The Phantom of Stage 16: Prologue

His face was by all rights his fortune. Beginning in 1920, Erik Stevenson was the king of silent movies. When the striking 20-year-old first arrived in Hollywood in 1919, he was said to look very much like famous stage and screen star John Barrymore. However, within just a year of his screen debut, his own piercing eyes and dramatic profile became the very logo of Hollywood. The lines around the theater for his films were spectacular, and he could hardly make films quickly enough to please his audience. Many studios tried desperately to get his contract, but he remained forever loyal to the studio that gave him his start.

His popularity soared as years passed, along with the studio’s and his own bankroll. Girls went wild when his famous face first appeared on the screen, and they swooned at his love scenes. From swashbuckling adventurers to troubled Byronic heroes to charming but wicked antiheroes, he could seemingly play any type of role. Every film was a greater success than the last, and it seemed that his effortless ascension in popularity would never end.

For seven years, he reigned supreme in this decadent era of silver silence. Then came the lightning flash of 1927, which brought The Jazz Singer and the advent of sound. Like all the others, his studio dabbled in the art of sound, but he still brought huge audiences in his silent performances. For three years columnists and viewers alike asked the question, when will Erik Stevenson speak?

The answer was to come in 1930. Near the close of 1929, he embarked on the greatest film of his career, an epic of Goethe’s immortal play Faust, which was to be all sound. The soundtrack was to be Tchaikovsky’s lavish 5th symphony. Surely, this music, or parts of it, had been used in films before, the studio said in its early publicity, but never before had it been arranged in such an epic way. Never had such brilliant lines been spoken on the screen before. He was sure to ride victoriously into the era of sound on the wings of this great film.

Soon, all of the film had been completed but the opening scene, when an old and decrepit Faust strikes his deal with Mephistopheles and becomes a young man again. This scene was to feature the most remarkable aging effects ever displayed in a film, and the transformation sequence was the greatest wonder of all, as every detail of his metamorphosis was shown on the screen. The scene was to be shot over the course of a week, during which Erik would not leave the studio. This was due to the heavy makeup the star was to wear. It was applied through a complicated process of multiple layers of makeup being made into something like thin masks, which were worn one on top of the other like extra layers of skin. The transformation process would be achieved by removing the layers one at a time and filming him at each stage, then later using their film magic to string the shots together in a smooth sequence. To ensure the seamlessness of the first scene, the makeup artist insisted that Erik must wear the heavy makeup for the entire week, and to avoid damaging it, he slept on a cot in his trailer under constant supervision, to ensure that he never rolled onto his side. It is said that, when the makeup was first applied, Erik remarked on a slight burning sensation. However, the artist assured him this was only natural, since they were using new kinds of chemicals to create the makeup, and his skin wasn’t used to it.

The transformation was the final thing to be filmed, and they set aside the last day for it. Finally, after a week beneath the heavy mask, his skin would be free to breathe again. Shooting commenced early, and the tedious filming of the transformation began. One by one, the layers were peeled off, until there was only one left. The assistant makeup artist stood by with his powder puff in hand, ready to spruce up the star’s face, which would doubtless need a little help after a week beneath the heavy mask of makeup. Then, as all watched in expectation of at last seeing Erik’s famous, theater-filling face, the final layer was stripped away.

Not a word was spoken as the artists and stylists slowly backed away, their faces showing horror. Erik was baffled and agonized by this, and he continually demanded to know what was going on as the rest of the crew began to hesitantly walk over. The moment they laid eyes on him their reactions were all the same. A moment of staring in speechless disbelief, then slowly turning away. The director even put his head in his hands and walked away in despair. Trying to avoid panicking, Erik demanded to be given a mirror. Finally, one of his stylists approached him and gave him a mirror with trembling hands. When he met the sight of his face in that mirror, he let out a horrific scream heard across the lot. They say the mirror shattered in his hand.

Erik ran from the set, never to be seen again. The film was sent to the editing room with the instructions to piece together the end of the transformation scene as well as possible. The editors merely showed every stage until the last, and then showed the next shot of him rising from his chair and turning to look at his young, handsome face in the mirror on the wall. However, Faust was never to be seen, for it disappeared from the editing room on the very night it was finished and vanished into oblivion along with its ill-fated star. However, it was said that anyone foolish enough to wander the pathways of the lot in the deep of night, when only shadows lurked in its dark recesses, would hear the words and score of the great lost epic floating across the silent studio. The sound, they said, issued from the film’s birthplace, the deserted Stage 16, where no one had dared set foot since that terrible day.

Thus was born the legend of the Phantom of Stage 16. However, not all legends are meant to last, and the mystery surrounding the Phantom, only six years after he first appeared, was going to be lifted in the most unlikely way….

Curious to know more about this Old Hollywood phantom? Why not read on to Chapter 1? https://vocal.media/fiction/the-phantom-of-stage-16