn't move very much. And he really kind of went to a whole other degree of pantomime to communicate with her. And so that is really where his his ability to communicate without speaking at all began. So it's a boy. Lawn attended public school in Colorado Springs, but he didn't finish his education like Holly said. Instead, he took a job as a guide and made money by helping to navigate the trail to Pike's Peak. His next job brought him into the theater. The Colorado Springs Opera House hired him as a property boy, and working as a property boy offered him a really unique learning experience that impacted his life forever. While he was in the theater, he would actually watch other actors put on their makeup, noting the various techniques that each of them were using to achieve different looks, and he learned through observation. Basically, one of those actors that he spied on while the man applied his own makeup was Richard Mansfield, who was famous for his portrayal of the dual role of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and who was also a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case. Uh. Mansfield could very well be a podcast subject in the future. Yeah, he's on my list because he's a whole other fascinating thing. But he was really a famous actor at the time. So when Lon Cheney later cited in his life during interviews like, oh, yeah, I learned from watching Mansfield do his makeup, it was pretty noteworthy. It would be like someone today going totally spied on Johnny Depp. Uh, it's the same idea. And later Cheney would say of this time in his life and its impact, quote, I used to watch Richard Mansfield and Robert Mantell and others. Those old doctor actors never showed the audience themselves, but really dawned the personality of the character they were playing. From the beginning of my acting career, I always strove to bury my own personality in my part. When Cheney was in his late teens, he started his first stage acting job. The play was called The Little Tycoon and Cheney had written it with his brother John. His brother was also a theater manager, so they had a venue to produce the play, and it went well enough that the brothers next produced a series of Gilbert and Sullivan operas there in Colorado Springs and so a tour was the next logical step, but it really barely off. The got off the ground before the sibling impresarios ran out of money. Uh So the solution was that they had to sell their theater company. But even after that sale, Lawn state on uh and the new iteration of the troupe was on tour in Oklahoma City, and Lawn Cheney I met a singer named Francis Cleveland Creighton, who went by Cleveland for short. Cleveland joined the tour, which was something she did despite pressure from her family to stay in Oklahoma City, and she and Lawn became romantically involved. The pair were married in nineteen o five, and in February of nineteen o six, they had a son, Creighton Toll Cheney. Creighton would become better known by the stage name Lawn Cheney Jr. And he followed in his father's footsteps as an actor. This is one of those parts of Lawn Cheney's life that is a little different depending on your source, because there are rumors that, in fact, of course, they got pregnant and had to get married, but some versions of it suggests that they actually didn't get married until after the baby was born, and then they fudged the record. Uh So it's a little unclear, but it's a hundred years ago. We'll just give it to him. And eventually the couple went back on the road. They paused for a little while when uh uh, Creton was a baby, but this time they just took their son along with them. And Lawn had always wanted to continue work in the theater. He didn't see family life as something that was really going to be fulfilling for him, even though he gave it a whirl like in more traditional jobs, and even as he got work as an actor. Though. One of the things that was interesting is that he actually maintained his stage hands Union card, so he would help move scenery during shows without hesitation. He was perfectly happy to be backstage helping out, even while he was waiting for his cues. UH, and while he still pursued acting and dancing, his knowledge of the technical side of production enabled him to really be a diversified UH job opportunist, and so he could also get work as a stage director, for example, and make sure he always made ends meet for the family. As part of a vaudeville troupe, the Chinese traveled to the West Coast in nineteen ten and settled there. Lawn would act, stage managed, choreograph whatever was required to keep a job in the theater. Cleveland began to build a decent singing career, but she also developed a drinking problem and their marriage really started to suffer. There was also a lot of jealousy and there were allegations of cheating, and it just was not a good match long term. Uh and Cleveland became increasingly unstable, and in en she attempted to take her own life by drinking by chloride of mercury. But she did this in a very dramatic way, which was that she did it off stage in a theater where Lawn was working at the time, and it ruined her voice, so her singing career was destroyed, even though she did not die, and it ruined their marriage forever. Their divorce was final the next year, and Lawn Cheney raised his son, Creighton as a solo parent after the split. I have read that he actually told Creighton that his mother had died, and so he never knew his mom until after she had actually passed away. He never knew what had really happened. So before we pick up with Chenese life after his