Original Uncropped Phantom Photo

In 1965, Don Post Studios’ Universal Horrors line represented the ultimate in monster masks.  To show off this line, Verne Langdon took one copy of each of the masks and personally finished them with a unique paint and hair scheme.  He had them professionally photographed by J. Barry Herron, a photographer who would go on to a career as a cinematographer and director of photography in the motion picture industry.  The 11x14 prints were then framed and hung on the office walls at Don Post Studios.

Shortly after the offices were decorated with these prints, publisher Jim Matthews attended at Don Post Studios to discuss advertising Don Post masks in a new magazine he was launching called Modern Monsters.  Upon seeing the framed photos, Matthews recognized the potential to do something commercial with the photos.  His initial idea was to sell prints, however Verne had the idea of creating a calendar instead.  This became the now famous 1966 calendar and also why the Universal Horrors masks are referred to as the "Calendar Masks".

Some of the original photographs from the walls of DPS are still floating around in private collections.  I own the original Creature photo, which is looking a bit worse for wear and definitely showing its age.

In researching the book, I would often come across scans of B&W copies of the photos but was never sure where they originally came from.  Some of these were B&W copies of the photos we're all familiar with, while some were alternate takes.  An example is this Frankenstein, which has the hand visible across the chest.  When compared to the calendar photo, too much of the chest is visible in the calendar photo for it to simply have been cropped out.  I suppose it could have been airbrushed out, but it is more likely Herron told Don Post Jr. (who was the model in the Herron photos) to lower his hand then snapped another photo.

I was browsing on Ebay of all places for mask photos when I came across this familiar face: 

I was just looking at the calendar Phantom photo just the other day, comparing it to a custom painted mask I had received as part of a project to complete a set of calendar replica masks. If there's any interest I can share those here with you too.  Anyway, I noticed the Phantom hand in the photo and did not recall seeing it in the calendar photo.  I went back and double checked the calendar and confirmed it had been cropped off at the bottom of the costume's V neck.  

I went into my own archives (which, as you can imagine, are quite extensive from researching the book) and looked to see if I had this uncropped image anywhere.  I had lots of photos from the Herron shoot and was confident I had seen them all, but this one was nowhere to be found.  

I saved the image and tried cropping it to see if it matched the calendar photo. I'll let you be the judge:

Next comes the question if it's an original photo or a print and where it's been for the last 50+ years.  Both questions are answered by looking at the back of the photo:

The Barry J Herron stamp shows it is an original photo from his studio, and the initials FJA indicate this photo was in the archives of Forrest J Ackerman, the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland.  There was a very close relationship between Warren Publishing (publishers of FM) and Don Post Studios at the time.  This is where I move away from fact and into the realm of speculation, but I can easily see Forry asking for copies of the photos for inclusion in future issues of FM.  Since the magazine was published in black and white, he would not have needed color photos which would explain why he had B&W copies.  I recall seeing some calendar photos in FM, but never this one in particular.  I could have easily missed or forgotten it, or he may have gotten the complete set and only used a few.    

    

This discovery just goes to show that there lots of treasures out there to still be discovered.  There is still a lot of new information to learn in this hobby, probably one of the reasons I love it so much.