Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod

Browning, Hollywood's Master of the Macabre by

David J. Skal

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Original Title: Dark Carnival

ISBN: 0385474067
ISBN13: 9780385474061
Autor: David J. Skal/Elias Savada
Rating: 3 of 5 stars (1184) counts
Original Format: Hardcover, 360 pages
Download Format: PDF, RTF, ePub, CHM, MP3.
Published: September 1st 1995 / by DoubleDay
Language: English
Genre(s):
Culture >Film- 9 users
Media Tie In >Movies- 5 users
Biography- 4 users
History- 3 users
Horror- 3 users
Nonfiction- 2 users

Description:

One of the most original and unsettling filmmakers of all time -- thecreator of the horror classics
"Dracula" and "Freaks," among others-- Tod Browning is also one of the most enigmatic directors
who ever worked inHollywood. A complicated, troubled, and fiercely private man, he
confoundedwould-be biographers hoping to penetrate his secret, obsessive world -- bothduring his
lifetime and afterward.Now, film historians David J. Skal and Elias Savada, using newly
discoveredfamily documents and revealing published interviews with friends andcolleagues, join
forces for the first full-length biography of the man whoearned a reputation as "the Edgar Allan
Poe of the cinema." The authorschronicle Browning's turn-of-the-century flight from an eccentric
Louisvillefamily into the world of carnival sideshows (where he began his careerliterally buried
alive) and vaudeville, his disastrous first marriage, hisrapid climb to riches in the burgeoning silent
film industry, and thealcoholism that would plague him throughout his life. Browning's
legendarycollaborations with Lon Chaney, Sr., and Bela "Dracula" Lugosi are explored indepth,
along with the studio politics that ended his career after the bizarrecircus drama "Freaks" -- a cult
classic today -- proved to be one of thebiggest box-office disasters of the early thirties.

Illustrated throughout with rare photographs, "Dark Carnival" is both anartful, often shocking
portrait of a singular film pioneer and an illuminatingstudy of the evolution of horror, essential to an
understanding of ourcontinuing fascination with the macabre.

About Author:

David J. Skal became fascinated with monsters at the height of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis,
when indestructible monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man provided a "nuclear
security blanket" for a whole generation of youngsters.
Active as an editor and reporter on his high school newspaper, he was granted a journalism
scholarship to Ohio University, Athens, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1974. His work as
film critic, arts reporter, arts editor and assistant managing editor of the Ohio University Post, one
of the country's leading college papers,led to his three-season appointment as publicity director of
the University-operated Monomoy Theatre on Cape Cod. Following his graduation, he served as a
public affairs intern in the office of National Endowment for the Arts chairman Nancy Hanks, and
went on to the position of Publicity Director at the Hartford Stage Company, where he oversaw all
media relations while the regional company fund-raised, built and opened a major new facility in
downtown Hartford. In 1978, he was staff writer for the American Conservatory Theatre in San
Francisco, with responsibility for the content of all printed materials. From 1979-1982 he was
Publications Director of Theatre Communications Group, a national service organization in New
York City. From 1982 to 1992 he was president and creative director of David J. Skal Associates,
Inc. (later Visual Cortex Ltd.), a Manhattan-based, nationally oriented design and marketing
consultancy with clients ranging from the Metroplitan Opera to regional theatre, dance and music
organizations.
A published writer of short fiction since his early college years (he was one of the youngest
students ever admitted to the celebrated Clarion Writers Workshop in fantasy and science fiction),
he authored three well-received science fiction novels: SCAVENGERS (1980), WHEN WE WERE
GOOD (1981) and ANTIBODIES (1987). His long-standing interest in Dracula and his extensive
contacts in the theatre world led to his first nonfiction book, HOLLYWOOD GOTHIC: THE
TANGLED WEB OF DRACULA FROM NOVEL TO STAGE TO SCREEN (1990), followed by THE
MONSTER SHOW: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF HORROR (1993). Many other books followed,
including V IS FOR VAMPIRE (1995); DARK CARNIVAL: THE SECRET WORLD OF TOD
BROWNING (1995,with Elias Savada); the Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker's DRACULA
(1996, co-edited with Nina Auerbach); SCREAMS OF REASON: MAD SCIENCE AND MODERN
CULTURE(1997); and the monumental anthology VAMPIRES: ENCOUNTERS WITH THE
UNDEAD (2001, the largest such illustrated/annotated compendium ever published.
Skal began his work as a documentary filmmaker writing and co-producing segments for the A&E
Network's award-winning series "Biography," and contributed scripts chronicling the lives and
careers of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr. and Angela Lansbury (with whom he had
worked during his theatre career). In 1999, he wrote, co-produced and co-directed a behind-the-
scenes chronicle of the Academy Award-winning film GODS AND MONSTERS. The same year,
he was tapped by Universal Studios Home Video for a series of twelve original DVD
documentaries exploring the legacies of the studio's classic horror and science fiction films. His
DVD work has continued with Disney Home Video's "Jules Verne and Walt Disney: Explorers of
the Imagination" (2003) and the feature commentary for Warner Home Video's special-edition
release of Tod Browning's FREAKS (2004).
His current projects include CITIZEN CLONE: THE MORPHING OF AMERICA (Faber and Faber,
2005)and CLAUDE RAINS: AN ACTOR'S VOICE, a biography based on the acclaimed character
actor's never-published reminiscences, written in collaboration with the actor's daughter, Jessica
Rains.
David Skal is a member of the Authors Guild. He lives and writes in Glendale, California.

Other Editions:

Books By Author:

- The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror

 - Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween

- Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to

Screen

- Vampires: Encounters With the Undead

- Romancing the Vampire: From Past to Present

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- Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents

- Nightmare Movies: A Critical Guide to Contemporary Horror Films

- Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx

 - Cronenberg on Cronenberg

- Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies, 1956-1984

- Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters

- Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman,
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- Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film

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Rewiews:

Mar 19, 2008

Jackie "the Librarian"
Rated it: it was amazing
Shelves: non-fiction, biography, movies
I picked this up because of my love of the movie Dracula and old horror movies in general. The
author, David Skal, has written about the history of the horror movie, and here he focuses on Tod
Browning, best known as the director of the movie Dracula.
Browning put on plays as a kid in his backyard, and at the age of sixteen ran off with the circus.
His performing experience there eventually led to work in the brand new movie industry.
He worked extensively with Lon Chaney, with whom he made sever
I picked this up because of my love of the movie Dracula and old horror movies in general. The
author, David Skal, has written about the history of the horror movie, and here he focuses on Tod
Browning, best known as the director of the movie Dracula.
Browning put on plays as a kid in his backyard, and at the age of sixteen ran off with the circus.
His performing experience there eventually led to work in the brand new movie industry.
He worked extensively with Lon Chaney, with whom he made several silent features. Browning's
movies celebrated anti-heroes, such as armless knife throwers, circus freaks, and, of course,
vampires.
A fascinating look at the beginnings of the movie industry, and horror films.
3 likes