divorce, we're gonna take a quick break where we left off. We had just talked about Clevland's suicide attempt, and not only did this of course completely shatter his family life, but this cast a shadow over Lawn's career in the theater. It basically kind of was always going to be associated with him in theatrical circles, and it made it hard for him to get a job, and it was part of why he turned to film to sort of shift gears and kick start his career all over again. And he had already been getting into film at this time. It wasn't like he went theater's over film now. He just put more of his effort into film work at that point, and he had appeared in a short made by the Rex Motion Picture Company at that point called the Honor of the family. That was in nineteen twelve, but after the scandal of his failed marriage ending dramatically as I said, he completely abandoned theatrical work and pursued film work full time. Shaney initially appeared in a number of bit parts. He eventually worked on films such as False Faces and Riddled Gone, among others, before appearing in his first credited role in the nineteen fourteen Universal Pictures film Hell Morgan's Girl. He also did slapstick comedies and worked with Western star J Warren Carragan on seven films. Yeah, we think of him as like this silent film horror actor, but he did all kinds of different genres. He really was completely multifaceted as a performer. As we said. He could dance, and he could uh, you know, direct, and he could basically do almost anything you handed him. And in nineteen fifteen he married again, this time to a woman named Hazel Hastings, And at that point he was working for Universal still and his son Creighton, who at that point had been in boarding school because Lawn's job was taking up so much time, moved to Los Angeles and the trio kind of settled into life as a as a family together, and Hazel, who had been a chorus girl, was with Lawn Cheney for the rest of his life. So the second time around, he got it right. From nineteen fourteen and nineteen eighteen, Lawn Cheney made more than one hundred movies with Universal Pictures. That's that's that's fifty a year a year. That's ridiculous. Yeah. So if you think about how long productions take today, imagine doing two a month for four years straight. So he then asked the studio for a raise at this point, and when he was turned down, he left the studio system to work as an actor for hire for a while, and it was rough going initially until he started getting the work in Western's we mentioned just a moment ago. Yeah, it was like a thing where he I think I'm gonna guess on the numbers. I know I have heard them and I didn't write them down, but it was like he was making a hundred dollars a week and he asked for one and they're like, you're never going to get that. Who do you think you are? Uh? And eventually he could say I'm long Cheney as who uh. And when he appeared as a con man character in a film UH called The Miracle Man. He appeared as a man called the Frog who had feigned a handicap, And this was in ninete and this particular role really brought him accolades for his incredible skill both with acting and with makeup, and it was basically his breakout role, bringing him really widespread recognition. At that point, some people knew him, but he wasn't like famous, and then he was. Uh. It also made more money for Paramount than any of their film that year, so those people at Universal probably felt really stupid after that. At that point, he was drawing on what he'd learned through observation and through his own experimentation. He had no formal training in the art of makeup. Through the years, though, he became more and more serious in learning about the application and uses of makeup. Eventually became such a recognized expert on the manner that he was asked to write Encyclopedia Britannica's Makeup entry in the nine edition of the publication. His makeup case, which was basically a small tool case, became famous for the many looks he could create using its content. Yeah, there's actually a great documentary where, uh, there is a historian who has the makeup case. And what's sort of fabulous is that when you open it, there's nothing unique in there. I mean, it's the same tools anyone else would have had, but he was just so deft at using them that he turned it into a magical source of all kinds of things. Um. Also in nineteen nineteen, Cheney acted in another film called The Wicked Darling, and the director on this picture was someone we've probably all heard of before, Todd Browning, who eventually went on to direct the cult classic Freaks, which sort of ended his career. But this was before that. Cheney knew that he could sometimes go too far as an actor. I mean he recognized that coming from theater and being so expressive, he needed a director to kind of reel him back and tell him when he had gone too far. Uh, And Browning for him, was like a perfect match. They ended up having this fantastic working relationship and they actually made ten films together. That was like three weeks of work. It was until later in they made several over the years. So Cheney would go to extreme lengths to create the illusion of an entirely new character, different from himself playing the character Blizzard in a film called The Penalty. Cheney's character was legless, so he physically strapped his legs back and his knees were contained in leather covers that simulated stumps which he walked on. And this system was not only painful, it cut off the circulation in his legs. I highly recommend you go online and look for clips of this film. It's mind