Continuing with the interview begun last month, we continue to glimpse the private life of one of the best-remembered and best-loved genre stars, Lon Chaney, Jr., as told by his grandson, Ron, who proves himself truly deserving to be called...

PART TWO

By CHRIS PUSTORINO

(Note: A version of this interview with the grandson of Lon Chaney, Jr. originally appeared in Filmfax magazine. Click here to read Part One of this interview.) HORROR-WOOD: During Lon, Jr.'s first marriage, to Dorothy, he had two sons, Lon Chaney, III and Ronald. Ronald was your father and Lon III, your uncle. Do you know if either of them wanted to go into acting?

RON CHANEY: They were on various sets with my grandfather and they did bring my Uncle Lon down for a screen test. He went down for a particular part, although I'm not exactly sure what it was. He was a good-looking guy and tested very well--and they liked him. But, from what I understand, he just didn't like it. Plus, I also think probably a lot of the memories he had about the acting profession weren't very good as far as my grandfather's career went. You know, anybody in that profession is usually dedicating a lot of their time to doing what they're doing and all the things that come with it, and it isn't always conducive to a good family life. My real grandmother, Dorothy, and my grandfather, were divorced when the boys were very young, so there were some bitter memories of that separation and, in their viewpoint, they may have felt the movie profession was responsible for the break up. As for my father, I never remember him saying anything one way or another about going into the business at all, although I think he really could have, because he was a very good-looking man.

H-W: I've not read much about either one of Lon, Jr.'s sons. I mean, there hasn't been much written about the two of them.

RC: Well, there's not a whole lot, no.

H-W: Do you intend to write more about them in your book?

RC: Yes. I bring them in and out. I want people to see that there are pictures of my grandfather with his boys as they were growing up. Of course, it was in a divorce situation, where he would have them only for a while. They were put in a boarding school at some point. My grandmother had remarried and Gramps had remarried and they were both very busy working. I'll reveal more of that in the book. But, I'll put it this way, my father was very close to my grandfather.

H-W: What did your father and uncle end up doing for a living?

Lon Chaney, Sr., and his famed makeup kit.

RC: My father was a rancher and farmer. He loved the outdoors, which was always a big part of the Chaneys lives. Lon Sr.'s father was, of course, a deaf barber, but his father, Lon, Sr.'s grandfather, was a farmer and his great-grandfather was a congressman who was also a great outdoorsman. One thing the Chaneys have always had is a love for the outdoors. They loved hunting and fishing and being close to nature. I think that's why a lot of people can relate to them because they bring forth a different element. They're not the flashy type. They were just hard-working individuals who succeeded through their own perserverance more than anything else.

H-W: Is your father or your uncle still living?

RC: No. They've both passed away. My Dad passed away about ten years ago and my uncle about six years ago.

H-W: Your father must've been fairly young, wasn't he?

RC: He was 57. The Chaney men have this thing about the "7". Lon, Sr. died at 47, my dad died at 57, and my grandfather died at 67.

H-W: May I ask how old you are?

RC: (Laughs) Well, I got past 37, so I'm good until 47. If I can get past this next "7", then I'll be all right!

H-W: And, how about you? Did you ever have any desire to go into acting yourself?

RC: I did take some acting, early in college. It was something I kind of always wanted to do. But, I got involved with my business and having kids. But, through the book, it's given me the opportunity to pursue some of those ideas again. In fact, that's how I developed my ideas for a screenplay, with the working of Phantom Rider. We've already developed the make-up for the main character. My mom says, "That's how Gramps was. You're an awful lot like him in that way." It's a western-horror, but it starts out during the Civil War. It's based in reality, with some Indian mysticism that comes into play, with all these other little twists and turns. It's basically a fight between good and evil, and more of a throw-back to the classic style of movies instead of today's slash and cut films. If I'm ever given the chance I would really like to do it, but if it takes too much longer, I'm going to be too old. (Laughs) Maybe it'll be for [my son, Creighton] to do.

