Mallory O’Meara - The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

The Lady from the Black Lagoon uncovers the life and work of Milicent Patrickone of Disneys first female animators and the only woman in history to create one of Hollywoods classic movie monsters

As a teenager, Mallory OMeara was thrilled to discover that one of her favorite movies, Creature from the Black Lagoon, featured a monster designed by a woman, Milicent Patrick. But for someone who should have been hailed as a pioneer in the genre, there was little information available. For, as OMeara soon discovered, Patricks contribution had been claimed by a jealous male colleague, her career had been cut short and she soon after had disappeared from film history. No one even knew if she was still alive.

As a young woman working in the horror film industry, OMeara set out to right the wrong, and in the process discovered the full, fascinating story of an ambitious, artistic woman ahead of her time. Patricks contribution to special effects proved to be just the latest chapter in a remarkable, unconventional life, from her youth growing up in the shadow of Hearst Castle, to her career as one of Disneys first female animators. And at last, OMeara discovered what really had happened to Patrick after the Creatures success, and where she went.

A true-life detective story and a celebration of a forgotten feminist trailblazer, Mallory OMearas The Lady from the Black Lagoon establishes Patrick in her rightful place in film history while calling out a Hollywood culture where little has changed since.

Praise for The Lady from the Black Lagoon

OMearas deep dive into this unfairly forgotten genius of character creation enriches Hollywood history and should inspire future lady monster-makers for years to come.

Sam Maggs, author of Girl Squads and Wonder Women

The woman behind the classic monsters of our collective Hollywood fantasies finally comes to life within this compelling odyssey of betrayal, broken dreams and shining resilience. Spanning the worlds of film, animation, horror and glamour, Mallory OMeara richly reweaves the splintered mystery of Milicent Patrick into a dead-on expos of Hollywood then and now. Dive in!

Mindy Johnson, author of Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disneys Animation

The Lady from the Black Lagoon is a celebration of the life and shamefully overlooked work of Milicent Patrick. Its also an unflinching, from-the-front-lines recounting of Hollywoods toxic patriarchal culture, a history of all manner of monsters. Youll be infuriated at the legacy of continuing injustice but inspired by the talent, will, and spirit of Milicent Patrick and Mallory OMeara.

Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World

The Lady from the Black Lagoon is not just a story that needed to be told, the exact right person told it. At some point, the book starts to resemble troika dolls: echoes of Milicent Patricks life can be heard in Mallory OMearas life, and echoes of Mallorys can be heard in ours, the readers. Its then that you realize how profound this book really is.

Josh Malerman, author of Bird Box

Like many women film pioneers, Milicent Patricks trailblazing creature design and special make-up effects work has largely gone unrecognized, overlooked or even attributed to men. The Lady from the Black Lagoon shines a vital light on one of the unsung women heroes of cinema.

Jovanka Vuckovic, author of Zombies! An Illustrated History of the Undead

MALLORY OMEARA

THE LADY
FROM THE
BLACK LAGOON

HOLLYWOOD MONSTERS
AND THE LOST LEGACY
OF MILICENT PATRICK

Mallory OMeara is an author, screenwriter and film producer. Whether its for the screen or the page, she seeks creative projects filled with horror and monsters. Every week, Mallory cohosts the literary podcast Reading Glasses. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner and too many cats.

Follow Mallory on Twitter and Instagram, @malloryomeara.

www.MalloryOMeara.com

To all the monster girls.

Show them your teeth.

Contents

In a low-cut, tight-fitting black crepe dress, worn under a white lace coat, with flashing necklace, earrings and bracelets, Miss Patrick, who is of Italian German descent, looked a lot more like a fashion illustration herself than a creator of bizarre monsters. Unmarried, she admits to no current romance.

Why should I bother with the Hollywood wolves? she murmured. Im happy with my monsters.

Milicent Patrick in an interview with journalist Jane Corby for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle , Valentines Day, 1954

During the course of Milicent Patricks life, she went by many names. To keep things straight for me as a writer and you as a reader, Im going to refer to her as Milicent throughout the book, even during the early days of her life, long before she decided to call herself Milicent Patrick. Milicent was the name that she chose for herself. Its the name Ill use to tell her story.

In 1954, Milicent Patrick was an artist working for the world-renowned special effects shop at Universal Studios in California, the movie company famous for its monsters. Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman and Frankensteins monster all had leaped from the studio there onto the silver screen and eventually, into the pantheon of film legends. That year, Universal was gearing up to unleash their latest horror creation upon the world, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Milicent Patrick had just made history by designing it. No woman had ever designed a monster for a major motion picture before.

Universal sent Milicent on a press tour across the country to promote the film. During the months she was away, a storm of resentment and jealousy raged back at the studio. The head of the makeup shop, a man named Bud Westmore, wanted the recognition Milicent was getting. Even though he received sole on-screen credit for the Creature, he couldnt stand seeing Milicent in the spotlight while he stayed behind at Universal. By the time she returned to Hollywood, she no longer had a job. He pulled her from the film projects she had already started working on and refused to hire her for future work.

After that, Milicent never designed another monster. She never designed anything for film ever again. Her name faded into obscurity while the Creature went on to become one of the most iconic movie creations of all time.

On-screen credits in the 1950s were not as comprehensive as they are today; her name does not appear anywhere in the film. Her contribution to cinematic history soon sank into a black lagoon of its own. The only people who remembered her were dedicated monster fans. Even they were in the dark as to where she went, what happened to her.

Thats where I come in.

Until I started writing this book, the previous few paragraphs were all I, or any of my horror film colleagues, knew about Milicent Patrick. She is, at the time that I write this in 2018, still the only woman to have designed an iconic movie monster. Her rise, fall and disappearance behind-the-scenes in Hollywood is the type of story films are made of, the type of story that needs to be told.

This book started as a straightforward biography, the fascinating story of a fascinating person. But the more people I told about the project, the more I was asked why I was doing it. She was some woman who designed a monster for an old black-and-white movie. Why was that important?