blowing. Um, he kind of has crutches, but he really is just walking around on his knees throughout the whole film. Uh. And it looked utterly convincing. I mean utterly convincing. And it was a really powerful part in this film that was very full of upsetting images and ideas. It was kind of a controversial film at the time, and in it, Cheney's character wanted to cut off another man's legs and have them grafted onto his own. And while this is not considered one of Cheney's horror movies, his performance in it is utterly chilling and as scary as anything you will find today. Was the first instance of the phrase the Man of a thousand faces being associated with Cheney. That line was used as part of the marketing promotion for his film The Trap, a revenge story of a minor played by Cheney who has his mind and love interest stolen by a rival and then plots to ruin the usurper's life. It's melodramatic and it was not considered a succe. Yeah, he had really been like on such a h an upward trajectory in terms of his career that it was a little troubling to studio heads that they were like, why why are you doing this weird melodramatic film that is not making any money. They were early mad at him. They were more concerned with the director. But of course his makeup work for his role of Quasimodo in the film Hunchback of Notre Dame, which we mentioned at the top of the show, was impressive, so impressive at the time, including complete coverage of one of his eyes with a shell and then it was disguised in putty, so he looked like he had a completely mangled side of his face. But it was wearing this harness that both held the hunchback prosthetic, which you'll see it often listed as weighing like fifty pounds um. Historians have amended that to say, No, it was heavy. It was probably like between ten and twenty, but it was not fifty. That was an exaggeration. Um. But it held the hunchback prosthetic and it also altered his posture significantly. And it was all of this that really completed his transformation into the hunchback physically. Patsy Ruth Miller, who was Lawn's co star in the role of Esmeralda, once said in an interview that she felt Lawn, rather than Wallace Worsley, that truly directed the film. It was a massive and expensive undertaking, but it paid off. It was a huge success and made Cheney the most sought after actor in Hollywood. Yeah, Wallace Worsley, who directed The Hunchback Is was one of Lawn Cheny's good friends and so, uh, it really felt a little bit like Lawn Cheney had the better touch with actors when dealing with them, which is why his co star said she really felt like he directed that film. Uh. The MGM film He Who Gets Slapped was made in which is kind of the best title ever. Uh, and it starred Lawn Cheney. And this is actually a very depressing one. It's the story of a bitter clown uh. And it was a success, and it was also the start of a long term partnership between the studio and the actor. MGM was so happy to have him because he was doing amazing work for them. But of course it was Cheney's role in Phantom of the Opera that most modern audiences remember. Once again, the actor transformed himself through makeup. The moment when his character's mask is removed, revealing the disfigured face underneath, is one of film history's iconic scenes. The appearances in the film prior to that reveal, when the actor's face isn't even visible, really showcase Cheney's use of his physicality, particularly his hands, to convey emotion. Yeah, he was. He played all of these like really kind of heard edge characters a lot of the time, but he was one of the most graceful men you will ever see move. His hands were just completely graceful and beautiful when he wanted them to be. And there's this great scene in Phantom of the Opera where he is reaching out to touch the shoulder of the female lead and it is so beautiful and so elegant, but also so creepy at the same time. That it just evidences how this one person who just knows how to use his hands can convey keep points of the story without ever uttering a word. Uh. And then Phantom was followed by another film that you have probably seen images from, called London After Midnight, and that was in nine seven. And like I said, you've probably seen stills from this movie. It's uh. It features Cheney disguised as a vampire. His character is actually in a disguise as a vampire. He's not a vampire in a top hat. And he has these bulging eyes and so you've probably seen this, and that effect was actually achieved by fitting wires around his eyes and his eyelids to keep them open and looking sort of bulging. There are a couple of images you can see of close ups and and you can see the wire and if you're one of those people that's weird about stuff around your eyes, it will give you the he b gbs really bad. Um. But the film itself, unfortunately has been lost. There have been attempts to um find the pieces of footage that still exists and sort of put them back together, but the full film will never be seen again. Uh. And while it was something of a sensation at the time, and one man even claimed that it drove him to murder. That was actually his defense in court was that he saw this movie and it freaked him out so bad that he had to go out and kill someone. Uh. He did not get off on that charge. Uh. People who actually saw it in theaters and then talked about it later in life generally rated it as less enthralling than Phantom. But because it has been lost, it kind of gets a little bit of cash a and people maybe misremember just how scary it was. So Ever, working to both refine his makeup skills and to