Lon Chaney, Sr., from the lost film London After Midnfght.

H-W: Can you tell me a little about your grandmother, Dorothy?

RC: My grandmother was an extremely successful business woman. She was very intelligent and sophisticated, and very well-mannered in her upbringing. Extremely successful. A lot of people don't know that my grandfather had been in the plumbing business. Well, that was actually Dorothy's father's company, and [Lon, Jr.] had gone to work for him. But, their divorce was very bitter, mainly because she had stood behind my grandfather when he made the decision to go into the acting profession. It wasn't what she really wanted, but she stood by him, nevertheless. And, then my grandfather met "Patsy", my step-grandmother, and fell in love with her. Well, my grandmother wasn't very happy about it--to say the least, and it ultimately caused the breakup of their marriage. I mean, they were married, had two boys, and had a successful business going. But, Dorothy was a very cultured and successful woman, nonetheless. She later remarried and lived in Hollywood--and I'm very proud of her accomplishments.

H-W: After his divorce from Dorothy, Lon would soon marry Patricia, or "Patsy". Is Patsy still alive?

RC: No. Grandma Patsy also died about six or seven years ago. This was also unfortunate because she, herself, tried to finish the book that Gramps had started back in the Sixties. There were a lot of bitter times in their marriage, also. I mean, there were a lot of wonderful memories, but there were also a lot of harsh ones. Yet, she always defended him and was probably his greatest ally and always looked after him. My grandfather was so giving, he'd give everything away and would sometimes spend money foolishly, so she was the caretaker and sort of kept him in line in that respect. In her later years, she could no longer make it up steps and she needed to move to a flat area, so my brother and I moved her. She never threw anything away; always collected things. So when we moved her, we came across all these photographs--and the book that we remembered as kids. I said, "Grandma, maybe there are still people out there who would enjoy seeing this project completed. We should do this." But, she was real adamant and said, "No. That would just bring back a lot of things--and I may say some things about some people that I really don't want to." Well, I kept after her until she finally said okay. But, unfortunately, she passed away kind of unexpectedly, and that's how come it's taken me so long to try and learn and educate myself on their careers, because it really wasn't something I had concentrated on.

H-W: I've always been curious. Where is Lon's final resting place?

RC: He's scattered in the wind. He didn't want any funeral and he didn't want anyone to know about it. He donated his body to medicine because he believed that by doing so, it may help someone else. My grandmother did the same thing.

H-W: Tell me, other than what you've already shown me, what sort of things do you now have in your possession, that once belonged to Lon?

Lon Chaney, Jr., is a "fit" subject  for art...

RC: Well, his Of Mice And Men scrapbook, along with a lot of information and photos on the early part of his life and career. I have one of his hats that he wore in one of his movies. Yeah, we have a lot of memorabilia. In fact, a year before the stamps were released, we unveiled them at Universal in Florida and I wore his tie for the event. No one would have known that, but it was special to me.

H-W: So, now, you're working on the very book that your grandfather started, but was unable to finish. You've had to do quite a bit of research, haven't you?

RC: Yes. I didn't know a lot of these things about my family. But, it's really interesting because, now that I've had the benefit of looking back into the history and development of my own family, I can see situations that occurred that actually had repercussions years later. I can see how Lon, Sr.'s life really effected my grandfather's life and career, and how my grandfather's life effected my father's life, and then, how his life effected my own life. It's really, very interesting. I'm just trying to finish the book, mainly in my grandfather's honor.

H-W: Do you know when Lon actually first began work on the book himself? Was it in the Sixties?

RC: Yes. I was probably about thirteen or fourteen years old at the time, and I remember him pasting all those pictures together. At one point he did have a woman helping him on the book; helping him put it together--and he even shopped it around to various publishers. But, he worked on it, off and on, for many years before it just ended up in boxes.

H-W: Do you have a title for the book?

RC: I want to keep the title that he originally planned: A Century Of Chaneys.

H-W: What sort of things do you essentially plan to cover in the book?

