Phantom of the Opera
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:29:04
Bromberg was born in Hungary
and came to America as a boy.

:29:09
He first appeared on stage in 1926
at the Provincetown Theatre,

:29:13
and from 1927 to 1930
:29:16
he played opposite Eva LeGallienne
at the New York City Repertory.

:29:20
In Hollywood he made
a career playing villains

:29:23
in pictures like Charlie Chan on
Broadway and Mr Moto Takes a Chance.

:29:27
At Universal, he made
a memorable Dr Lazlo,

:29:30
a Van Helsing-type vampire hunter,
in Son of Dracula.

:29:34
His best role at Universal
was in Robert Siodmak's Phantom Lady,

:29:38
where he played the relentless,
hounding police inspector.

:29:42
Bromberg, a leftist, was called before
HUAC to testify in the early '50s,

:29:47
and was so rattled by the stress that
he died in December 1951 of heart failure.

:29:54
Stage 28, which houses
the Phantom stage,

:29:57
has seen service in the last 75 years
in scores of pictures.

:30:01
Some of the highlights include
:30:03
Paul Leni's 1929 haunted-theatre
mystery comedy, The Last Warning,

:30:09
and its 1939 remake, The House of Fear.
:30:13
Also in 1925, PáI Fejös
made The Last Performance,

:30:17
starring Mary Philbin and Conrad Veidt.
:30:22
Bela Lugosi attended
the ballet in The Raven.

:30:26
David Bruce as The Mad Ghoul
attempted to throttle Turhan Bey,

:30:31
while Evelyn Ankers sang her heart out
on the Phantom stage.

:30:35
In A Double Life Ronald Colman
played a mad actor

:30:38
in a legitimate New York theatre,
which was doubled by the Phantom stage.

:30:42
John Barrymore, in Svengali, again
brought madness to the forefront.

:30:47
The interior of the theatre
had supporting columns to give it variety,

:30:50
and in Svengali the grand staircase foyer
was also featured.

:30:55
More mundane, normal presentations
:30:58
include the 1926 Universal film
The Midnight Sun,


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