innovate, he made a mark literally when he found new ways to simulate scars in the film The Road Demand Alay. That same year, he made an uncharacteristic non makeup performance and Tell It to the Marines. Cheney played a tough drill sergeant and it set the standard for all the others that have been played in films since. And though he wore no makeup, audiences were so accustomed to seeing Cheney and one of his character creations that to some his real face looked unnatural. One critic wrote that the makeup work looked fake and that one of the lines was inconsistent. He had on no makeup whatsoever. Um. I've even read accounts to say he didn't even use powder. He just showed up on set and you know, went for it because there was a lot of action in that film. He was playing a marine and they were loading guns and stuff, and I mean like the huge size, and he was just there to do the physical work. And so they never bothered with powder, knowing it would vanish. But there were still some write ups that were like that makeup is not as good as we're used to seeing. Um. But positive reception for Tell It to the Marines far outweighed any of the negative reactions. Uh Lawn. Cheney was lauded for the performance, and he was actually even made an honorary US Marine and he was the first actor to be honored in this manner. And in the year that it was released, ninety nine just has been as had been the case the previous year of Night Lawn, Cheney was rated the number one mailbox office attraction by US theater owners. Next, we're gonna talk about how Cheney's intensely private life fueled rumors about why he was slow to transition into talkies. But first we're gonna pause for a little break to do to his makeup work and his commitment to physically uh, to complaying a completely different physicality in his roles. Lon Cheney became known as he had planned from the beginning for vanishing into each character that he played, essentially disappearing as himself, and this was in line with his proclivity to keep his personal life completely to himself. He allegedly said at one point quote between pictures, there is no Lawn Cheney. In truth, he just enjoyed a quiet life in Beverly Hills. He dabbled in photography and like to go fishing. He loved to read and cook. He studied the criminal justice system and actually wrote extensively about how prisons are run. And he only rarely did press like when any movie comes out now there's always a huge press junket, and actors have to spend ungodly amounts of time like basically just answering the same questions over and over. He refused to do this for the most part. Uh. He thought maintaining his air of mystery was actually going to be better publicity than giving interviews, and he was right. But this quiet life purposely away from the press also made it really, really easy for people to speculate about the real man behind all of those performances. That speculation reached a fever pitch as the film industry began moving away from silent pictures. Cheney, like Charlie Chaplin, waited as long as he could before taking a speaking role in film, and this led to wild theories that there was something wrong with his voice and that he'd never be able to make it in cinema's new age of sound because apparently none of those people knew that he had come up as an actor in the theater. Uh and this conjecture had been fueled as well by news in May nine that Lawn Cheney had become quite ill. It was reported as a bad case of the flu in the papers, but because his doctors refused to say anything about his condition or make any statements, it led to whispers of something more dangerous or insidious. When Cheney finally did star in a talkie n it was it was in a film called The Unholy Three, which was chosen very deliberately while director Todd Browning, who had already directed Cheney in a silent version of the Unholy Three had consistently denied the rumors that his frequent collaborator had any kind of vocal issue. Those rumors weren't really put to rest until this film debuted. In the strategy behind choosing this film, it really showcased Lawn Cheney's wide vocal range. He used five different voices in the film, including that of a parrot uh and in the film Laon. Cheney's character, who is a ventriloquist named Echo, joins up with two of his side show colleagues to commit burglaries, and for much of the film, Echo actually appears in disguise as a woman, so he's also doing a woman's voice. But just to make sure that people knew that it was in fact lawn Cheney doing all of those voices, they had a notary corroborate that Lawn and only Lawn was responsible for all of them. Throughout the making of the film, the notary fl Henderson of Los Angeles took Cheney's deposition on the matter, in which he stated, I Lawn Cheney being first duly sworn, deposed and say In the photoplay and entitled The Unholy Three, produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayor Corporation, all voice reproductions which purport to be reproductions of my voice, to with the ventriloquists, the Old Woman's, the Dummies, the parrots, and the girls are actual reproductions of my own voice, and in no place in said Photoplay, or in any other of the various characters played by me, and said photoplay was a double or a substitute. So while doing press for this picture, which he did this time around, he also said, quote, I want to play roles in which I can use several voices in the same play, so that people really won't be able to say which is my natural voice, just as I always have used makeup so they don't quite know what my real face is like. My whole career has