RC: Well, the book has taken on two dimensions now, so there will actually be a part one and a part two. It's all about the collective careers of Lon, Sr., Cleva Creighton Chaney, and my grandfather, Lon Chaney, Jr. All combined, it comes to a hundred years.

H-W: On behalf of the thousands of anxious fans around the world, I have to ask if you have any idea when the book will be finished and in the bookstores?

A studio publicity still of Lon Chaney, Jr.

RC: (Laughs) You know, I made a comment about five years ago that it should be done in two years! But, I, like him, have only been able to work on it off and on. It's taken lots of different twists and turns. New information tends to lead to other avenues, which then lead to other avenues and so on. But, now, I pretty much have all the information I'm going to use, based on interviews, articles, photographs and things my grandfather had written. Just numerous pieces of information. I want to keep it very entertaining and follow the same thoughts that my grandfather had about it, being somewhat of a family scrapbook/coffee table type of thing. My goal is for it to be entertaining and not just something that's full of facts. I hope the fans like it because it will definitely have lots of photographs and lots of comments and things they've never seen or read before. But, I also want it to go beyond the fan stage and make it entertaining to people who have an overall appreciation of the film industry, art, and the graphics of those periods, as they read about this family's walk through history.

H-W: It sounds to me like it will definitely be entertaining, but also an extremely important work in terms of film history.

RC: Well, my main goal behind doing all this research is to actually do a film on their lives--and much more accurately than what was done before. Get the truth out. Because the story of the Chaneys was dramatic without Hollywood ever needing to do anything to it. It would also reflect a good part of United States history. From the people that worked with my family, from the stage actors of the late 1800's to the Vaudeville days to early silent motion-pictures to the evolution of talkies and then to television. I mean, it's all in there.

H-W: In your opinion, what do you think it is about your grandfather, Lon Chaney, Jr., that continues to tantalize people so much and keep them flocking to see his work and read about his life?

RC: He was unique in the sense that he had a lot of the "common man" persona. He wasn't flamboyant. I think people really relate to him because of the pain in his life, the suffering between his father and himself--and other things. He just brought so much of his own personality out in his movies. He bared his soul to the people. I mean, it wasn't always all an act; you actually saw part of the real man. It's kind of funny. When Bela Lugosi, Jr. and Sara Karloff and I have been to the same conventions at the same time, I could see that people just love Boris Karloff. The fans just swarm around because they just love this sophisticated, English gentleman. Bela Lugosi, on the other hand, seemed to have this kind of macabre sense, you know, with the Dracula persona, and he draws a different kind of crowd. And, then we've got fans of Lon, Sr. and Lon, Jr. But, for the Lon, Jr. part, the fans just seem to relate to that Wolf Man role so much because of the tragic circumstances that surround the character. That could be reflected in any number of ways: He was a good person, but he did bad things. Well, I think we all do that to some degree.

H-W: For years, he was concerned about being compared to his father in terms of his abilities and talent as an actor. But, wouldn't you say that today, Lon Chaney, Jr. has more than achieved his own fame--and manages to stand alone as an entity that's altogether separate from his famous father?

Lon Chaney, Jr., with Burgess Meredith in Of Mice And Men.

RC: Oh, most definitely. He never wanted to be compared to his father. It was everyone else who did that. He respected his father. He knew that he was a one-of-a-kind--and a genius at what he did. Although he grew up around the business, he still had to learn it. He knew he had to learn it and he knew he had to take his lumps along with it. He never wanted to be compared to his father. That's why he refused to take his name when the studios wanted him to. His career is really something--and, I think, since the dawn of home-video, people are now only beginning to realize the vast body of work that he actually did--and finding out just what a truly fine actor he was. I've read some things that people have written, comments that question his ability as an actor and I think they're crazy! When you look at his work in pictures like Of Mice And Men or as Lawrence Talbot or in High Noon or The Defiant Ones, it's just great! His career definitely stands and speaks for itself.

