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Auction History Result 5p1273 CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON signed linen Belgian 1954 by Ben Chapman, great monster art! Date Sold 12/19/2023 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical Linenbacked Autographed Belgian Movie Poster (measures 14 1/2" x 21 3/4" [37 x 55 cm]) (Learn More) Creature from the Black Lagoon, the classic 1954 Jack Arnold Universal 3-D (3D; 3-Dimension) science fiction (sci-fi) monster horror thriller ("Sheer, stark terror grips you in underwater... 3-D"; "Terrifying monster of the ages raging with pent-up passions! ...with every man his mortal enemy ...and a woman's beauty his prey!"; "Centuries of passion pent up in his savage heart!"; "Amazing! Startling! Shocking!"; "Monster from a million years ago!"; "Clawing Monster From A Lost Age strikes from the Amazon's forbidden depths!"; "Thrills beyond compare in... 3D") starring Richard Carlson, Julie Adams (billed as "Julia Adams"), Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, Whit Bissell, Ricou Browning (who played the Gill Man underwater), Ben Chapman (who played the Gill Man on land), and Bernie Gozier. Note that the inspiration for this movie began when William Alland (the producer of this movie) was playing an acting role in "Citizen Kane", and he learned of a myth about half-man half-fish creatures in the Amazon. He wrote notes for a story called "The Sea Monster" in 1951, combining the above myth with the "Beauty and the Beast" story. In December 1952, a 59-page treatment called "Black Lagoon" was written by Maurice Zimm and Leo Lieberman wrote a script based on that treatment in early 1953, but Universal turned it down. After this script was written, a new script was written by Arthur Ross and Harry Essex, and that was the script that was used for the movie as filmed, and the last great Universal monster was created! Finally, note that the wonderful creature costume was created by a woman named Milicent Patrick, who you probably never heard of, but she deserves to be well remembered. She was a top pianist as a young girl, and she graduated from high school at 14. She went to work for Disney as an artist in the animation department in the late 1940s, and she was the first female hired by Disney in that capacity. In 1954, she designed the classic creature costume used in this movie, but the head of the makeup department did all he could do to keep her from getting proper credit, and as a result, she left Universal. It is said that she also created some of the well known costumes in other Universal horror and sci-fi movies preceding this, but there is no clear record as to which ones (but some great monsters of this time, including the ones in "This Island Earth", seem to be unmistakably her design). She turned to acting, appearing in a few movies and on TV, but she pretty much vanished in the early 1960s. She passed away in 1998 at the age of 82. She certainly deserves massive credit for her contributions to this movie and other great 1950s monster movies, but that may never happen. NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. If you know who did the art (if any), please let us know. Important Added Info: Note that this poster has been personally autographed (signed) by Ben Chapman! Our consignor is a longtime collector who purchased this signed item from a reputable dealer. He does not have a certificate of authenticity, but we believe the signature to surely be authentic (because Mr. Chapman regularly signed through the mail and at shows). However, there is something very unusual about the poster. It was originally printed with an area at the bottom that said "RELIEF" (the French term for 3-D), but that area was trimmed off, because the poster was used by a theater that did not show the movie in 3-D. Later, someone linenbacked the poster and they created new artwork for the bottom 1/2", so that it would look right, and then they added a separate 1/2" piece from a different poster that had most of the correct tiny printing for this poster (they went to a lot of work to make this poster look like it was printed this way!). The owner of it likely did not realize that this alteration had occurred, and when they met Ben Chapman, they had him sign the poster, and Chapman signed in the bottom blank border, but it was the recreated bottom border. So this IS an original 1954 poster signed by Ben Chapman, but he signed in the recreated portion, as explained above. What IS linenbacking? Learn More Overall Condition and Pre-Restoration Defects with Quality of Restoration: good to very good. The poster had its bottom trimmed off, as described above. We have seen a number of examples of this poster with similar trimming. It also had some tiny creases along many folds and tiny creases and tears around the edges. Overall, the poster was in good to very good condition prior to linenbacking. As described above, a restorer created art for the bottom edge and added a bottom border from a different poster, and the poster displays well, but bear all of the above in mind before bidding on this cool poster. Learn More about condition grades 
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