been devoted to keeping people from knowing me, and I wouldn't sacrifice it by talking. On the other hand, the public is demanding that screenplay air's talk, and so we must talk. But I don't want to talk and spoil any illusion. But there really was a problem. Just six weeks after the premiere of The Unholy Three, news broke that the actor was quite ill. This basically was like a daily update in the papers at the time, so on July eighth, nineteen thirty, a brief article appeared in The New York Times indicating that Cheney had been hospitalized at Memorial Hospital in New York, and, according to the blurb that was written quote, the nature of his illness was not disclosed, and although it was said that he is here to undergo treatment on his throat, it is understood that he is suffering from a gall ailment. Neither the hospital nor Metro Goldwood Mayor would confirm that Cheney was even a patient at Memorial at the time. Chinese hospitalization after we returned to Los Angeles continued to be news. The story in the papers was that he had an attack of pneumonia and was a mnemic as a consequence. On August nineteen thirty, The New York Times reported that Cheney received a full blood transfusion, the third such treatment, and that he was improving. The following day, August, another article confirmed that the actor was resting while and making games and his battle against pernicious anemia. He died later that day of a throat hemorrhage. While it had not been made public, the actor had been battling bronchial cancer while filming bronchial cancer while filming The Unholy Three. And he was only forty seven when he died. Yes, so allegedly that instance in May of nine when he got sick was when he was actually diagnosed, and so he had known throughout filming that this may be his only his last picture. Uh. So he appeared in exactly one talkie, but boy is it a doozy because he did do five different voices. His funeral was announced in the papers on August quote, Lawn Cheney will be buried as he lived, simply and without display, at Glendale tomorrow. Uh. And at the time that Chenese remains were laid to rest, all pictures in production and studios in Hollywood stopped work and they went silent. I'm gonna get all choke up. Uh, And they went silent. To honor the actor. On the MGM lot, a marine color guard played taps and lowered the studio's flagged half mast. Lawn Cheney's crypt in Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery bears no name. That's one of those things that sometimes portrayed is like a big mystery. His crypt has no name. But if you just look at his life story, you completely understand why he didn't want his name on the crypt uh. And The New York Times reported that Lawn Cheney had left five hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of property to his widow, Hazel. That's Hazel Hastings Cheney at that point. This is a nice little, uh, kind of stick it to his ex wife. Cheney's will also stipulated that exactly one dollar was to go to his ex wife, Clevel Creton Bush, and this was done so that she could not claim that she had been left out of the will and mount an effort to contest it. His driver and companion of the last I think roughly decade of his life, John Jaski, received five thousand dollars in the will, and an insurance policy that was valued at two d seventy five thousand dollars was split among his siblings. In ninety seven, a biopic of Cheney's life titled Man of a Thousand Faces and Start James Cagney was made. UH And I have to say it's incredible. It's a really good to me fantastic So a lot of screen time in the movie was devoted to his tumultuous relationship with his first wife, and one of the advertising taglines for the film was who were the women who twisted his life and love, igniting the flame of his genius, driving him to immortal flame, to immortal fame. Yeah, it's a little melodramatic. Uh, There's there's such a fantastic moment in that movie though, where he's in the hospital dying of cancer, and there's there's so much importance placed on his makeup box, right, and his son is they're like coping with the death of his father. And James Cagney does this. It's such a level that's you know, you think of Robert Downey Jr. As chaplain and Chaplain Cagney did the same thing as Lawn Cheney in this movie. And so Cagneys they're laying in the hospital bed and he and he beckons with without a voice because his throat is messed up, and he beckons his son to come over with the makeup box and it says Lawn Cheney on it, and he just he gets a piece of the grease paint or whatever and then writes Junior on the box. And that's sort of in the movie. The last sort of communication he has with his son before he before he dies. Then it's It's beautiful, which I think is fiction. But I'm sure, I'm sure it's fiction, but it's fantastic in the movie. I mean, here's the thing. If anybody could pull out that kind of like drama at the end of their lives, it's Lawn Cheney. But I believe that's fiction. And it's actually not clear how many films exactly Lawn Cheney appeared in before his untimely death. There is a count, sort of an official count of a hundred and fifty seven, but even that is qualified as uncertain because in those early days at Universal, he appeared in so many movies as an uncredited bit player that's it's almost impossible to get an accurate account. Um, it's not like we can go back and look at all the films and seek him out one because he was already doing some disguise work and to because a lot of those films don't exist anymore. So there's really no way to know. Uh, we do know that there was a period