H-W: Have you been able to see a good portion of Lon's films?

RC: I've been trying. I've made a lot of friends through the conventions or through letters that have helped me beef up my own video collection. I get as much as I can--just so I can have something, even if it's just a rough copy. I guess I've taken on the role of being the family archivist. I hope some day that, when I'm long gone, my kids or grandkids will say, "Wow, he sure put a lot of work into this."

H-W: I know that you, along with Boris Karloff's daughter, Sara, and Bela Lugosi's son, Bela, Jr., had joined forces some time back, to petition for the production of the commemorative stamps of your famous family members, which finally came out last year. Who did the art work for the stamps?

RC: The artist's name was Thomas Blacksheer. He did a fantastic job capturing the essence of the characters and films. I couldn't have been more pleased with the results. But, there were a lot of people that contributed, including the U.S. Post Office, Universal as well as the fans and their families. I really want to thank all who supported the campaign.

Lon Chaney, Jr., being made up by makeup maestro Jack Pierce for his immortal role as the Wolf Man.

H-W: Now that this has been accomplished, is there anything else on your agenda, other than the book, that we can look forward to in the near future?

RC: Yes, actually, there is. I went to Hollywood several years ago to find my grandfather's star on the Walk of Fame. I searched and finally did find Lon, Sr., but it turned out that my grandfather, Lon, Jr., never had a star. So, one of my goals is to get him a star. I'm in the application process right now. It's very expensive. When I first looked into it, it was $5,000 and I just didn't have the money at that time. Right now, the cost for a star is up to $10,000. So, now, when I'm asked by someone if they can use a film-clip for something or if they can use a poster in the background of movie, things like that, what I'm doing in response to those requests, is asking for donations towards my grandfather's star. And, this will also be open to any fans as well--who may want to make a donation. It has to go through several processes, but hopefully we can get the star in the very near future.

H-W: What a great idea! And, allowing the fans of Lon, Jr. to get involved is fantastic!

RC: I would like so very much to have the fans be a part of it. I've met some wonderful people with whom [Gramps] has had a tremendous influence on in their lives, so it would also be a dedication and a thank you to all of them.

Lon Chaney, Jr., on the set between takes in his later years.

H-W: And, finally, what would you say are probably the fondest memories you have of your grandfather?

RC: I'd have to say, listening to his stories. He was so animated when he would tell them. You know, he knew and spoke sign language. When he would go on stage from city to city, he'd visit what were called the "Silent" clubs in each major city and would talk to the people there. So, whenever he told a story, he would really get into it. He would change his voice and his expression--and his hands would be moving and he just made the stories come alive. Those are the greatest memories.

H-W: Thanks for taking time out to talk to me, Ron.

RC: You're quite welcome--and thank you.

* * *

It's become quite apparent today that, 25 years after his death, there exists a sincere appreciation, a deep respect, an undeniable fascination and, perhaps most importantly, a broader understanding, for Lon Chaney, Jr., the "man", as well as, the "actor". Although he's been gone these many years, these sentiments continue to prevail as his image shines brighter than ever, acknowledged and reflected in the minds and hearts of a tremendous and loyal following of thousands of devoted fans and ardent admirers around the world, a number that rapidly increases with each passing year. Anyone who would like to participate in Ron Chaney's efforts to purchase a star for his grandfather, to be placed on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, he asks that you please send check or money order, of any amount, payable to: The Lon Chaney, Jr. "Star Fund", and mail it to: P.O. Box 4550, Palm Springs, California, 92263-4550. Update: Lon Chaney, Jr.'s star has yet to be purchased. Since this interview was conducted in April of 1998, the cost for a "Walk of Fame" star has risen to $15,000.  (Be sure to check out the Chaney website and store here.)

Again, many thanks to Chris and, of course, to Ron Chaney.  If anyone deserves a "star" on that sidewalk, Lon Chaney, Jr., does.  We hope to see that become a reality soon.

Article copyright © Chris Pustorino

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