1:20:06
Arthur Schutt, the virtuoso
recording pianist at MGM,
1:20:09
was brought over
to play the piano concerto.
1:20:13
He also orchestrated Edward Ward's
score, along with Harold Zweifel.
1:20:43
Built when movies were silent,
one problem with stage 28 is its tin roof,
1:20:47
which makes sound filming impossible
on those days when El Niño kicks up.
1:20:51
The Screen Actors Guild basic agreement
1:20:53
has a clause specifically referring
to cast calls
1:20:56
on "so-called Phantom stages",
1:20:59
detailing the producer's
legal responsibility to SAG members
1:21:03
when shooting is cancelled due
to things beyond the producer's control,
1:21:07
like that noisy tin roof.
1:21:09
Frequently, interior sets are built
in the auditorium space.
1:21:13
When I visited the stage
in 1989 with Mary Philbin,
1:21:16
the stage was filled with
a full interior of a suburban house
1:21:19
for the Bill Cosby comedy Ghost Dad.
1:21:22
The Phantom stage has engendered
"sub-urban" legends
1:21:26
in Universal City and adjoining
North Hollywood and Burbank.
1:21:29
When my eldest daughter
was at Burbank Elementary,
1:21:32
her teacher regaled the class
with the true story of an electrician
1:21:36
who had fallen from the catwalk,
and his ghost now walked the stage.
1:21:41
The buzz is that the stage is haunted, but
I have yet to find any first-hand accounts.
1:21:48
Claude Rains may have been concerned
about his future as a leading man,
1:21:51
but Lubin was concerned about delivering
a horror picture with some horror.
1:21:56
Lubin told me "Whoever heard
of a horror picture without horror?"