where he would get pictures of himself in films and send them to his relatives, and he was so good even then at disguising himself he would have to circle who he was in the picture because they didn't know, they couldn't pick him out. And I believe like in his early career when he was doing films, like he was just picking up a lot of extra work because he was disguising himself so well. So it was it wasn't even like he was a featured player, Like he'd be bit bit player number three in the background with a really gnarly scar on his face. Yeah. Yeah, he could just transition like that. He was the guy to call when you needed an extra body. So there's a wonderful story that Cheney himself allegedly loved. Um And at some point in the nineteen twenties, when Cheney's fame for transforming himself was well established and revered, a workman on a picture that that Marshall Neelan was directing saw a spider on the floor and prepared to end its life with his foot, and the director interceded on the spider's behalf, saying, don't step on it. It could be lawn. Cheney, he apparently loved this story. Um. And then to close out, I thought it might be right to leave you with some advice that Lawn Cheney actually gave to Boris Karloff, and it is about finding success, in this instance in a movie career, but it is also just really good life advice. In my opinion, find something no one else can or will do. The secret of success in movies lies in being different from everyone else. So that's Lawn Cheney. Many many thanks, as Tracy said at the beginning, to Brian for co hosting on this one, but also from me. He's I've said many times, he's like a brother to me. I really love Brian and he's great to work with. And if you want to know more about his work as a writer, you can check out Brian Young fiction dot com or you can chase down on Twitter. He is at swank Matron, but we'll point out that it is Brian b r y A n oh. Yes, that's a good thing to do. And immense thanks as always to Salt Lake Comic Con and to Ryan Call, their director of programming. Salt Like Comic Con is one of both of our favorite cons. I was really bummed out that I had a commitment that meant that I could not be at this one. It is both exciting and relaxed at the same time, everyone who works to bring the show to fruition, from its administrators all the way down to the volunteers, has just been incredibly kind and delightful to be around every time we have been there. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, I love it. I always have nothing short of a blast at salt Like comic con, and I'm always delighted that people will come up and introduce themselves and and hang out. UM. I met a lovely listener named Clark and his family on the street while we were waiting for food trucks, and then I saw them later on UH and they were just so sweet. I love everybody there, So thank you Saltlake for having me again because I love it. UH. And now to close out, I have a little bit of listener mail. And this is another postcard round up, because we have a pile of postcards that is obscene in size and I feel bad that, as we always say, we can't recognize every single person. UM. Our first postcard is from our listener UH Kirston, who is writing us from Berlin UH and says that she's a huge fan of the podcast and that she and her partner are vacationing and she works in film and television in Toronto, Canada. She says, thank you for many hours of educational entertainment while I work behind the scenes at the Canadian Broadcast Center. She also gives us a really good idea for a future episode that she came across while touring a German film museum, and she says, your team always does such amazing work. A thousand thank you from across the world. You're devoted listener, Kirston. Our team is really just me and Tracy and Noel, but I feel like we haven't taken an opportunity to thank Noel for being amazing in a while. We'd be dead in the water without him, So nol thank you from us and listeners. UM. We also have a lovely postcard of the Chateau desh Antilly from our listener Katerina. Um. It is absolutely beautiful. This one has gotten really obscured by the postal service and their markings, but it's a really beautiful postcard and I wanted to thank you for sending it. Uh. And then our last one is from our listener Katie, who says I just wanted to send a note to say how much I love your podcast. I listened to it on my way to work and I often end up having fun facts to share with my students. I've been leading a US tour around the UK and I've been revisiting some of the old episodes, like the Brontes. We spent a day at the Royal Shakespeare Company and I was able to share some information about Iref Frederick Aldrich with the group. Thank you for making my travels more fun. And she sent a beautiful postcard from the Royal Shakespeare Company of the inside of the theater with all of the boxes UH displayed, and it's really really lovely, So thank you, thank you, thank you. If you would like to write to us, you can do so at History Podcast at how sto works dot com. You can also find us on social media as in History pretty much anywhere you look, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler and interest. If you would like to check out any of our back episodes, we've got them all for me online. You can do that at missed in history dot com, or you will also find show notes for any of the episodes that Tracy and I have worked on together. So we encourage you come and look around and explore history with us. At missed industry dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit housetop works dot com.