:00:14
The one emblematic movie monster
of the 1950s emerged - in 3-D, no less -
:00:19
from Universal Pictures, the studio which
had already led the field for two decades.
:00:23
Sci-fi expert Bill Warren calls it "one of
the most famous monsters ever created".
:00:28
Sci-fi authority Bob Burns says it's
among the best monsters ever designed,
:00:32
and despite its Johnny-come-lately
status, it fits in with Frankenstein,
:00:36
the wolf man, the mummy and all the rest
of the great movie monsters of old.
:00:39
The characters in the movie
call him the gill-man.
:00:42
The people who made the movie
affectionately called him "the beastie".
:00:45
We call him "the Creature
from the Black Lagoon".
:00:48
Out of the Devonian Period, when life
crawled out of the sea, it came.
:00:51
From fishlike thing to mammal, from
mammal to a manlike horror of the sea.
:00:55
With the heart of a human, filled with
hate, and a manlike instinct to love.
:01:00
My name is Tom Weaver. Together
we'll go back to that black lagoon
:01:03
and look behind the scenes at
one of the best monster movies
:01:06
from the second half of the 20th century.
:01:09
In the beginning,
there was William Alland.
:01:12
Alland had the idea for Creature from the
Black Lagoon and produced the picture.
:01:16
Alland was born in Delmar, Delaware,
:01:18
and he began his career
as an actor with a Baltimore troupe.
:01:22
He moved to New York City,
:01:24
arriving there with a few belongings, $25,
and the ambition to work on Broadway.
:01:28
He took acting courses, and he acted
at the Henry Street Settlement House,
:01:32
which is where he met Orson Welles.
:01:34
This was in the '30s.
Welles was on the verge of forming
:01:37
his famous
Mercury Players acting company.
:01:39
Alland worked with the Mercury Players
on stage and on the radio.
:01:42
He was in the cast of the notorious 1938
War of the Worlds CBS radio broadcast,
:01:48
which was so realistic
it caused a panic among listeners,
:01:51
and Welles and Alland nearly went to jail.
They continued to associate for years.
:01:56
Alland acted in some of Welles' movies,
including Citizen Kane.